SPEEDWAY, Ind.—As AJ Allmendinger celebrated his first Xfinity Series win with burnouts on the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit, Brett Moffitt climbed from the No. 02 Our Motorsports Chevrolet on pit road wondering when his next race might be.
Moffitt finished 16th on Saturday. He was greeted by Santino Ferrucci, whom he held off over the closing laps of the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard. The pair smiled and laugh while reflecting on their battle.
Moffitt still managed to maintain that smile when asked about his plans for the remainder of the 2022 Xfinity Series season. Currently there are no plans. Moffitt is losing his ride with Our Motorsports because he doesn’t bring significant sponsorship money to the table.
“This is it,” Moffitt said. “This is it. It’s hard. It’s obviously not an ideal situation or what I planned on, but I’ve had a lot of great experiences with Our Motorsports, Chris Our and the entire Our family. They’ve given me a lot of opportunities.
“It’s been a good two-and-a-half years. Hopefully, our paths will cross again in the future.”
The Grimes, Iowa, native, who turns 30 next week, has been a regular in NASCAR garages for nearly half of his life. After bouncing between trucks, Xfinity and Cup—and then winning the 2018 Camping World Truck Series title—he landed with Our Motorsports as its flagship driver when the organization debuted in 2020.
But as the price of racing continues to rise, the opportunities for experienced drivers are diminishing.
“I think about anybody off the street—as long as they can get a NASCAR license—can come to any team in this garage,” Moffitt said. “And if they have the check to match it, they’re going to be in the car. It’s where our sport is at.
“Hopefully, with this new TV deal coming up, they can get some more help to the teams financially to make this a little bit easier on the team owners,because they have to put in a lot of money. Yeah, hopefully, it improves the sport.”
Blaine Perkins, who competed in eight races with Our Motorsports last season, is rumored to be replacing Moffitt. The 22-year-old from Bakersfield, California, currently competes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He’s 31st in the standings.
After the first 20 races of the season, Moffitt is 16th in the Xfinity standings. He has four top 10s this season. His best result was seventh at Circuit of the Americas. As for what his future holds, Moffitt isn’t quite certain.
“Most people already have their commitments for this year and are already working on next year’s stuff,” Moffitt said. “I’m at a point now where I kind of want to get back in winning equipment or maybe reconsider my career path.
“It’s fun to be out here racing, but it can be a struggle at times, too. Hopefully, we can get back into something to get back to Victory Lane. I had one shot at that this year and screwed it up. That sucked. But it is what it is, and we’ll move forward.”
