Race two of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) provides the first true barometer of 2018 for Brett Moffitt and the No. 16 AISIN Group Toyota team. AMS is famous for the 22-year-old asphalt that challenges drivers and provides the opportunity to showcase speed on the intermediate tracks that make up much of the NCWTS schedule.
Moffitt looks to continue the success that the No. 16 HRE team enjoyed last season on the 1.5-mile and intermediate style racetracks. In the last six races on intermediate tracks, bigger than one mile, the No. 16 team posted four top-five finishes. Combining that performance with Moffitt’s winning NCWTS pedigree, the HRE team aims to serve notice this weekend that they will be one of the teams to beat in 2018.
Making an Impact … Three years ago, Brett Moffitt arrived at AMS in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race as a relative unknown and left after making one of the biggest statements of his career. Moffitt drove Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota to an eighth-place finish on one of the circuit’s most challenging tracks. That result in 2015 propelled him to the Rookie of the Year title. This weekend, Moffitt returns to make his second NCWTS start at AMS and is zeroed in on making another impact by capturing the first checkered flag for HRE.
Atlanta History … Moffitt has made three starts at AMS across the three national tours. Last season, Moffitt made his lone NCWTS start at AMS and drove to an 11th-place finish despite being collected in an opening lap incident. He also has two MENCS starts at AMS in 2014 and 2015. The latter yielded Moffitt’s first-career top-10 finish in the premier division.
Chassis Selection … Chassis No. 007 makes its first appearance of the season this weekend at AMS. This Toyota Tundra was built midway through 2017 and was the workhorse for crew chief Scott Zipadelli and driver Ryan Truex last season. It totaled six starts and tallied four top-five and five top-10 finishes. The No. 16 team most recently finished fourth with No. 007 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the ’17 season finale.
Tune In… On-track action for the first intermediate race of the NCWTS campaign begins on Friday afternoon on FOX Sports 1. Live coverage of practice begins at 2 p.m. ET on Friday and continues with final practice at 4 p.m. FS1 will also have live coverage of qualifying at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning followed by the Active Pest Control 200 at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Brett Moffitt Quote:
On the character of AMS’ 1.5-mile layout:
“Atlanta is one of the best racetracks we have on the schedule. The pavement is so old and abrasive, it really gives us drivers the chance to find an advantage. There is a lot of tire wear and the pace slows down so much throughout a run, so you can really have an influence on the speed of your truck 15-20 laps into a run just based on how you handle your equipment. There aren’t many tracks we go to where that’s the case. You can run from the line all the way to the wall, so there’s plenty of options to find a place to run if your balance isn’t right. I’ve enjoyed racing there and I’m looking forward to showing what kind of speed we have in our AISIN Group Tundras on the intermediates.”
On rebounding after Daytona:
“Last week obviously wasn’t the way we wanted to start the season, but there’s so much out of your control at Daytona on the superspeedways. This week is a different story. Scott (Zipadelli) and this team really had things together and running well on the mile-and-a-halfs last season. I think they were one of the best teams in the series the second half of last year. We have the same AISIN Group Tundra that they had so much success with last season, so I think we’ll have a great chance to race for a trophy on Saturday.”
HRE PR
