Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Brett Moffitt
2nd – Ben Rhodes
8th – Hailie Deegan
21st – Ty Majeski
22nd – Cory Roper
24th – Matt Crafton
27th – Jason M. White
32nd – Zane Smith
BRETT MOFFITT, No. 34 FR8 Auctions Ford F-150 – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “It was a hell of a way to come back. We struggled for track position early and just tried to race smart. This Ford F-150 FR8 Auctions was super fast in the race. It drove really good. I could put it wherever I wanted and never felt like I was on edge. It was a great handling race track, great sponsors, great race team in Front Row and we executed when it counted.”
HOW DID THE PLAN CHANGE BECAUSE YOU CAME IN TRYING TO HELP ZANE, BUT WHEN HE WENT OUT YOU COULD JUST GO FOR THE WIN. “Yeah, it was super unfortunate for them. It was all about helping him until the last 100 yards at least and then decide it between the two of us, but when that changed we lose a drafting partner for sure, but we opened up our strategy and opening up my mental checklist of, ‘OK, now we can just go race for a win and nothing else matters, points don’t matter, just go out there and have fun and learn and try to succeed.’”
HOW FRUSTRATING WAS IT HAVING TO START AND STOP WITH ALL THE CAUTIONS AT THE END? “I really had the mentality coming into today because it had been so long since I’d ran a truck at a superspeedway that I just wanted to try and learn in every situation. Normally, I get really nervous or worked up, but I just took it as a learning experience. It’s been a while since I had to control a race like that, so just to be able to go do that and execute and believe in my skills and believe in myself and believe in this race team it was huge. It’s just a huge confidence booster of a day and my first time ever winning at a superspeedway, so I am pumped about that.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Campers Inn RV Ford F-150 – YOU WERE A GOOD PUSHER ALL DAY, BUT I’M SURE YOU WISHED THOSE SPOTS WERE REVERSED ON THAT LAST RESTART. “Yeah. Congrats to Brett Moffitt. We worked really well together, but I wish it was me. We needed that to get into the Phoenix Championship 4, but either way we gave ourselves a shot today. We capitalized on everything we could and second at Talladega is really hard to do and we’ve done it two years in a row. I think that speaks volumes about ThorSport Racing , this Campers Inn Ford F-150 and I’m just glad we maximized it, we were just one spot short.”
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Soda Sense/Curb Records F-150 – “I don’t know what the point situation is. It’s probably not good, but it’s probably a must- win next week. We did close to everything right today. I had really good stage points and felt like our strategy was right. We had track position when we needed it at the end of the first two stages, and we were in a good spot there. We were 13th before the last incident and I think we were within 5-7 of the cut, which is really what we needed to do today, but that’s a product of superspeedway racing, especially here at Talladega. These trucks are so unstable in the tri-oval and guys just continue to push through there and it was never successful once. It was a frustrating day, but we had a good Soda Sense Ford F-150, just a disappointing ending.”
YOU WON AT HOMESTEAD A YEAR AGO, SO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO WIN THERE AND MAKE THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4. “Yeah, it’s a possibility. You just need to go in there with a good mindset and that’s it.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Love’s RV Stop Ford F-150 – “It’s just definitely such a bummer of a day, but we’ve been in must-win situations before so hopefully we can go pull that off again and go get in the final four. Congrats to Brett. That awesome for FRM. Today was just a bummer, but the clutch got burnt out of it. A bummer deal.”
WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND AS YOU’RE SITTING IN THE TRUCK WAITING FOR THEM TO FIX IT? “Once I saw it burnt up I knew that I was going to be in a must-win situation.”
BRETT MOFFITT WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE
BRETT MOFFITT – DOES THIS MEAN YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WAITING FOR YOU? “I don’t know. There’s a lot of moving pieces looking forward to 2024. Obviously, being the fact that I don’t have anything signed for next year at this point, I have more angle or more leverage moving forward hopefully a little bit from winning a race. It’s been three years and I’ve never won a speedway race, so this is cool to check off the bucket list. I doubt there will be one waiting on me, but hopefully in the future we can speed things up and figure out what we’re gonna be doing next year.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW MATURITY AND EXPERIENCE PLAYED A PART IN THOSE FINAL STAGES? “I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better superspeedway racing. Obviously, in the Xfinity package I’ve been up front more and I’ve had more confidence. I’ve started to make more moves that are working instead of getting me sent to the back, so that was good, and just studying film. It’s that and the spotter when we come to these places and when I think it was the 19 pulled out off four going through the tri-oval I tried to chase him up a little bit and then my immediate thought was watching last year’s race and how it ended. The driver that was leading the bottom line didn’t get back to the bottom to cover it and Ben had been a great pusher all day and he was pretty committed to me and Ford did a great job executing that. I didn’t know what was going on to my right. I couldn’t see it, but the spotter, Clayton, started freaking out as soon as we crossed the line, so I figured we did what we needed to do.”
WHAT WOULD YOU THINK ABOUT NASCAR GOING BACK TO IOWA? “Absolutely love it. Did you guys see the IndyCar setup this year? That was nuts. The concert lineup. The fan count started to die there, but we didn’t have an event like what is going on in IndyCar now when they go there, so if we could set up something like that, which I’m sure it’s very capable and very possible, it would be great to return to Iowa, whether it’s all three series or just a couple of them. I would love to go back and race there.”
DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD BE BACK AT FRONT ROW AND WIN IN THE SAME SCHEME YOU HAD WHEN YOU RAN THERE IN 2015? “We’re still fighting. You’re never not fighting for your career when you’re in the top three series in NASCAR, outside of the handful of great Cup drivers. You’re always fighting year to year to secure the best opportunity for you, so I don’t think it’s a walk in the park. That being said, I never saw this coming together. First of all, I was out on a bike ride and Jerry Freeze calls me and asks me if I want to come run Talladega for them and obviously I jumped at that opportunity knowing that it’s an off weekend and he said, ‘OK, let me work on my end and get some sponsorship together to cover it,’ and he called Marcus with FR8 Auctions and they jumped all over it. First of all, the fact of it coming together with it being the same 34 car, which is what I ran in the Cup Series for them, the same paint scheme, same team, same sponsor and then to go out there and execute and win the race, that’s pretty unreal, especially at a superspeedway. I never would have thought it could have gone as perfect as it did.”
HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED SINCE YOU WERE AT FRONT ROW IN 2015 AND WON CUP ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? “It’s night and day. Bob started out and we were just talking about this earlier in 2013 and years before that he was just trying to make races, and then once he got locked in it was how do we improve. Over the last eight years it’s completely different. I watch Cup timing and scoring every week. Normally they’re practicing after we qualify and if five years ago you would have seen the 34 in the top 10 on a regular basis on speed, you would not have believed it and now they’re doing that. And then the truck program they’ve built is obviously a championship-winning team as well and they’re fighting for another championship this year. He’s taken his time to build it, but he’s building a very, very successful program.”
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