Brett Moffitt Martinsville Speedway Recap

Brett Moffitt drove his No. 16 AISIN Group Toyota Tundra to a second consecutive third-place finish at Martinsville Speedway on Monday afternoon. The weather-delayed Alpha Energy Solutions 250 marked Moffitt’s third top-five finish of the season, and his third in a row.

On Saturday afternoon, Moffitt took the race’s green flag from seventh and held his position for 23 laps before wintery precipitation overcame the 0.526-mile oval and forced the event to be postponed to Monday. When the race resumed, Moffitt restarted seventh and battled a lack of rear grip in his AISIN Toyota throughout the first stage. Moffitt earned two points by finishing ninth in Stage 1. Under the caution, Moffitt came to the attention of the HRE team for four tires, fuel, track bar and air pressure changes.

Moffitt began Stage 2 in seventh and took advantage of an improved balance. The Grimes, Iowa native negotiated an incident on lap 86, and steadily improved his position to finish the stage in sixth. Under the lap 140 stage caution, Moffitt pitted again for four tires and adjustments. The AISIN Group team gained Moffitt two more positions on pit road but lined up sixth as other competitors stayed on track.

The final stage went green on lap 153 and Moffitt quickly made his way into the top five. The Atlanta race winner ran as high as fourth before a caution on lap 215 provided Moffitt and crew chief Scott Zipadelli an opportunity to take a shot at the victory. Zipadelli brought Moffitt to pit road for four tires and chassis adjustments to gain a significant advantage on the competition with fresh Goodyear tires. Moffitt lined up seventh on the lap 219 restart and immediately rejoined the top five. The race’s last 25 laps featured three restarts which allowed Moffitt to capitalize on his fresh tires. He restarted third on the final restart on lap 244 and held his position to the checkered flag and earned his third top-five finish of the 2018 campaign.

Brett Moffitt Quote:

“We had a pretty solid day. We had a really good AISIN Group Tundra. We weren’t quite quick enough to keep up with the leader’s just on pure speed, but our long run truck was really good and it drove well. Scott Zipadelli called a great race and made good adjustments to the truck. Just can’t thank Shige Hattori and everyone on this team (enough). Mike Greci (general manager) and Scott obviously, for all the hard work they put in. We’ve put a lot of hours in early this season and it’s all paying off, so this is really special.”

“That was my race today, try not to get run over. For Martinsville, we’re coming out with smiles on our faces so that’s pretty good. Our AISIN Group Tundra was just lacking a little bit of speed to go up and compete for a win. I was really hoping those two would tangle at the end, but they both did a good job and bringing it home third, we’re not complaining too much. We’ve got a third top-three in a row and we’ll try to carry that on.”

HRE PR