Brett Moffitt, Michael McDowell wins add drama to NASCAR weekend

Rea White

Brett Moffitt, Michael McDowell wins add drama to NASCAR weekend image

NASCAR has enjoyed a weekend of stellar finishes in races. Can it have another one on Sunday?

Rain delayed the start to Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race, but by race's end all the conversation was on Brett Moffitt, the driver who raced past leader and teammate Timothy Peters to take the victory.

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Not only was it his first win in one of NASCAR's touring series, but he did so with an astounding stat. The final lap of that race was the first lap Moffitt had even led in the series.

Before he could even properly celebrate his win, the Xfinity Series was racing through overtime at Road America. Brendan Gaughan made a stellar move on the final restart to move to second — and onto the bumper of Michael McDowell, who was racing as his Richard Childress Racing teammate.

McDowell, who drives full time in the Sprint Cup Series, earned his first win in the series, and in NASCAR's three touring series. He has 94 Xfinity starts, 201 Cup and two Truck, making it 296 starts before he earned his first victory.

He should be fired up for today's Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Meanwhile, Moffitt made the most of a limited opportunity in winning the Careers for Veterans 200. Moffitt was on a hot streak entering the race, finishing third at Pocono and second at Bristol in the previous two races.

Neither of the winners is eligible for the Chase in the series in which he won.


Brett Moffitt celebrates his Truck Series victory. (Getty Images)

Moffitt, 24, was making his fourth series start of the season.

"This has been huge," he said after the win. "At the beginning of the year we didn't have anything on the schedule. Coming here and these guys give me such good race trucks week in and week out. I knew it was just a matter of time. Honestly, during the race I didn't think it was going to be our day. It was just tough out there with the draft, but what an amazing finish. It couldn't have worked out any better for us."

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As to racing his teammate Peters — who needs a win to make the Chase in the Xfinity Series — Moffitt said he planned to race him cleanly, but wasn't going to concede anything in the end.

"I'm here to win — I said it earlier and I'll say it again, I'm not going to wreck him for it," he said. "I'm going to race him clean because I know he needs to get in the Chase, but this team needs to win and these guys deserve to win. That's what we come to do and our partners at Toyota want to do the same and we got it."

McDowell, 31, was making his first Xfinity Series race of the season. He certainly made the most of it.

"This win means so much to me," he said after the win. "I've been close here at Road America so many different times and to finally get the win, it feels great. … It's not every week you get a call to come drive equipment like this. I've been able to drive a lot of great cars here but haven't been able to execute and get the win, but today we did."

Now the question is, can Sunday's race live up to the expectations of these two events? Time will tell.

Rea White