Smith Has Clutch Issue and Finishes 32nd
Brett Moffitt and the No. 34 Fr8Auctions.com/FR8 Racing Ford-150 team won Saturday's Love Travel Stops 250 at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. Moffitt, making his return to the truck series and to Front Row Motorsports (FRM), held off a challenge in overtime from the rest of the field to take the checkered. It was FRM's eighth win in the series and Moffitt's 13th. It was a successful debut for the No. 34 Ford F-150 built and prepared by the FRM team.
It was a bitterly disappointing day for Zane Smith and the No. 38 Love's RV Stops/PEAK team. Smith, looking to defend his title, had a clutch failure that sent him behind the wall for most of the race and a 32nd-place finish. The team had a scary moment on pit road when the truck spun into tire carrier Charles Plank during a pit stop. Plank was OK after contact with the truck.
Smith and the team are now in a must-win situation at Homestead-Miami to advance to the championship four. Smith has been in this situation before and has won.
Brett Moffitt, Driver No. 34 Fr8Auctions.com/FR8 Racing Ford F-150:
"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/FR8 Racing 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.”
Zane Smith, Driver No. 38 Love's RV Stops Ford F-150:
"It’s just definitely such a bummer of a day. I'm glad that Charles is OK. My heart sank when that happened.
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 was 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.”
FRM will return to the Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 21 with the goal of Smith racing to advance to the championship.