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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 16, 2018

Brett Moffitt

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. And happy Monday. Thank you for joining us today in advance of the excitement of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway. Brett Moffitt, driver of the No.16 iRacing Toyota for Hattori Racing Enterprises, will be the first to join us this afternoon, followed by Matt Crafton around 2:15 and John Hunter Nemechek around 2:30. Brett, thanks for spending some time with us this afternoon. You've had a few wins this season with your most recent coming out of Chicago a few weeks ago. What's going through your mind as you get ready to take on the dirt track at Eldora in pursuit of your fourth win this season?
BRETT MOFFITT: Yeah, thank you for having me on. First of all, this is going to be a very new experience for me racing a truck at Eldora, and obviously I'm really excited about it. We had a new partner in iRacing come on board to sponsor the truck, and I've actually been using their cars as a way to get ready. I've raced a little bit of dirt in my past, but that was in a dirt modified, and I think racing a truck there is going to be completely different and a new learning experience. Always enjoyed watching the race. I'm going to go out and try to compete and hopefully take it to Victory Lane again.

Q. Brett, with the success you've had this year, I was wondering, could you explain what the last three years have been like for you since you were Rookie of the Year in the Cup Series until up this point? Before this year, how did you view your career? Did you feel like you were just hanging on by a thread in NASCAR before getting your ride with Hattori, and how has your outlook on your career changed in these last three months?
BRETT MOFFITT: Yeah, certainly it's been up and down for sure. Winning the 2015 Cup Rookie of the Year was a huge success, and it was great to have that opportunity. But in the following years there's been a lot of stress and a lot of heartache, and consciously you've got to make that decision whether you want to be a driver out there just trying to make a living or whether you want to be in winning equipment and trying to be a future superstar of the sport, which is obviously why we all get into it, but every now and then, reality sets in and you've got to make a living to pay your bills.
I tried to do what I could to stay in a seat, but at the same time, I didn't want to get stuck in the rut of being in non‑competitive race cars, so I did what I needed to to earn a living, and now that this opportunity with HRE has opened up, I think it's kind of shedding a new light on my career, and it really gives me a place to showcase my talent and hopefully build off of it from here and get back to racing in the Cup Series on Sundays.

Q. I'm interested to know how bad you want to win this event because of its status in NASCAR, being the only dirt track race in the national series.
BRETT MOFFITT: Yeah, I think winning Eldora would be huge. Obviously it's not one of the tracks we go to a lot, and it's kind of a one‑off event, and I think that's why you see so many Cup drivers and Xfinity drivers racing in it, too, because one, it's just the fun of racing on dirt and doing something completely different, which it's the same thing for me when I go to a road course. Like I just really love the challenge of a new event, and to put your name on top of the list would be huge to do so. It kind of just shows that you're an overall, all‑around good driver. I think that's what inspires me to do it, and to try to win this week and to just be that guy that for the whole year I'm going to be the only guy to win on dirt in NASCAR. I think that adds a little bit of extra incentive for all of us, and some guys view the dirt race much as they do road course races, and they just don't really want to go and don't look forward to it, but with us being safely in the playoffs at this point, I look at it as a fun week to have, and no matter how the race goes, you just need to take it for how it is. If we win, great; if we tear up the truck, that sucks, but luckily it's the only dirt race of the year. Hopefully we're good at it, but we'll see.

Q. I'm curious, do you remember the last time you raced on dirt? I know you said you had some modified experience, but how long ago was that?
BRETT MOFFITT: Yeah, actually the last time I raced on dirt was last year. One of my buddies back in Iowa, he has a couple of modifieds, and (indiscernible) the last two years in a row, and now it's going to be a totally, completely different style of race car. The modifieds are meant to race on dirt. The rear suspension is a lot different. So I'm not sure exactly how much of that is carry over. I think the information that's going to carry over is just knowing dirt tracks and knowing where to find the grip and versatility in moving around lanes to try to make your car faster.

Q. To follow up, obviously there's a lot of ringers, dirt ringers in this field. You're a regular; how do you temper that for a race like this where you're chasing points, but at the same time you want to win and you've got all these other guys in the field whose specialty is dirt and they're coming in just for this one race?
BRETT MOFFITT: Yeah, I think you have to go in with the mindset knowing that that is their one race, knowing that they're going to do anything and will do anything possible to try to win it, and I think a lot of them have potential to be a little bit too aggressive and possibly take themselves out and maybe somebody else. I think you just need to be careful. Luckily we're in a great points position with the three wins where we're locked into the Chase, so obviously we want to have a great day, but at the end of the night, if we get tore up, we get tore up. That's part of racing, and that's what the three wins allow us to kind of not focus on the points so much. We'll try to survive and go for the win at the end.

Q. Brett, how differently have you prepared for this race compared to other races so far this season?
BRETT MOFFITT: I would say a good tool is our new sponsor, iRacing, and just trying to get a truck on the dirt track of Eldora and practice as much as you can. You never really know until you get there in person how much is going to translate over, but it seems like everywhere I've iRaced in the past, I actually raced at, there's a lot of similarities and you can really take a lot away from it. I've just been trying to get as much practice on there as possible and just watching past races, which is generally what I do is watch the year before's race just to try to figure out what strategy and what works and what doesn't. I'd say the biggest tool is just spending a lot more time on the simulator and trying to figure it out.

Q. With what you're doing with the iRacing, what can't that prepared you for in a race like this? What are some of those variables that you can't be prepared for however many laps you take on a simulator like that?
BRETT MOFFITT: I just think, yeah, everything looks a little bit different in person, and your depth perception is different. On iRacing in all simulators you're looking at a screen and not the real thing. I would say those are still the biggest differences. And then also just kind of the overall feel of the car, where on simulators you don't get the feedback through the actual car moving, you just get it through seeing the end results on the screen.
You know, there's still a few other variables. Simulator racing you tend to just go off of info back to the steering wheel and visual and sound off the engine, where in real life you have quite a few more variables giving you feedback. I think that's the biggest thing that doesn't quite transfer over.

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