It seems poetic that in the 75th year, his family is involved in NASCAR, Thad Moffitt would lead a new generation of the sport.
Being the great-grandson of NASCAR pioneer Lee Petty, and the grandson of King Richard I, Thad Moffitt has racing in his blood, and he was just signed to his first full-time gig in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, being tapped to drive a Silverado for the brand new Faction46 team.
Moffitt says he knew he wanted to drive for the team as soon as he met owner Lane Moore.
“As soon as I met him at Bristol, I was like, man. This has got to happen. He’s a fourth-generation grocer and I’m a fourth-generation race car driver, so we’re kind of cut from the same cloth. And it just kind of had to happen, and so we went back to work, and here a couple months later it’s out, it’s public, it’s announced, and I don’t have to walk around on eggshells anymore.”
When asked about his expectations for the team and himself, Moffitt says he keeps himself grounded.
“You know, I think having realistic expectations is a big thing of mine. I want to go out and compete for a championship, but we’re a brand new team and brand new teams have hiccups. They have bad days. At this point I have a crew chief, a car chief, a mechanic, and an interior guy. We’re still looking for a tire guy, we’re still looking for an engineer. So every role has definitely not been sealed. But I don’t see any reason why we can’t be a competitive top 15, top 10 team for the majority of the year. A major goal of mine would just be to be in the playoff conversation next year when that time rolls around.”
Despite a few understandable shortcomings so far, the team is more prepared than you would think a brand-new team would be.
“We’re pretty ahead of schedule as far as our trucks go equipment wise, we’re already getting seats mounted in the Vegas truck, which isn’t until March of next year,” Moffitt explained.
When I mentioned Moffitt’s family legacy, a small smile crept across his face as I asked him about the difficulty of distinguishing himself from just being Richard Petty’s grandson.
“I want to make a name for myself. Is it kind of hard to bridge that gap sometimes? I would say yeah, absolutely, I think it’s hard to bridge that gap, but there’s a lot of opportunity that comes with that too. Being the grandson of Richard Petty helps me with all kinds of things. It opens doors for me. But then it’s a double edged sword because then I’m compared to him in everything I do, whether it’s the way I interact with fans, what I post on social media, or how I perform in the car, everything I do is compared to the way he lives his life. At the end of the day, I’m my own person, and that’s kind of what Faction46 is, kind of molded after what Trackhouse is, just doing things different.”
“I’m not ashamed of being Richard Petty’s grandson. I’m definitely proud to be part of the family and be a small part of everything he’s accomplished.”
Moffitt’s family legacy also played into his next answer, where I asked him about his dream first-win scenario.
“Man, what it would mean to me to win at Daytona, a place that’s so historic for my family. Grandpa won there several times and Great Grandpa won the very first 500 at the big track, so to be able to be a part of what the Petty’s have done at Daytona would be incredible.”
Moffitt will get his chance to add to that Daytona legacy and start his tenure with Faction46 off on the right foot on the evening of February 16th in the 2024 Fresh From Florida 250 (7:30 PM ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
