CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine driver Brett Moffitt makes his 13th career NASCAR Sprint Cup start this weekend when the series visits the 1.5-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway.
Moffitt is substituting for Brian Vickers as he recovers from blood clots. Despite owning only three career starts in the XFINITY and Camping World truck series, the 22-year-old Grimes, Iowa native is holding his own in the Sprint Cup Series. Moffitt notched an eighth-place finish at Atlanta and a 22nd-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. The nine-time K&N East Series winner says that lack of experience in those series has not diminished his expectations.
BRETT MOFFITT ON EXPECTATIONS: “Everyone seems to have low expectations for me. I think that’s because I haven’t run in the truck or XFINITY Series. But, that’s OK by me. I can’t control that. I have high expectations myself. I want to run top-10 every weekend. Heck, I think about how we can get to victory lane. I’m demanding of myself. We proved at Atlanta we could get top-10s. At Martinsville I think we had a real shot to get another top 10 based on our lap times. We got our hood messed up early and lost five laps. If we raced there tomorrow, I would expect a top 10. I expect as good a run this weekend at Texas as we had at Atlanta.”
PLANS FOR REST OF THE SEASON “We’re taking it week-by-week. My job and focus is to drive the Aaron’s Dream Machine to the best of my abilities every week. If we get the results I expect then everything else will fall into place.”
ADVICE FROM OTHER DRIVERS: “Brian Vickers and Clint Bowyer have been very supportive and helpful not just recently but over the years I’ve been with MWR. Carl Edwards was very helpful and talked to me at Las Vegas. That was really cool. I had never met Carl before, but he came up to me at Vegas and we talked. I try to show them a lot of respect and I think they will return that respect.”
NOTES:
· CHASSIS: Primary 775 – Has not raced Backup 814 – finished eighth at Atlanta with Moffitt. In 2014 it finished 16th at Indianapolis with Clint Bowyer, 13th at Richmond in September and 37th at Charlotte in October with Vickers driving.
· NO. 55 IN 2015: Michael Waltrip finished 26th at Daytona and Moffitt finished eighth at Atlanta. Vickers finished 15th and 41st at Las Vegas and Phoenix before Moffitt returned to the seat and finished 22nd at Fontana and 28th at Martinsville.
· ROOKIE OF THE RACE: Moffitt won NASCAR’s “Rookie of the Race” award at Auto Club and Martinsville Speedways.
· BRETT MOFFITT CAREER: Moffitt is a nine-time winner in NASCAR K&N Pro Series East competition and currently serves as a test driver for Toyota Racing Development (TRD) and Michael Waltrip Racing. In 63 career NASCAR K&N Pro Series races, Moffitt has earned 10 poles, 34 top-five finishes and 45 top-10 finishes. In his 2012 NASCAR XFINITY Series debut at Iowa Speedway, Moffitt finished ninth. The following year, he also made his first start in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition, where he finished 14th at Kentucky Speedway and 17th at Michigan International Speedway.
Additional Moffitt stats:
o XFINITY Series: 1 start, 1 top-10
o Camping World Truck Series: 2 starts
o K&N Pro Series: 63 starts, 9 wins, 34 top-5s, 45 top-10s, 10 poles
· AARON’S: The Atlanta-based company, with more than 2,100 stores across the country, helps customers own the life they want. Aaron’s carries only the best brand names in furniture, electronics, and appliances with a variety of flexible payment options. It’s really easy to “Own It” at Aaron’s with customers who are now pre-approved for up to $2,500 in merchandise – no credit needed.
CREW CHIEF BILLY SCOTT: Scott began racing motorcycles as a 5-year-old and stock cars when he turned 15. He worked in the truck series as a mechanic before he returned to college to obtain an engineering degree. After graduating in 2005 Scott worked at Robert Yates Racing and began as an engineer at MWR in 2008. The 36-year-old served exclusively as the No. 55 team’s lead engineer before taking over crew chief duties in 2014.
55 CREW:
Billy Scott
Crew Chief
Ryan Langley
Front Tire Changer
Chris Hall
Front Tire Carrier
Shannon Myers
Rear Tire Changer
Blake Haugland
Rear Tire Carrier
Wes Evans
Jack Man
Jeff Kerr
Gas Man
Steve Channing
Car Chief
David Cropps
Interior Mechanic
Roman Pemberton
Spotter
Brandon Pope
Race Engineer
Joe Bisson
2nd Engineer
Jeremy Sharpley
Shock Specialist
Kevin White
Front Mechanic
Joe Zanolini
Rear Mechanic
Scott Swift
Tire Specialist
Kirk Butterfield
TRD
Tim Bruce
TRD
Stump Lewis
Truck Driver
Al Nelson
2nd Truck Driver
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