Moffitt, Gallagher team chasing NASCAR Truck Series title

It has been said that finishing second is the first loser on the racetrack, but so far that hasn’t been the case for former NASCAR truck series champion Brett Moffitt.

Moffitt will be seeking his first victory of 2020 in Friday’s Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but leads the championship by virtue on four runner-up finishes, including one in the playoff opener at Bristol, Tennessee, last week.

“We need to have four trucks racing for a championship in Phoenix, and this is a good start for us,” said the 28-year-old driver of the No. 23 Chevrolet for GMS Racing, a team owned by Las Vegas businessman Maury Gallagher.

Moffitt finished second to part-time and 17-year-old teammate Sam Mayer at Bristol. Moffitt led 117 of the 200 laps but Mayer had fresher tires during the closing segment and beat Moffitt to the checkered flag by 4.4 seconds.

Sheldon Creed, driving a third GMS truck, overcame a pit road speeding penalty to finish 11th and holds down second place in the playoff standings ahead of teammate Zane Smith.

As Mayer’s victory suggested, at this stage of the postseason everything is still up for grabs. But with four trucks in the playoff field, the GMS team is in good position to win its second series championship and first since Johnny Sauter claimed the 2016 title.

Pastrana, Daly to drive

Friday’s truck race at LVMS also will feature a couple of notable guest drivers.

Action sports star Travis Pastrana, last seen in Las Vegas during 2018 when he successfully replicated three of iconic daredevil Evel Knievel’s most famous jumps on one night, will drive a Chevy truck for Niece Motorsports and have IndyCar veteran Conor Daly as a teammate. The two are rivals in a private iRacing online league.

“I’m really looking forward to bringing our rivalry to the real world,” Pastrana said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the hours in iRacing pay off on the track, especially for Conor who has never driven a NASCAR truck in real life.

“He might be the first person in history to jump into a professional racing series and take the green flag without so much as a single practice lap in real life.”

Daly, whose father, Derek, was a Formula One and IndyCar driver and once operated a driving school out of LVMS during its early days, has 61 IndyCar starts including seven in the Indianapolis 500. He finished 31st in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in 2018 for Roush Fenway Racing.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.