Moffitt wins M&M's 200 at Iowa Speedway

Race cars go through a post-race technical inspection and there’s a new disqualification rule in NASCAR events.

On Sunday, Iowa Speedway had a first — race winner Ross Chastain’s No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet truck failed the post-race inspection and was disqualified.

Without leading a lap on the track, Brett Moffitt became a back-to-back winner of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway. Moffitt, a Grimes native, won the 2018 race at Iowa.

“It’s not the way I want to win knowing I was beat on the track but I’ll take the win any way I can get it,” Moffitt said about winning with the GMS Racing No. 24 Chevrolet. “It’s great to be a back-to-back winner at Iowa. Huge to win in front of the hometown crowd and my family on Father’s Day.”

Moffitt claimed the second race of the new Triple Truck Challenge, a three-race program that provides drivers in the Truck Series an opportunity to win up to $500,000 in bonus money. Moffitt is awarded a Trip case with $50,00 for his win at Iowa.

Moffitt, the reigning NGOTS champion, finished second to Chastain on the track. Sunday’s win secured Moffitt a playoff spot and an opportunity to defend his series title. This was his first win of 2019 in his first season with GMS Racing.

NASCAR competition officials introduced the quicker post-race inspection timetable in an effort to make the results official on race day, aiming for a 90-minute target time frame to complete their process. The new post-race inspection process also was designed to deal with potential violations more promptly, avoiding any midweek news that might cloud the previous week’s results or the build-up to the following week’s event.

“For the integrity of the sport,” Moffitt said, “It is the right thing.”

After a rainout of the race on Saturday night, the trucks were on the Iowa Speedway’s 7/8-mile racetrack on Sunday morning for a Father’s Day Sunday doubleheader. The NASCAR Xfinity Series race was at 4:30 p.m.

After weather canceled the Gander Trucks Saturday qualifying session, the lineup was set per the rule book. That put 16-year-old Chandler Smith, who was making his NGOTS debut at Iowa in the No. 51 truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports, sitting on the pole. It was the No. 51 truck driven by Greg Biffle to a victory at Texas.

Smith had the No. 51 out front leading the first 55 laps before he went to pit road to fix some technical difficulties in the beginning of the race with no communication over the radio for the young driver. He fell back to 16th but worked his way back up to the top five.

At the conclusion of Stage 2, Smith got caught speeding on pit road and was sent to the rear of the field. He battled his way back and finished in eighth.

Before the post-race disqualification occurred, Chastain made a bold move to the high side of the track on the final lap of Stage 1 in Sunday’s 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway and never looked back.

The move Chastain made came at the restart before the end of Stage 1.

Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton were up front battling for the lead and Chastain went to the outside, driving the high line to get the lead off Turn No. 4 on the final lap.

Chastain led a race-high 141 laps of the 200-lap race. He also won all three stages but his truck was found to be too low in the front, according to a NASCAR spokesperson. Because of the penalty, Crafton and Ben Rhodes were awarded the stage wins for the first two and Moffitt for Stage 3.

Rhodes moved up to the No. 2 finish spot in the Iowa race and Harrison Burton was third. Grant Enfinger finished fourth and maintains his spot atop the NGOTS drivers’ points list. Stewart Friesen was fifth.

Niece Motorsports has until 11 a.m. on Monday to let NASCAR know if it will appeal the decision.

The NGOTS goes to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in St. Louis, Mo., for the Carshield 200 on June 22.