Brett Moffitt won Saturday night’s M&Ms 200 at Iowa Speedway. Moffitt, who is from Grimes, Iowa, now has two wins on the season which is second to Johnny Sauter who has four.
17-year-old Harrison Burton led the field to the green flag and quickly rocketed his 51 Tundra away from the field. Burton’s teammate Todd Gilliland would bring out the first caution of the evening when he smacked the turn 1 wall on lap 24 while running third.
On the restart halfway through the stage the yellow flew again as Christian Eckes and Austin Hill spun on the backstretch. With 23 to go the stage went back green and veteran Matt Crafton outdid the young Burton and took his lead away. Crafton never established a comfortable lead though as he had numerous trucks on his bumper lap after lap. John Hunter Nemechek was one of those trucks and he finally passed Crafton with 9 to go and he would win the stage.
Stage 2 began with Eckes out front as he opted not to pit during the stage break, his tires we 30 laps old. Trucks with fresh rubber made quick work of him as his teammate Noah Gragson took the lead on the first lap. Nemechek retook the lead with 45 to go in the stage but Stewart Friesen was right on his tail.
The two swapped the lead back and forth in every turn until Friesen secured the lead with 43 to go. Stage 2’s only caution came out when Gilliland once again found the wall with less than 20 to go, ending his day. The cleanup was lengthy and many trucks, with the exception of the top seven, pitted. The stage resumed with 6 to go and none of the trucks with fresh tires could catch Friesen and he won the stage.
Twelve trucks stayed out following the stage as they had stopped before the end of stage 2. Moffitt restarted outfront. Friesen restarted 13th and quickly diced his way through traffic. While battling with Crafton the two touched fenders which gave Crafton a tire rub. Mere laps later with 64 to go Friesen, Crafton, Nemechek, and Ben Rhodes were fighting for position in close quarters going into turn 1. Crafton was on the inside and his tire finally went flat which sent him straight up the track collecting the three other trucks.
The final restart came with 56 laps to go and Moffitt pulled away. Gragson slowly chipped away at the lead and rode Moffitt’s bumper for the last 20 laps. Gragson made a last ditch effort on the final lap as they headed into turn 3. He took his truck all the way to the bottom and slid up in front of Moffitt exiting turn 4 but went straight into the wall which allowed Moffitt to get back by for the win.
