Michael Waltrip Racing.

Dover Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 AAA Toyota driver Brett Moffitt earned his third victory of the 2011 K&N Pro Series East season last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The victory moves Moffitt to within 21 points of leader Max Gresham going in to Friday’s season finale at Dover International Speedway. Moffitt  owns two victories at the Monster Mile and knows that if he wins, Gresham will need to finish better than sixth to prevent Michael Waltrip Racing’s third consecutive East title. Moffitt finished third in 2009 and second in the 2010 points race. MWR’s Ryan Truex won the title in each of those seasons. Moffitt’s crew chief Mike Greci seeks his fifth East title on Friday. Greci earned titles with Mike Stefanik in 1997 and 1998 and with Truex in 2009 and 2010. 

MOFFITT ON DOVER: “Heading into Dover AAA came on board. They have been around more than 100 years, and I’m actually a personal member of AAA so I really hope I can clinch this championship for them. The car we had during the tire test at Dover was really good, so I’m optimistic. The points lead is down to only 21 points on Max Gresham and the 18 team so we’re looking to make up a little more ground there. The past two times I’ve been to Dover—I’ve won. So that’s probably why I like it so much. It’s really fast. There’s a lot of grip, and it’s 200 laps of being up on the wheel and driving it hard. Even when you’re riding around, you’re riding around at really high speeds. It definitely takes some getting used to, because it’s different than most of the tracks we race on in the East Series.”

MOFFITT ON CONTENDING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP: “Contending for the championship is tense right now. When we went into Loudon there was a 65-point gap, and we had a good race at Loudon and that helped. We really put the pressure on (Gresham’s) team for this last race at Dover and we’re really looking forward to see what we can do. Hopefully we can make it happen and bring home a championship.”
 
MOFFITT ON LOOKING BACK ON 2011: “This is the best group of guys to work with. We all get along really well, not only at the track but also during the week working in the shop and even hanging out after that. We’ve come a long ways from where we started this year at. There is always that communication barrier when you start with a new team between drivers and teams; once we got that figured out and got on the same page, we’ve really been good. It’s just a great group of guys to work with and I’m very glad to spend the season with them and hopefully I can work with them in the future.”
 
GRECI ON DOVER: “Brett’s good at Dover. He’s won the past two races there, so he obviously knows the track well. Our race cars have always run well there. We did the tire test up there back in May and our car ran really well. We’re looking forward to going to Dover. There’s really no pressure on us. All the pressure swings to Max Gresham and the No. 18 car. We’re going to go there and plan on winning the race, that’s our goal.”
 
NOTES
 
- Moffitt owns seven career victories in 32 East Series starts including 2011 wins at Greenville Pickens, Iowa and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. 
 
- Moffitt has led a series-high 447 laps this year. He has earned three wins and three second-place finishes in 2011.  
 
- Moffitt’s crew chief Mike Greci bids for his fifth East Series title in 2011. Greci won titles with Ryan Truex in 2009 and 2010 and with Mike Stefanik in 1997 and 1998.

- Stay up to date on race day by following @NASCARHometrack on Twitter. 
 
- SPEED-TV will televise the race on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.