JOLIET, Ill. — Brett Moffitt won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday night after leader John Hunter Nemechek ran out of gas on the final lap.
Moffitt won for the third time this season and fourth time overall, and he did it in a race he wasn’t scheduled to run until Fr8Auctions.com made a midweek commitment to sponsor Hattori Racing’s No. 16 Toyota.
“We didn’t know if we were coming,” Moffitt said. “To be here in Victory Lane, it’s an honor and a blessing.”
Moffitt also won in Atlanta in February and at his home track in Iowa two weeks ago.
“These guys work hard,” Moffitt said. “I feel like we threw away a couple of wins this season. I hate it for the No. 8 (Nemechek), whatever happened to him. But we’ll take it however we can get it right now.”
Nemechek ended up seventh after leading 64 laps overall and for most of the final stage before his car slowed on the first turn on the last of the 150 laps on the 1.5-mile oval.
“We just don’t have luck on our side right now,” said Nemechek, running a limited schedule in both the Truck and NASCAR Xfinity Series. “Overall, it’s a good showing. They knew we were here. We don’t know at what point we’ll be back with the trucks. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but we’ll move on from it.”
Ben Rhodes was second for his fourth top-five finish of the season, and points leader Johnny Sauter was third. A four-time winner this year, Sauter rallied after falling from third to ninth because of jack malfunction during the final round of pit stops.
Pole-sitter Noah Gragson was fourth, followed by Brandon Jones and Justin Haley, the winner last week at Gateway outside St. Louis.
Nemechek took the first stage, and Gragson won the second.