Mosack Grinds Out A Top 10 In Rockingham Truck Race

Connor Mosack (81) battles Frankie Muniz Friday at Rockingham Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Connor Mosack made a point to say after Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway that his race “personally wasn’t pretty” by any stretch of the imagination.

Sometimes, however, the end result outweighs how a driver got there. That was certainly the case for Mosack in the seventh NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the season.

Despite qualifying fourth, the 26-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., had to dig deep for extra grit right from the start, after a lap-two spin in turn three forced he and his McAnally-Hilgemann Racing crew to play catch-up early on.

A two-tire pit call by crew chief Blake Bainbridge during the first stage break helped Mosack get some of his lost track position back, allowing him to line up ninth for a lap-56 restart and ultimately finish the second stage just outside of the top 10 in 11th.

Taking just left-side tires ahead of the final stage, Mosack’s woes weren’t done, as he was tagged for speeding during his final pit stop for fuel under caution at lap 117. That sent him to the tail of the lead lap again, where he had to fight in traffic to move back forward.

Mosack got to 12th place with 22 to go and appeared to be settled there, before multiple trucks ran out of fuel in the final laps during the 77-lap green flag run that ended the race. That elevated him to ninth and gave him his much-needed first top-10 finish of the Truck Series season.

“I’m just happy to finally get somewhat of a good result,” said Mosack as he stood behind his No. 81 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet. “We’ve been fast all year but haven’t had the results to show for it at all. Today we were fast again, but when you start fourth, you don’t expect to have to come from the back twice.

“It was my mistake at the beginning,” he noted of the early spin. “I just bottomed out really hard going into (turn) three on low air (pressure) to where we got on the splitter, and that shot me up into (Bayley Currey’s) door and got me really, really loose. When we were in clean air, though, we were really fast. I felt like we had a top-five truck (on speed) at times, so I’m mad at myself for getting us out of position (for a better finish).

“There’s definitely some stuff to clean up – we didn’t get a good read on our (pit speed) lights before the start – but the strategy worked out for us at the end to at least salvage a finish.”

Mosack was part of a big day at Rockingham for team co-owners Bill McAnally and Bill Hilgemann, who saw all four of the organization’s trucks finish inside the top 10 for just the second time in the history of MHR.

His teammate Tyler Ankrum won Friday’s race, while Daniel Hemric took MHR to victory lane at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in March.

Those showings, plus the speed Mosack himself has shown – he started from the pole at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway in February – have him believing that he can be the next MHR driver to break into the winner’s circle.

“We have the speed to win; I believe that and our teammates have shown that,” Mosack affirmed. “It just takes things to go our way, and that’s tough sometimes with the way a lot of these truck races go. We just need to put all the pieces together and be mistake-free, and if we do that I think we’re capable of running in the top five every race for the rest of the year.

“Hats off to my guys for bringing fast trucks each week. Now we just need some consistency.”

With his run at Rockingham, Mosack gained two positions in the regular season standings, jumping from 20th to 18th. Despite his early struggles, he’s just 54 points back of Stewart Friesen for the final spot in the playoffs with plenty of racing still to come before the stretch run toward a championship.

Mosack and the rest of the Truck Series field head next to Texas Motor Speedway for the SpeedyCash.com 250. Broadcast coverage airs Friday night, May 2 at 8 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.