Easley, SC (April 12, 2009): Iowa native Brett Moffitt caught the attention of everyone Saturday night when he earned the Coors Light Pole Award for the NASCAR Home Tracks 150 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and backed it up with a fifth place finish. Moffitt was a contender race long in the season opening event for the NASCAR Camping World Series East and left an impression on his competitors that he will be a force to reckon with this season.

“I got to know the competition and how strong these drivers are,” said the 16-year-old driver. “I was really good for a really long run. As the tires got more heat cycles in them, they just started falling off and I got loose in the end, but overall, the car was pretty good.”

Good enough for Moffitt to set the No. 44 Andy Santerre Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole for the race. After a strong practice session, Moffitt wheeled his way around the historic half-mile oval at a time of 20.691 seconds (86.994 mph) to lead the 29-car field in qualifying and earn his first pole award.

“It feels pretty amazing actually,” Moffitt, who became the second youngest driver in the history of the series to win a pole, said. “I knew we’d have a good run because the car was pretty good in practice all day, but I wasn’t expecting the pole. I was definitely going for it. I just drove her in there, hope she stuck, and she did.”

Moffitt went off the pace at the drop of the green flag when he missed a shift, but got a rare opportunity at a second chance when a multi-car pile-up in turn one called for a complete restart of the race.

“When I was shifting from second to third, it just popped right back out,” explained Moffitt. “I got it into third, but it just popped right back out.”

On the restart, Moffitt lost the lead to eventual race-winner Brian Ickler, but settled into second, where he remained until a lap 14 restart where Eddie MacDonald was able to edge by him coming off turn one. A long green flag run that last 30 laps followed with Moffitt riding MacDonald’s bumper the entire distance.

As the laps ticked off, Moffitt dropped back to fourth and then fifth, but the late race cautions helped him and he was able to gain some ground back returning as high as third. He made the final green-white-checkered restart in fourth, but Josh Richards got by him for the finish and team completed their first race of the season in the top-five.

“I would have liked to done better, but it’s not too bad,” said Moffitt about his start.

The NASCAR Camping World Series East takes a week off before returning to action at Tri-County Speedway in North Carolina.