Thaddeus D. Moffitt (born September 12, 2000) is an American professional

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

driver. He last competed part-time in the

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

, driving the No. 43

Chevrolet Silverado The Chevrolet Silverado is a range of trucks manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand. Introduced for the 1999 model year, the Silverado is the successor to the long running Chevrolet C/K model line. Taking its name from th ...

for

Reaume Brothers Racing Reaume Brothers Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team is owned by Josh Reaume, and it currently fiel ...

and the No. 20 Silverado for

Young's Motorsports Young's Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series. In the Truck Series, they field three full-time Chevrolet Silverados: the No. 02 for Jesse Li ...

and part-time in the

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

, driving the No. 44

Chevrolet SS The Holden Commodore (VF) is an executive car that was produced by Holden between June 2013 and October 2017. It was the second and last significantly restyled iteration of the fourth (and final) generation of the Holden Commodore to be manufa ...

for

Ferrier-McClure Racing Jeffrey McClure (born January 22, 1967) is an American former stock car racing driver who raced for multiple years in all three major NASCAR series as well as what is now the ARCA Menards Series. Since the conclusion of his driving career, McClu ...

Racing career

Early career

Growing up in a racing family, Moffitt cut his teeth in go-karts at age fourteen and later moved up to

quarter midgets Quarter midget racing is a form of automobile racing. The cars are approximately one-quarter (1/4) the size of a full-size midget car. The adult-size midget being raced during the start of quarter midget racing used an oval track of one-fifth of a ...

and limited late models, running at tracks like

Caraway Speedway Caraway Speedway is a short track located near Asheboro, North Carolina, U.S. Caraway Speedway was built in 1966 as a dirt track. The track was paved in 1972 and joined the NASCAR Weekly Series family as a .455 mile asphalt short track. Caraway ...

and

Ace Speedway Ace Speedway is a 4/10 (.400) mile oval stock car racing track in Altamahaw, North Carolina. The track was constructed by Roy Maddren and opened in 1956 as a 1/3 mile dirt oval. In 1984, the track was expanded to a 3/8 mile dirt oval. In 1990, u ...

. Speaking about having racers in the family, he said that advice will be given upon request but also that older relatives wanted him to develop without help. Moffitt was the 2016 Southeast Limited Late Model champion, and won his first late model race earlier that year.

ARCA Menards Series

Moffitt made his

ARCA Racing Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

debut in April 2017 at

Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is a motorsport racetrack located at the Nashville Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The track is the second-oldest continually operating track in the United States. The track held NASCAR Grand Natio ...

, driving a car reminiscent of one driven by his grandfather

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notabl ...

, for

Empire Racing Empire Racing Group (often just called Empire Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the ARCA Menards Series, fielding the No. 8 Chevrolet and Ford Motor Company, Fords for driver Sean Corr and in lat ...

, a satellite team of

Richard Petty Motorsports Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded as a result of the merger between Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) and Petty Enterprises, with ...

. He ran three races in 2017. Moffitt's best finish was eleventh, at

Lucas Oil Raceway Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (formerly Indianapolis Raceway Park, O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, and Lucas Oil Raceway) is an auto racing facility in Brownsburg, Indiana, United States, about northwest of downtown Indianapolis. I ...

. In early 2018, Moffitt tested at

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NA ...

and announced races at

Pocono Raceway Pocono Raceway (formerly Pocono International Raceway), also known as ''The Tricky Triangle'', is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. It is the site of three NASCAR national series races and an ARCA M ...

and Lucas Oil with the potential for more races to be added later in the year. In his second start of the year, at

Salem Speedway Salem Speedway is a long paved oval racetrack in Washington Township, Washington County, near Salem, Indiana, United States, approximately south of Indianapolis. The track has 33° degrees of banking in the corners. Major auto racing series ...

, Moffitt was involved in two incidents, one with

Natalie Decker Natalie Marie Decker (born June 25, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. She last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 33 Toyota Supra for Reaume Brothers Racing, the No. 28 Ford Mustang for RSS Ra ...

and one with Jack Dossey III. Moffitt rebounded from a mid-race spin in his next race to claim his first top ten, finishing tenth in the

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

at Toledo. On January 9, 2020, it was announced that Moffitt would join

DGR-Crosley TRICON Garage, formally known as David Gilliland Racing and Team DGR, is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the ARCA Menards Series, the ARCA Menards Series East, the ARCA Menards S ...

for the season-opening race at Daytona, and would then run all races on the schedule until sponsorship dried up, plus

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, which the team had previously signed a sponsor for. He claimed three top five finishes over thirteen races, with a career-best finish of fourth at Memphis. In January 2021, it was announced that Moffitt would return to ARCA with the renamed David Gilliland Racing team for at least eleven races that year. He proceeded to compete in almost the entire season, only being replaced by

Taylor Gray Taylor Arthur Gray (born September 7, 1993) is an American actor, best known for playing Ezra Bridger on the animated television series ''Star Wars Rebels'', and Bucket in the Nickelodeon series ''Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures''. He also ...

for the dirt races and Canadian J. P. Bergeron for the final two events. At

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, Moffitt was involved in controversy after his retaliation attempt against

Drew Dollar Andrew J. Dollar (born December 2, 2000) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing and part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, drivin ...

for a previous wreck resulted in a crash which injured

Tim Richmond Timothy Lee Richmond (June 7, 1955 – August 13, 1989) was an American race car driver from Ashland, Ohio. He competed in IndyCar racing before transferring to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series. Richmond was one of the first drivers to change fro ...

NASCAR Truck Series

On February 10, 2022, it was announced that Moffitt will make his

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

debut at Daytona for

in collaboration with

GMS Racing Petty GMS Motorsports, also known as GMS Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series, is an American professional stock car racing team formed by Richard Petty and Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. and operated by GMS Racing. In the NASCAR Cup Series they field t ...

, running a paint scheme that pays tribute to Richard Petty's

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

retirement season.

Personal life

Moffitt was born on September 12, 2000, to Brian Moffitt and Rebecca Petty-Moffitt in

Trinity, North Carolina Trinity is a city in Randolph County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,006 at the 2020 census. Trinity is part of the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont Triad metro region. History The communi ...

. His mother, Rebecca, is the youngest daughter of

NASCAR Hall of Fame The NASCAR Hall of Fame, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, honors drivers who have shown expert skill at NASCAR driving, all-time great crew chiefs and owners, broadcasters and other major contributors to competition within the sanctioning ...

driver

. Throughout his childhood, Moffitt played football and other organized sports. In his mid-teens, Moffitt began competing in

Kart racing Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are als ...

before moving to

Late model racing A late model car is a car which has been recently designed or manufactured, often the latest model. (An early model car or classic car is a car old enough to be of historical interest; there is no usual intermediate term.) The precise definition ...

in 2016. Moffitt had attended

Wheatmore High School Wheatmore High School is a high school in Trinity, North Carolina. Wheatmore was originally built to help with an overflow of students from Trinity High School. Wheatmore High opened for the 2009–2010 school year. Notable alumni * Thad Moffitt ...

before deciding to switch to online schooling midway through his high school career. In 2019, Moffitt traveled to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to run a 1981 edition of grandfather

's racecar at the

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hillclimbing, hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in l ...

. Despite sharing the same last name, he is not related to fellow NASCAR competitor

Brett Moffitt Brett B. Moffitt (born August 7, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 25 Ford Mustang for AM Racing. He won Rookie of the Year Honors in 2015 in the NASCAR ...

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Camping World Truck Series

ARCA Menards Series

(

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Menards Series East

ARCA Menards Series West

Season still in progress

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moffitt, Thad Living people 2000 births ARCA Menards Series drivers Racing drivers from North Carolina People from Asheboro, North Carolina Petty family