As odd as it sounds, COVID-19 may have been a blessing in disguise for Brett Moffitt. Two months after fracturing his legs in a motocross accident, the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series driver has been medically cleared to return to racing, but a waiver will not be necessary as all race dates since the accident were wiped out by the pandemic.
“Talk about a damn good Monday! It’s race week!! Andddd oh yea… I’ve been officially cleared by the Dr. and @NASCAR to return to racing,” Moffitt tweeted on Monday.
The 2019 Truck Series runner-up and 2018 champion, Moffitt sits fourth in the 2020 standings after three races. The pandemic forced the next seven Truck races to be indefinitely postponed, with the next-planned date being at Charlotte Motor Speedway on 26 May once the season resumes. If the season had continued as planned, he would have missed five races before returning at Charlotte on the originally-scheduled date of 15 May.
He had also run the first four Xfinity Series races with series newcomer Our Motorsports, recording a best finish of fourteenth. As Moffitt was reported to have just a four-race slate with the team, Andy Seuss will likely take over the #02 when racing returns.
Moffitt is not the only driver to capitalise on the delay to recover from injuries. At the Cup Series level, Ryan Newman only missed three races after suffering head injuries in the Daytona 500 in February, and will be back in action at Darlington Raceway on 17 May.
