Underdogs? Hardly. Hattori Racing is now a full-fledged NASCAR Trucks megapower

The Little Engine that Could keeps on going.

Or, maybe, Hattori Racing Enterprises isn't the small team underdog it used to be anymore.

The No. 16 owned by Shige Hattori and crew chiefed by Scott Zipadelli has now won three races in a row, dating back to last season, including a championship run with Brett Moffitt. Now, they've opened the 2019 season with a victory in one of the most prestigious races of the year at Daytona International Speedway.

That doesn't sound like a "small" team, and it's certainly not telling of an underdog.

But what are the facts? Excluding Hill and K&N Pro Series East driver Max McLaughlin, Hattori Racing has just 15 employees on the payroll. Multi-truck teams have somewhere in the 50 range from year to year.

So, from a per-truck standpoint, Hattori is right in line with what is needed to operate a championship caliber truck.

And the underdog thing? Well, when you have the support of Toyota Racing Development, have Zipadelli on the pit box, and an underrated driver in Austin Hill behind the wheel, that's not an underdog — it's a full blown championship favorite.

Just don't tell Zippy that.

"Yeah, we're the underdogs," he said. "We like that."

Indeed, the chip on their shoulders went a long way last year, especially when they had to lay off three employees amidst a well-documented funding shortage, with a driver who didn't bring many sponsors to the table.

But Moffitt, Zipadelli and Hattori's crew just kept working and won the championship, even amongst a controversy that saw NASCAR essentially force them into swapping out their Toyota motor for the series spec option partway through the playoffs.

Now, they are starting over with a new driver in Hill, who, while an overachiever and successful in the junior divisions, still isn't the champion they were forced to let go in December due to funding. Zipadelli says they are a leaner team than last year, too.

"We're definitely the underdogs because we're still a small team," he said. "We struggled with completing the funding last year. We kept kicking the ball down the road. We had to lay some people off midyear to tighten up payroll and keep the team running. We started this season with four less employees than last year, so we have to work harder to pick up the slack.

"I don't have the answer to your question of if we're the underdogs other than when you surround yourself with good people, good things happen. And the heart and soul of this group that we assembled is amazing, to be honest with you."

So while Zipadelli still feels that chip in his shoulder, the statistics say Hattori Racing has broken the glass ceiling between scrappy underdogs and one-truck superteam.

Kind of like a Furniture Row of the Truck Series.

Just ask their rivals, because they certainly don't look at Hattori as "little brother" anymore.

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