Ty Majeski’s victory in Friday’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) was not the sort of dominating performance he enjoyed last year — until the final stage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
Majeski overcame a restart violation on lap 50 that sent him to the rear of the field, but rallied to defend his victory last year at the 1.1km Indiana short track.
The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford earned his first victory of this season and the fourth of his career.
Photo: AFP
Majeski, who swept the stages and led 179 laps in last year’s win, was penalized for jumping the restart after the first caution of the race for Ty Dillon’s spin in Turn 3 on lap 43. He scored no points in Stage 1, but by the time the second stage ended, Majeski had charged to third.
Sixteen laps after the restart for the final stage, Majeski took the lead for the first time, using the lapped truck of Thad Moffitt as a pick and charged past Eckes through turns 1 and 2.
The Seymour, Wisconsin, driver led the final 56 of 200 laps and took the checkered flag 4.129 seconds ahead of Eckes.
Photo: AFP
“It’s huge,” Majeski said. “Obviously, I made a little bit of a mistake. It was probably a little bit of a close call on that restart. I had to pony up and get it back. Obviously, when you make a mistake as a driver, you drive a little bit harder to make up for it, but these guys had my back — awesome pit stops.”
“It’s been an up-and-down year,” he said. “We’ve had the speed to win. Just haven’t been able to put it together, had some bad luck along the way, some of it self-inflicted, but, man, so proud of this Road Ranger group.”
Grant Enfinger finished third after leading for 71 laps. Tyler Ankrum was fourth, followed by Layne Riggs, Sammy Smith, Luke Fenhaus, pole winner Rajah Caruth, Dean Thompson and Nick Sanchez.
Fenhaus’ seventh-place result was his best in three Truck Series starts.
By the time he took the checkered flag, Majeski already had clinched a playoff spot on points, leaving three berths still available in the post-season, with the Aug. 10 race at Richmond left to decide the final playoff grid.
With a 20th-place finish on Friday, Tanner Gray took over the 10th and final playoff-eligible position from Daniel Dye, who came home 27th after an unscheduled pit stop on lap 81.
Dye trailed Gray by five points entering the last regular-season race.
Five-time race winner Corey Heim finished 17th, a lap down, after contact from Eckes’ No. 19 Chevrolet cut his left-front tire and forced him to the pits under caution on Lap 88. Forced to use his last set of tires prematurely, Heim finished second in Stage 2 on the fresh rubber, but faded in the final stage.
“I just misjudged the straightaway,” said Eckes, who led a race-high 73 laps. “He’s got every right to be mad.”
Eckes retained the series lead by 50 points over second-placed Heim.
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