Ty Majeski earned a commanding first Truck Series win of the season with a four-second gap to his closest competition. Majeski proved his mastery of Indianapolis Raceway Park by backing up his win from last season at the track.
Last year’s win at IRP was also the first in his season, a strong start to his Playoff campaign. This year, it comes two races before the Playoffs and locks him into the postseason field at the perfect time for some extra momentum.
“Oh, it’s huge,” Majeski said of the win. “It’s been an up-and-down year, we’ve had the speed to win, just haven’t been able to put it together. We’ve had some back luck along the way, some of it self-inflicted. But so proud of this race team.”
Majeski didn’t even need the win to clinch the Playoff berth, having already locked in on points by the end of Stage 1 despite failing to score any points in the stage – the 125-point advantage to the cutline that he entered with was large enough that other drivers failing to score locked him in.
He didn’t earn any points in the first stage, despite starting up front, because of an early penalty. He earned a penalty for jumping the start on the restart after the first caution of the race by getting on the gas too early in the restart zone, even though he crossed the start line itself behind leader Grant Enfinger.
After falling back to 16th, Majeski drove up to third in the second stage and took the lead on lap 145 of 200. At that point, he never looked back and led all of the final 55 laps en route to victory.
“Obviously I made a little bit of a mistake, it was probably a little bit of a close call on that restart, and I had to pony up and get it back,” Majeski admitted. “Obviously when you make a mistake as a driver, you drive a little bit harder to try and make up for it. But these guys have my back, awesome pitstops.”
After sweeping the stages, Christian Eckes ended up second.
“Overall, proud of the NAPA Auto Group Chevrolet team. We were a second-place truck and we finished second tonight,” he appraised his day. “So good execution on that end and we’ll move on to Richmond.”
Eckes ended up in the middle of a heated conversation with Corey Heim after getting out of his truck, with Heim alleging that Eckes crowded him into the wall. Heim also retaliated during the race under caution, swiping the side of Eckes’ machine which ultimately caused a fender rub for Heim’s No. 11 that had to be repaired, and Heim ultimately finished 17th.
“He’s got a right to be mad. I just misjudged the straightaway. He acted like I went to the wall, but I didn’t,” Eckes defended himself. “I tried to give him a lane, I just misjudged it on my end. That’s on me, I apologize to the [No.] 11 guys. I’d probably be mad too.”
The runner-up finish extends Eckes’ lead over Corey Heim in the regular season standings, even though Heim has two more wins, and all-but wraps up the regular season championship and the 15 bonus Playoff points for Eckes heading into the final race before the postseason at Richmond Raceway.
Third- and fourth-place finishers Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum both officially clinched a Playoff berth on points as well after the race had concluded. Enfinger scored 9 stage points and Ankrum scored 13 in the race besides their finishing positions.
Layne Riggs rounded out the top five. Sammy Smith, Luke Fenhaus, Rajah Caruth, Dean Thompson, and Nick Sanchez all earned top-ten finishes.
Cup Series driver Ross Chastain ended up eleventh, driving the No. 45 for Niece Motorsports.
The Truck Series returns at Richmond Raceway for the final race of the regular season on August 11th.
