Majeski Dominates Indianapolis Truck Race

Nigel Kinrade Photography

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - RIS - Ty Majeski went looking for his first win of the season and found it at Indianapolis Speedway Park on Friday night.  The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford cemented a spot in the Round of 8 in dominating fashion, leading 179 of 200 laps, sweeping the first two stages of the race and beating pole winner and runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 3.422 seconds.

 He held a 3.904-second advantage over eventual eighth-place finisher Corey Heim at the finish of Stage 1. He was up by six seconds over Heim before the second stage ended under caution for Chris Hacker’s spin on the backstretch. Clearly, the short-track ace was in his element at the 0.686-mile speedway.

“I’m proud of the effort, but this is just the start of our playoff run,” said Majeski, who failed to win with the fastest truck two weekends ago at Richmond.

In that race, Majeski sped on pit road, and his team failed to cover a late green-flag pit stop by race winner Carson Hocevar. In contrast, the effort of the entire No. 98 team was impeccable on Friday night.

"Mistakes really cost us (at Richmond),” Majeski said. “We learned from those. Obviously, tonight we were in a really similar situation, and we were able to execute on all fronts. The pit crew was great, (crew chief) Joe (Shear Jr.) made great calls, and I felt like I executed pretty good on the restarts.We put it all together as a race team tonight, and I’m pretty proud of that.”

Hocevar came home fourth behind non-playoff driver Layne Riggs. Reigning series champion Zane Smith was fifth after starting from the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 38 Ford.

William Sawalich was a career-best sixth in his fourth Truck Series start, followed by fellow non-playoff driver Rajah Caruth. Heim, in eighth, was penalized for too many men over the wall late in the race. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top 10. The race also was a triumph for another driver who never led a lap and finished 19th in the first car one lap down. Shane van Gisbergen, who took the NASCAR world by storm by winning the Chicago Street Race in his only Cup start, avoided all trouble and got plenty of seat time in his first trip around an oval.

“It was awesome,” said the New Zealander. “With 10 to go, I finally dropped off the lead lap. “I had a ball. It was awesome racing with people, a lot of fun… I’m living the dream, it was really cool, and everyone was respectful. It was awesome.”

Unofficial Results: TSport 200: Friday, July 19, 2024 - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park 
Fin, Str, Driver, Truck, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
 1) 4, Ty Majeski, No. 98 Road Ranger Ford, 200, , 3, 1, 56, 5, 48, Running
 2) 6, Christian Eckes, No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet, 200, 1, 1, 2, 73, 2, 55, Running
 3) 2, Grant Enfinger, No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet, 200, 2, , 2, 71, , 43, Running
 4) 3, Tyler Ankrum, No. 18 LiUNA! Chevrolet, 200, 4, 5, , , , 46, Running
 5) 17, Layne Riggs #, No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford, 200, , 7, , , , 36, Running
 6) 12, Sammy Smith(i), No. 7 Golden Harvest Chevrolet, 200, 9, , , , , 0, Running
 7) 14, Luke Fenhaus, No. 66 Soda Sense Ford, 200, , , , , , 30, Running
 8) 1, Rajah Caruth, No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, 200, 5, 9, , , , 37, Running
 9) 19, Dean Thompson, No. 5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, 200, 8, 8, , , , 34, Running
10) 11, Nick Sanchez, No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet, 200, 7, 10, , , , 32, Running
11) 16, Ross Chastain(i), No. 45 Alliance Highway Safety Chevrolet, 200, 6, 6, , , , 0, Running
12) 26, William Sawalich, No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota, 200, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 10, Chase Purdy, No. 77 Bama Buggies Chevrolet, 200, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 22, Bayley Currey, No. 41 Niece Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 23, Jack Wood, No. 91 Children's Museum Indianapolis Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 13, Taylor Gray, No. 17 JBL Toyota, 199, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 9, Corey Heim, No. 11 Safelite Toyota, 199, 3, 2, , , , 37, Running
18) 20, Ty Dillon, No. 25 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 25, Timmy Hill, No. 56 Units Storage Toyota, 199, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 21, Tanner Gray, No. 15 Bucket Boss Toyota, 199, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 15, Ben Rhodes, No. 99 Campers Inn RV Ford, 199, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 34, Matt Mills, No. 42 J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 28, Johnny Sauter, No. 16 AISIN Toyota, 199, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 5, Matt Crafton, No. 88 Dutch Boy/Menards Ford, 199, , 4, , , , 20, Running
25) 29, Marco Andretti, No. 04 Group 1001 Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 30, Bret Holmes, No. 32 Best Value Carriers Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 7, Daniel Dye, No. 43 Bettenhausen Automotive Chevrolet, 198, 10, , , , , 11, Running
28) 24, Lawless Alan, No. 33 AUTOChargit Ford, 198, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 35, Conor Daly(i), No. 44 Power Plus Chevrolet, 197, , , , , , 0, Running
30) 18, Jake Garcia, No. 13 Quanta Services Ford, 197, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 31, Tyler Tomassi, No. 22 Levrack Ford, 197, , , , , , 6, Running
32) 33, Thad Moffitt #, No. 46 Tasty Duck Chevrolet, 195, , , , , , 5, Running
33) 8, Stewart Friesen, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota, 194, , , , , , 4, Running
34) 32, Spencer Boyd, No. 76 KIR Ammo.com Chevrolet, 164, , , , , , 3, Running
35) 27, Mason Massey, No. 02 BRUNT Chevrolet, 44, , , , , , 2, Accident
(i) Ineligible for driver points, (#) Rookie

Race Length: 200 Laps, 137.2 Miles
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 40 Mins, 6 Secs.
Average Speed: 82.238 MPH
Margin of Victory: 4.129 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 9, 11, 18, 71, 45, 2, 5, 7, 43
Stage 2 Top 10: 19, 11, 98, 88, 18, 45, 38, 5, 71, 2

Comments: Ty Majeski won the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, his fourth victory in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.

Prior to the start, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty: Nos. 44, 16, 42, 99 (unapproved adjustments).

Cautions: 4 for 27 laps;
Laps: 44-49 (No. 25 Spin Turn 3 [56]);
62-68 (Stage 1 Conclusion [16]);
87-92 (No. 44 Incident Turn 1 [None]);
122-129 (Stage 2 Conclusion [04]).

Lead Changes: 5 among 3 drivers;
R. Caruth 0;
G. Enfinger 1-55;
C. Eckes 56-68;
G. Enfinger 69-84;
C. Eckes 85-144;
T. Majeski 145-200.