Practice #1 : Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

• Thursday, July 18th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

In a star-crossed season, Ty Majeski looks for turnaround at LOIRP

Justifiably, there will be two primary areas of focus as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series visits Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Friday night’s TSport 200.

The first will be the front of the field. The second will be the Playoff cut line, and, of course, the two areas may intersect.

Ty Majeski will try to defend the dominating victory he scored at LOIRP last year after leading 179 of 200 laps. He beat runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 3.422 seconds at the 0.686-mile short track.

With two races left before the Truck Series Playoff field is set, Majeski is securely 125 points above the cutoff (needing just three points on Friday to clinch a berth in the postseason), but the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford has scored just five top fives and no wins in 14 races this season.

Also hoping for excellent results on Friday are four “bubble” drivers clustered around the current cut line.

Defending series champion Ben Rhodes is 18 points to the good entering Friday’s race and far from a certainty when it comes to qualifying for the 10-driver Playoffs field. Tenth-place Daniel Dye is in a more perilous position, leading 11th-place Tanner Gray by a single point.

Stewart Friesen is four points behind Dye in 12th, all but assuring a wild scramble for the final two Playoff spots at LOIRP and Richmond Raceway, where the final regular-season race will take place on Aug. 10.

• TSport 200
• Pole Winner: Rajah Caruth
• Age: 22
• Team : No 71 - HendrickCarscom Chevrolet
• Owner: Jeff Dickerson
• Crew Chief: Chad Walter
• Rajah Caruth won the Pole Award for the TSport 200 with a lap of 22863 seconds, 108017 mph
• This is his second pole in 42 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his second pole and eighth top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in two races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
• Grant Enfinger (second) posted his ninth top-10 start of 2024 and his third in three races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
• Tyler Ankrum (third) posted his first top-10 start at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park It is his seventh in 15 races this season
• Layne Riggs (17th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Friday, July 19th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Ty Majeski mounts successful defense of victory at Indianapolis short track

Ty Majeski’s victory in Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park wasn’t 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 2023 victory at the 0.686-mile short track. The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford earned his first victory of the season and the fourth of his career.

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 charging 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.

“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. 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 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 postseason, 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 trails 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-place Heim.

• Drivers Entered: 35
• Laps Scheduled: 200
• Margin of Victory: 04.129 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 40 Minutes 6 Seconds
• Average Speed: 82.238
• Cautions: 4 for 27 laps
• Lead Changes: 5
• Green Flag Passes: 1,377 (8.0 passes per green flag lap)

• TSport 200
• Race Winner: Ty Majeski
• Age: 29
• Team : No 98 - Road Ranger Ford
• Owner: ThorSport Racing
• Crew Chief: Joe Shear Jr
• Ty Majeski won the TSport 200, his fourth victory in 81 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races
• This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and third top-10 finish in three races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
• Christian Eckes (second) posted his second top-10 finish in three races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park It is his 14th top-10 finish in 2024
• Grant Enfinger (third) posted his second top-10 finish in three races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
• Layne Riggs (fifth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Christian Eckes leads the point standings by 50 points over Corey Heim