Ty Majeski took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series regular season finale Clean Harbors 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway to hoist his second consecutive race trophy.
Majeski’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford led Christian Eckes’ No. 19 Chevy across the finish line by a slight 0.936s to earn the win and vindicate a gut-wrenching loss at the three-quarter mile Richmond track from a year ago when he dominated the race only to lose the lead with four laps remaining.
That tough loss was still very much on the mind of the 29-year old Wisconsin native this weekend. And he nearly gave this one away too after receiving a pit road penalty when a tire got loose on his first pit stop during the Stage 1 break.
“This feels good. We’ve had great ThorSport trucks here at Richmond the last two years, but found different ways to lose them (races) and tried to do that again tonight ’’ said Majeski, who now has five career wins in the series.
“We really need to clean that stuff up.’’
Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet officially claimed the regular season championship in winning Saturday night’s opening stage – his series best eighth stage victory of the season.
“Confidence is high for sure,’’ said Eckes, a three-race winner in 2024. “I feel like we’re in a better position than we were last year and I thought we were in a pretty good position last year too. Real proud of the team. We didn’t have quite what we needed today but proud of everybody and ready to get these next seven races underway.”
For the first time in the modern Playoff format, a driver raced his way into championship contention in the last cutoff race. Daniel Dye, 20, finished eighth in the No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet – good enough to put him in the Playoffs by 12-points over TRICON Garage Racing’s Tanner Gray, who finished 12th.
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“Just all the hard work these guys have put in and it’s really good to validate myself and the work I’ve put in to change up what I’ve been doing,’’ Dye said. “It’s so cool to have our No. 43 in the Playoffs.”
Tanner Gray stood by his car, understandably frustrated with the night.
“We just weren’t good enough,’’ Tanner Gray said. “Didn’t have the speed, didn’t have the balance and I didn’t do a good enough job, so I’m really frustrated.”
His younger brother Taylor Gray finished third Saturday night, followed by veteran Grant Enfinger and rookie Layne Riggs. The third-place finish was enough to secure Gray’s position in the 10-driver Playoff field and comes in his first full-time season. Fourth-place finisher Enfinger led the most laps – 98 of the 250 – and earned the Stage 2 win; his first stage victory since last season.
Not so fast, says @GrantEnfinger! pic.twitter.com/FjOzAOXckc
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) August 11, 2024
Tyler Ankrum, defending series champion Ben Rhodes, Dye, Ty Dillon and rookie Connor Hall rounded out the top-10 in Saturday’s race.
The 10-driver Playoff field will include TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, a five-race winner who holds a three-point advantage on Eckes to start the seven-race Playoff run. Majeski goes into the Playoff run ranked third, followed by fellow race winners this season, Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth.
Enfinger is seeded sixth followed by Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Rhodes and Dye.
The Playoff opener, the LiUNA 175, is Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“These are my first two wins outside of the Playoffs and they’re right on the cusp of the Playoffs, so this team just seems to click right around Playoff time,’’ Majeski said. “Between that and a lot of these racetracks are just our bread and butter. [Crew chief] Joe [Shear] and I, I feel like we’re pretty good at these last two racetracks and we’re going to another familiar one in Milwaukee and the way that this Playoff schedule lays out is pretty good for our team. I’m excited to get going.”