CLERMONT, Ind — Ty Majeski put on an absolute clinic during Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff opener to the tune of a clean sweep of both stages and the dominating win in the TSport 200. The ThorSport Racing driver led a race-high 179 of 200 laps en route to his fourth career victory under the lights in front of a packed house at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

He held off pole sitter Christian Eckes by a whopping 3.422-seconds to net his third career playoff win and automatically stamp him into the Round of 8.

The win makes up for leading 71 laps a year ago but coming home eighth. It also makes up for dominating Richmond the last time out too but coming up short by being on the wrong side of strategy.

For Eckes, his runner-up was his 5th top 7’s in his last 7 tries with his ninth top 10 result of the season. He started third but was 16th here just one short year ago.

He led the opening three laps of the night before Majeski got by under the night fall around the .686-miel short track. Majeski would lead 179 of the final 197 laps from then on out.

Layne Riggs came home a remarkable third in his No. 7 Chevrolet while Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith rounded out the top five in a mostly clean affair.

There were only 5 caution flag for 41 laps with two of the five being for stage breaks.

Majeski A Championship Favorite

Majeski entered the postseason as the 6 seed, but this playoff positioning has marched to the final round in 2 of the last 4 years. With his win on Friday night, Majeski at least knows that he has three races between he and a second straight Championship 4.

Last year, the Round of 8 is where he did his most damage in winning 2 of the 3 races in that round. With the same three tracks back in the same position, watch out.

Plus, Majeski now has 6 top 7’s in his last 8 tries on the season and enters his home race in two weeks in Milwaukee.

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Impressive Performances From Riggs, Sawalich

Layne Riggs made his Truck Series debut here last season in a 7th place finish. A year later, this was now his sixth career start. He qualified 12th but finished a very impressive third ahead of 8 of the 10 playoff drivers.

He’s not the only one who impressed. So did 16 year old William Sawalich who qualified 10th and finished sixth in his No. 1 Toyota. This was his fourth career start, all coming this season, and in three of the four, he’s had a top 10 result.

He’s made six ARCA Menards Series starts this season too. He’s finished 13th, 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 4th respectively with the last coming in the 200 lap event prior this evening.

In six ARCA East Series starts, he’s finished no worse than fourth. These two youngsters are shaping up to be potentially the next big up-and-coming stars of the sport.

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Heim, Enfinger Make Costly Mistakes On Pit Road

Following the second round of pit stops which happened to take place at the end of the second stage, Corey Heim and Grant Enfinger both endured pit road issues. Heim finished 2nd in both stages with Enfinger 7th and 3rd respectively himself.

Heim’s crew member fell over the wall while fetching a changed tire which relegated him to the end of the line at the start. Enfinger’s crew only got 2 of the lugnuts on which forced him back down pit road to finish the stop the next lap. He too had to restart in the back.

Heim rebounded to finish 8th with Enfinger, the defending race winner, coming home 12th. For Heim, the regular season champion is +47 heading to Milwaukee while Enfinger is +24.

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Defending Champion A Quiet Top 5 Finish

Zane Smith initially qualified 8th but had to go to the back at the start of the race due to a changed tire. They noticed it was flat and had to do so. Still, Smith rebounded to score 5 stage points (10th in Stage 1, 7th in Stage 2) and finish an impressive 5th in his No. 38 Ford.

That’s exactly what he had to do when he had to start from behind.

Smith is the No. 2 seed and has advanced to the final round in all three of his years in the Truck Series as well. He ended up with 8 top 5 finishes this regular season. He had 9 at this point a year ago.

The only difference? Smith had 3 wins in 2022 and 2 so far this year. It’s also in top 10’s. Smith had 13 in 2022 with far more consistency. He has 9 now with all being in the top five.

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Van Gisbergen Finishes 19th In Debut

One of the stars in the field on Friday night was Shane Van Gisbergen who made not only his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut, but also his first oval start as well. It went very well with him bringing his No. 41 Chevrolet home 19th as the top car a lap down.

“That was awesome but I have to say, a little gutted,” he admitted. “10 to go, finally dropped off the lead lap. But had a ball. Had some awesome racing with people. A lot of fun. Gotta thank Niece Motorsports, Worldwide Express and the Trackhouse guys for having me. I’m living the dream.

“It was really cool. Everyone was respectful. It was awesome.”

He was in the top 25 for much of the race in coming up from 28th. At the first stage break, he was 20th. He lost a spot to 21st at Stage 2.

He really never put a wheel wrong all day and while he said he had to learn and gave the wrong call for some wrong adjustments causing him to drop on the final stint, he still learned a lot and had fun.

Van Gisbergen only made 16 practice laps earlier in the 15 minute session.

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – TSport 200

Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

Indianapolis, Indiana

Friday, August 11, 2023

1. (2)  Ty Majeski (P), Ford, 200.

2. (1)  Christian Eckes (P), Chevrolet, 200.

3. (12)  Layne Riggs, Chevrolet, 200.

4. (5)  Carson Hocevar (P), Chevrolet, 200.

5. (8)  Zane Smith (P), Ford, 200.

6. (10)  William Sawalich, Toyota, 200.

7. (4)  Rajah Caruth #, Chevrolet, 200.

8. (3)  Corey Heim (P), Toyota, 200.

9. (13)  Matt Crafton (P), Ford, 200.

10. (24)  Matt DiBenedetto (P), Chevrolet, 200.

11. (9)  Nick Sanchez # (P), Chevrolet, 200.

12. (6)  Grant Enfinger (P), Chevrolet, 200.

13. (7)  Jake Garcia #, Chevrolet, 200.

14. (22)  Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 200.

15. (19)  Tanner Gray, Toyota, 200.

16. (21)  Ben Rhodes (P), Ford, 200.

17. (20)  Jake Drew, Toyota, 200.

18. (23)  Jack Wood (P), Chevrolet, 200.

19. (28)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 199.

20. (34)  Taylor Gray #, Toyota, 199.

21. (26)  Logan Bearden, Ford, 199.

22. (15)  Daniel Dye #, Chevrolet, 199.

23. (17)  Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 198.

24. (36)  Lawless Alan, Chevrolet, 198.

25. (32)  Bret Holmes #, Chevrolet, 197.

26. (30)  Tyler Hill, Toyota, 197.

27. (18)  Conner Jones, Ford, 196.

28. (29)  Landen Lewis, Chevrolet, 196.

29. (33)  Chris Hacker, Toyota, 195.

30. (14)  Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 183.

31. (25)  Hailie Deegan, Ford, Accident, 140.

32. (11)  Dean Thompson, Toyota, Accident, 130.

33. (31)  Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, Accident, 128.

34. (35)  Tyler Ankrum, Toyota, Electrical, 127.

35. (16)  Colby Howard, Chevrolet, Suspension, 79.

36. (27)  Greg Van Alst, Chevrolet, Accident, 14.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  75.075 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 49 Mins, 39 Secs. Margin of Victory:  3.422 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  5 for 41 laps.

Lead Changes:  3 among 3 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   C. Eckes (P) 1-3;T. Majeski (P) 4-21;C. Heim (P) 22-39;T. Majeski (P) 40-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ty Majeski (P) 2 times for 179 laps; Corey Heim (P) 1 time for 18 laps; Christian Eckes (P) 1 time for 3 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 98,11,19,7,35,42,23,24,15,38

Stage #2 Top Ten: 98,11,23,19,42,1,38,15,7,2