NASCAR News: Ty Majeski wins Clean Harbors 250 crashfest

Ty Majeski took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway and held on to hoist his second consecutive race trophy after winning the Clean Harbors 250.

Majeski’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford led Christian Eckes across the finish line by a slight .936 seconds 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 Truck 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’s Tanner Gray, who finished 12th.

“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 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 good 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.

Tyler Ankrum, defending series champion Ben Rhodes, Dye, Ty Dillon and series debutant Connor Hall rounded out the top 10.

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 Sunday, Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile.

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