At the restart of the final race of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season, the Clean Harbors 250 at Richmond (Virginia) Raceway, Ty Majeski took the lead with eight laps to go and claimed the race trophy for the second year in a row.
Majeski’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford crossed the finish line just 0.936 seconds ahead of Christian Eckes’ No. 19 Chevy to take the win, justifying a bitter loss at the three-quarter-mile Richmond track a year ago when he dominated the race only to lose the lead with four laps to go.
This bitter defeat still bothered the 29-year-old Wisconsin native this weekend. And he almost lost this race too after he received a pit stop penalty because a tire came loose during his first pit stop during the first stage break.
“It feels good. We’ve had great ThorSport trucks here at Richmond the last two years, but we found different ways to lose them (races) and tried to do that again tonight,” said Majeski, who now has five career series wins.
“We really need to clean this stuff up.”
Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet, officially clinched the regular season championship title with his victory in the opening stage on Saturday night – his best eighth stage win of the season.
“The confidence is definitely high,” said Eckes, who won three races in 2024. “I feel like we’re in a better position than last year, and I thought we were in a pretty good position last year too. I’m really proud of the team. We didn’t quite have what we needed today, but we’re proud of everyone and ready to go for the next seven races.”
For the first time in the modern playoff format, a driver fought his way into the championship ranks in the final cutoff race. 20-year-old Daniel Dye finished eighth in the No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet – good enough to secure a playoff spot by 12 points over TRICON Garage Racing’s Tanner Gray, who finished 12th.
“The guys have just put in so much hard work and it’s really good to validate myself and the work I’ve put in to change what I’ve done so far,” Dye said. “It’s so cool that our No. 43 is in the playoffs.”
Tanner Gray stood next to his car, understandably frustrated about the night.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Tanner Gray said. “We didn’t have the speed, we didn’t have the balance and I didn’t play well enough, so I’m really frustrated.”
His younger brother Taylor Gray finished third on Saturday night, followed by veteran Grant Enfinger and rookie Layne Riggs. Third place was enough for Gray to earn a spot in the 10-rider playoff field, and he is in his first full-time season. Fourth-place Enfinger led the most laps – 98 of the 250 – and took the win in Stage 2; his first stage win since last season.
Not so fast, says @GrantEnfinger! pic.twitter.com/FjOzAOXckc
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) 11 August 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 playoff drivers include TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, who has won five races and is three points ahead of Eckes as the seven-race playoff series begins. Majeski enters the playoff series in third place, followed by Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth, who have also won races this season.
Enfinger is seeded sixth, followed by Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Rhodes and Dye.
The opening race of the playoffs, the LiUNA 175, will take place on August 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 coming up to the playoffs, so this team seems to gel really well right at playoff time,” Majeski said. “In between, a lot of these tracks are our bread and butter. Joe and I feel like we’re pretty good at these last two tracks and we’re going to another familiar track in Milwaukee and the flow of this playoff schedule is pretty good for our team. I’m excited to get going.”
RESULTS
