Ty Majeski won Saturday night at Richmond Raceway after having to run through the field after receiving a penalty for an uncontrolled tire on pit road. Majeski won for the second year in a row after winning the TSport 200 last month before NASCAR’s Olympic break.
The 10 drivers have now been determined for the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs. Taylor Gray, Ben Rhodes and Daniel Dye are the last three drivers to secure points.
After the first stage, Christen Eckles secured the regular season championship and Taylor Gray secured his playoff spot with points. That left two playoff spots remaining and four drivers, Ben Rhodes and Daniel Dye, above the cut line and Tanner Gray and Stewart Friesen below.
The No. 7 car, driven by Connor Zilisch this week, secured a playoff spot with its rotating drivers. Zilisch later ended up in the wall after contact with the No. 32 with less than 15 laps to go and was forced to retire immediately.
The middle part of the NASCAR Truck race at Richmond Raceway was plagued by cautions that threw potential playoff drivers through the field.
Grant Enfinger took the lead with 133 laps to go and won Stage 2. He held onto his lead until 30 laps to go when Corey Heim passed him. The eighth caution period came and every driver on the lead lap took fresh tires in hopes of making it a 22-lap sprint race.
Ty Majeski took the lead on the restart before Zilisch’s hard hit into the wall brought the field to its ninth caution. On the restart, Majeski battled with Layne Riggs, Enfinger and Eckes on four sides, but was able to pull away as the three continued to battle among themselves.
Majeski took the win, 0.97 seconds behind Eckes. Taylor Gray overtook Enfinger in the final corner to secure third place.
Rhodes and Dye, the last two to make the playoffs, finished seventh and eighth.
Tanner Gray was the first driver to miss the playoffs, missing out by one point, saying he simply didn’t do enough when everything was on the line.
“We just weren’t good enough all day. We didn’t have the speed, we didn’t have the balance,” Gray told FS1.
The Truck Series has a week off before the playoffs begin at the Milwaukee Mile.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sportswriter who spends her time shuttling between race tracks and hippie ranches. She’s covered every corner of motorsports she could set foot in, from 410 sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do even the slightest preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot skoolie with the goal of one day traveling the country full-time.
