NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Ty Majeski added another accomplishment to his storied Super Late Model resume on Tuesday evening.
A late restart provided Majeski the perfect opportunity to challenge ARCA Menards Series East competitor Luke Fenhaus for the win in the Slinger Nationals at Slinger Speedway. Majeski utilized the high line to overtake Fenhaus and score his third victory in the prestigious event.
Without the caution, Majeski admitted he would not have been able to catch Fenhaus but considered himself fortunate that circumstances worked out in his favor.
“Sometimes these races go your way and sometimes they don’t,” Majeski said. “Luke was probably a little bit better than us. His car was more versatile, and he could make up more time in lapped traffic. All it took was a yellow and a good restart. Thankfully we came out on top [on Tuesday].”
Like the rest of the 27-car field, Majeski was simply trying to keep up with Fenhaus after he took the lead from Austin Nason shortly before the halfway break.
Fenhaus, who won the Slinger Nationals in 2021, spent the second half of the event running at his own pace while facing no resistance from his competition. A second Slinger Nationals win for Fenhaus seemed all but assured until a caution for Levon Van Der Geest forced him to fend off Majeski in a shootout.
Although he admitted to using up his car trying to navigate through slower cars, Fenhaus believed choosing the bottom would be the ideal strategy to keep the lead. Fenhaus did not get the launch he wanted and shouldered responsibility for not capping off a stellar night with a victory.
“I just screwed up,” Fenhaus said. “I thought I did everything perfect with lapped cars, maintaining the pace that I did and keeping a nice gap. We just didn’t need a caution.”
For Majeski, Tuesday was about putting together a clean race after a dominant run in last year’s Slinger Nationals did not result in a win. He was proud of the hard work put in by his team to make his No. 91 stronger for 2023 but also commended Fenhaus for the way he battled him during the last restart.
“Usually we struggled on the outside [lane],” Majeski said. “We came with a different setup this year to try and fix that. Luke and I raced really hard last year, and this year was a lot cleaner on both of our parts.”
Majeski headlined a star-studded cast of drivers for Tuesday’s Slinger Nationals. Chase Elliott was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series driver in sixth while defending Slinger Nationals winner William Byron came home in 10th.
Other notable drivers in the Slinger Nationals included Erik Jones (11th), Derek Kraus (15th), Johnny Sauter (21st) and Matt Kenseth (22nd).