After three weeks off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action in Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (8 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
That’s good news for reigning series champion Ty Majeski, whose victory at the 0.686-mile short track last year proved to be a springboard to the series championship.
Majeski added a win at Richmond and a runner-up finish from the pole at the Milwaukee Mile in his next two starts. After qualifying for the Championship 4, he won from the pole at Phoenix Raceway to secure the title.
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Majeski was fourth in the Truck Series standings when he came to IRP last year. This season, his position is considerably more tenuous. With three races left in the regular season, the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford is 10th on the potential playoff grid, just 38 points above the current elimination line.
Accordingly, the TSport 200 couldn’t come at a better time for the 30-year-old short-track ace from Seymour, Wisconsin, who won the prestigious Slinger Nationals super late model race in his native state on July 8 during the downtime for the Truck Series.
Watkins Glen International and Richmond Raceway follow Indianapolis, and that portion of the schedule bodes well for Majeski in an underwhelming year for ThorSport. Majeski is the only one of the organization’s drivers currently above the elimination line.
Jake Garcia is 11th, 38 points behind his champion teammate. Two-time title winner Ben Rhodes is 13th on the current playoff grid, 68 points out, and three-time champion Matt Crafton is 153 points down in 16th, needing a win in the next three races to advance to the 10-driver playoffs.