The official 2024 TSport 200 NASCAR TRUCK Series entry list features top NASCAR drivers set to compete at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, highlighting the full lineup of race participants and teams.
Friday, July 19th, 2024
Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indianapolis, IN
Justifiably, there will be two primary areas of focus as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series visits Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Friday night’s TSport 200.
The first will be the front of the field. The second will be the Playoff cut line, and, of course, the two areas may intersect.
Ty Majeski will try to defend the dominating victory he scored at LOIRP last year after leading 179 of 200 laps. He beat runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 3.422 seconds at the 0.686-mile short track.
With two races left before the Truck Series Playoff field is set, Majeski is securely 125 points above the cutoff (needing just three points on Friday to clinch a berth in the postseason), but the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford has scored just five top fives and no wins in 14 races this season.
Also hoping for excellent results on Friday are four “bubble” drivers clustered around the current cut line.
Defending series champion Ben Rhodes is 18 points to the good entering Friday’s race and far from a certainty when it comes to qualifying for the 10-driver Playoffs field. Tenth-place Daniel Dye is in a more perilous position, leading 11th-place Tanner Gray by a single point.
Stewart Friesen is four points behind Dye in 12th, all but assuring a wild scramble for the final two Playoff spots at LOIRP and Richmond Raceway, where the final regular-season race will take place on Aug. 10.
Ty Majeski’s victory in Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park wasn’t the sort of dominating performance he enjoyed last year—until the final stage of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race.
Majeski overcame a restart violation on Lap 50 that sent him to the rear of the field but rallied to defend his 2023 victory at the 0.686-mile short track. The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford earned his first victory of the season and the fourth of his career.
Majeski, who swept the stages and led 179 laps in last year’s win, was penalized for jumping the restart after the first caution of the race for Ty Dillon’s spin in Turn 3 on Lap 43. He scored no points in Stage 1, but by the time the second stage ended, Majeski had charged to third.
Sixteen laps after the restart for the final stage, Majeski took the lead for the first time, using the lapped truck of Thad Moffitt as a pick and charging past Eckes through Turns 1 and 2.
The Seymour, Wisconsin, driver led the final 56 of 200 laps and took the checkered flag 4.129 seconds ahead of Eckes.
“It’s huge,” Majeski said. “Obviously, I made a little bit of a mistake. It was probably a little bit of a close call on that restart. I had to pony up and get it back. Obviously, when you make a mistake as a driver, you drive a little bit harder to make up for it, but these guys had my back—awesome pit stops.
“It’s been an up-and-down year. We’ve had the speed to win. Just haven’t been able to put it together, had some bad luck along the way, some of it self-inflicted. But, man, so proud of this Road Ranger group.”
Grant Enfinger finished third after leading 71 laps. Tyler Ankrum was fourth, followed by Layne Riggs, Sammy Smith, Luke Fenhaus, pole winner Rajah Caruth, Dean Thompson and Nick Sanchez.
Fenhaus’ seventh-place result was his best in three Truck Series starts.
By the time he took the checkered flag, Majeski already had clinched a Playoff spot on points, leaving three berths still available in the postseason, with the Aug. 10 race at Richmond left to decide the final Playoff grid.
With a 20th-place finish on Friday, Tanner Gray took over the 10th and final Playoff-eligible position from Daniel Dye, who came home 27th after an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 81. Dye trails Gray by five points entering the last regular-season race.
Five-time race winner Corey Heim finished 17th, a lap down, after contact from Eckes’ No. 19 Chevrolet cut his left-front tire and forced him to the pits under caution on Lap 88. Forced to use his last set of tires prematurely, Heim finished second in Stage 2 on the fresh rubber but faded in the final stage.
“I just misjudged the straightaway,” said Eckes, who led a race-high 73 laps. “He’s got every right to be mad.”
Eckes retained the series lead by 50 points over second-place Heim.
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | Johnny Sauter | Necedah, WI | May 1, 1978 | 46 | Toyota | AISIN | Hattori Racing Enterprises | Richard Wauters |
2 | 9 | Grant Enfinger | Fairhope, AL | Jan 22, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | Champion Power Equipment | CR7 Motorsports | Jeff Stankiewicz |
3 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Tulare, CA | Jun 11, 1976 | 48 | Ford | Dutch Boy/Menards | ThorSport Racing | Jeriod Prince |
4 | 56 | Timmy Hill | Port Tobacco, MD | Feb 25, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | Units Storage | Hill Motorsports | Terry Elmore |
5 | 25 | Ty Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Feb 27, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Rackley Roofing | Rackley W.A.R | Shane Wilson |
6 | 45 | Ross Chastain | Alva, FL | Dec 4, 1992 | 31 | Chevrolet | Alliance Highway Safety | Niece Motorsports | Phil Gould |
7 | 41 | Bayley Currey | Driftwood, TX | Oct 29, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | Niece | Niece Motorsports | Cody Efaw |
8 | 76 | Spencer Boyd | Creve Coeur, MO | Jun 26, 1995 | 29 | Chevrolet | KIR Ammo.com | Freedom Racing Enterprises | Mike Hillman Jr. |
9 | 42 | Matt Mills | Lynchburg, VA | Nov 14, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | J.F. Electric/Utilitra | Niece Motorsports | Jon Leonard |
10 | 02 | Mason Massey | Douglasville, GA | Jan 24, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | BRUNT | Young's Motorsports | Trip Bruce III |
11 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario | Jul 25, 1983 | 40 | Toyota | Halmar International | Halmar Friesen Racing | Jimmy Villeneuve |
12 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | Louisville, KY | Feb 21, 1997 | 27 | Ford | Campers Inn RV | ThorSport Racing | Doug Randolph |
13 | 18 | Tyler Ankrum | San Bernardino, CA | Mar 6, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | LiUNA! | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Mark Hillman |
14 | 19 | Christian Eckes | MIddletown, NY | Nov 10, 2000 | 23 | Chevrolet | NAPA Auto Care | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Charles Denike |
15 | 77 | Chase Purdy | Meridian, MS | Nov 11, 1999 | 24 | Chevrolet | Bama Buggies | Spire Motorsports | Jason Trinchere |
16 | 98 | Ty Majeski | Seymour, WI | Aug 18, 1994 | 29 | Ford | Road Ranger | ThorSport Racing | Joe Shear Jr |
17 | 15 | Tanner Gray | Artesia, NM | Apr 15, 1999 | 25 | Toyota | Bucket Boss | TRICON Garage | Jerame Donley |
18 | 44 | Conor Daly | Noblesville, IN | Dec 15, 1991 | 32 | Chevrolet | Power Plus | Niece Motorsports | Wally Rogers |
19 | 11 | Corey Heim | Marietta, GA | Jul 5, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | Safelite | TRICON Garage | Scott Zipadelli |
20 | 33 | Lawless Alan | Los Angeles, CA | Feb 2, 2000 | 24 | Ford | AUTOChargit | Reaume Brothers Racing | Doug George |
21 | 5 | Dean Thompson | Anaheim, CA | Aug 30, 2001 | 22 | Toyota | Thompson Pipe Group | TRICON Garage | Derek Smith |
22 | 32 | Bret Holmes | Munford, AL | May 5, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Best Value Carriers | Bret Holmes Racing | Mike Shiplett |
23 | 91 | Jack Wood | Loomis, CA | Aug 7, 2000 | 23 | Chevrolet | Children's Museum Indianapolis | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Kevin Bellicourt |
24 | 17 | Taylor Gray | Denver, NC | Mar 25, 2005 | 19 | Toyota | JBL | TRICON Garage | Jeff Hensley |
25 | 46 | Thad Moffitt | Trinity, NC | Sep 12, 2000 | 23 | Chevrolet | Tasty Duck | Young's Motorsports | Tyler Young |
26 | 2 | Nicholas Sanchez | Miami, FL | Jun 10, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | Gainbridge | Rev Racing | Kevin Manion |
27 | 71 | Rajah Caruth | Atlanta, GA | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Spire Motorsports | Chad Walter |
28 | 13 | Jake Garcia | Monroe, GA | Mar 3, 2005 | 19 | Ford | Quanta Services | ThorSport Racing | Rich Lushes |
29 | 7 | Sammy Smith | Johnston, IA | Jun 4, 2004 | 20 | Chevrolet | Golden Harvest | Spire Motorsports | Brian Pattie |
30 | 38 | Layne Riggs | Bahama, NC | Jun 11, 2002 | 22 | Ford | Long John Silver's | Front Row Motorsports | Dylan Cappello |
31 | 04 | Marco Andretti | Nazareth, PA | Mar 13, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | Group 1001 | Roper Racing | Bruce Cook |
32 | 43 | Daniel Dye | DeLand, Florida | Dec 4, 2003 | 20 | Chevrolet | Bettenhausen Automotive | McAnally Hilgemann Racing | Blake Bainbridge |
33 | 1 | William Sawalich | Eden Prairie, MN | Oct 3, 2006 | 17 | Toyota | Starkey/Soundgear | TRICON Garage | Seth Smith |
34 | 66 | Luke Fenhaus | Wausau, WI | Apr 8, 2004 | 20 | Ford | Soda Sense | ThorSport Racing | Josh Hankish |
35 | 22 | Tyler Tomassi | West Greenwich, RI | Jul 16, 2003 | 21 | Ford | Levrack | Reaume Brothers Racing | Pedro Lopez |