Ty Gibbs, Ty Majeski tie up lower series in Indy

It has been a good weekend so far for drivers named Ty in Indianapolis. On Friday, Ty Majeski dominated the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff opener at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The following day, Ty Gibbs did the same in the Xfinity Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Majeski started second at IRP but took the lead from pole sitter Christian Eckes on lap 4. After Corey Heim took the lead shortly after a restart on lap 22 for Greg Van Alst‘s wreck, Majeski claimed the spot on lap 40 and never looked back. Van Alst’s retirement in his Truck début continues a dubious national series entry for the ARCA Daytona winner, havin galso finished last due to a crash in his maiden Xfinity race at Atlanta in June; on the bright side, he is racing for Young’s Motorsports for the rest of the Truck season and thus has plenty of chances to rebound.

At the front, Majeski led 179 of 200 laps and won both stages. Besides a strong way to begin the playoffs, Majeski also redeemed himself after a late tyre failure doomed him in the 2022 race. Fittingly, the race is sponsored by TSport, owned by Majeski’s team ThorSport Racing.

“We’re peaking at the right time. This is exactly when we peaked last year, and it looks like we’re trending in the same direction,” said Majeski. “Hopefully, this is just the start of our playoff run. We want to go and win Milwaukee, that’s my home race, go win Kansas. We’ve had great trucks at all those places. Milwaukee, we’re going back to for the first time, but Kansas, it’s been a good track for us. Bristol and Homestead we’ve won, and Phoenix we’re in the mix to the end. That’s the end goal.”

About a twenty-minute drive away, Gibbs and fellow Cup regular A.J. Allmendinger dominated the IMS road course as they combined to lead all but thirteen laps. Allmendinger won Stages #1 and #2 but Gibbs took the lead on the final restart, set up by a caution for Andre Castro, with seventeen laps remaining. The win is the reigning Xfinity champion’s seventh in the series and fourth on a road course.

The race was briefly stopped for lightning after just eight laps.

“It’s really cool,” said Gibbs. “I raced go-karts right down the street with a bunch of kids, some of them are in IndyCar now, we’re all adjusting to this level, so really special.”

Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, and Ty Dillon will hope to complete the weekend sweep for their name on Sunday in the Cup Series race.

Xfinity race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	19	Ty Gibbs*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	62	Running
2	15	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
3	1	10	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
4	4	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
5	13	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
6	6	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	62	Running
7	12	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	62	Running
8	9	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
9	21	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	62	Running
10	23	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	62	Running
11	26	35	Alex Labbé	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	62	Running
12	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	62	Running
13	8	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	62	Running
14	3	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
15	27	45	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
16	14	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
17	24	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
18	19	36	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
19	20	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
20	29	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
21	25	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
22	22	88	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
23	32	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
24	11	50	Preston Pardus	Pardus Racing	Chevrolet	62	Running
25	35	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	62	Running
26	16	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	62	Running
27	5	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	61	Running
28	17	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	61	Running
29	33	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	61	Running
30	36	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	61	Running
31	38	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	60	Running
32	30	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	57	Suspension
33	34	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	57	Running
34	18	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	56	Suspension
35	37	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Axle
36	28	34	Andre Castro	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	39	Suspension
37	7	91	Ross Chastain*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	38	Suspension
38	31	53	Brad Pérez	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	24	Brakes
DNQ		08	Camden Murphy	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ		44	Conor Daly*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		66	Will Rodgers*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ		07	Colin Garrett*	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet

Truck race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	200	Running
2	1	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	12	7	Layne Riggs	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	5	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	8	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	200	Running
6	10	1	William Sawalich	TRICON Garage	Toyota	200	Running
7	4	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	3	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	200	Running
9	13	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	200	Running
10	24	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	9	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	6	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	7	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
14	22	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	19	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	200	Running
16	21	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	200	Running
17	20	61	Jake Drew	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	200	Running
18	23	51	Jack Wood^	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
19	28	41	Shane Van Gisbergen	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
20	34	17	Taylor Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	199	Running
21	26	22	Logan Bearden	AM Racing	Ford	199	Running
22	15	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
23	17	02	Matt Mills	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
24	36	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
25	32	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
26	30	56	Tyler Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	197	Running
27	18	66	Conner Jones	ThorSport Racing	Ford	196	Running
28	29	04	Landen Lewis	Roper Racing	Ford	196	Running
29	33	30	Chris Hacker	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	195	Running
30	14	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	183	Running
31	25	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	140	Accident
32	11	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	130	Accident
33	31	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	128	Accident
34	35	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	127	Electrical
35	16	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	79	Suspension
36	27	20	Greg Van Alst	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	14	Accident
DNQ		33	Josh Reaume	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford
DNQ		44	Chad Chastain	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		46	Armani Williams	G2G Racing	Toyota