Ty Majeski dominated the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season finale at Richmond Raceway on Saturday Night (July 29), but it was Carson Hocevar that ended the night in victory lane after pitting during the final stage of the race, catching Majeski and leading the final four laps.
This was Hocevar’s third win of season after leading 64 of the 250 laps. He enters the playoffs as the only driver to win thrice.
“I love it, we’ve won two of our competitor (Toyota and Ford) races and it sucked seeing our Worldwide Express trophy get handed to a Toyota and we had to take it home,” Hocevar told FOX Sports 1.
Majeski finished second, Zane Smith finished third and Jake Garcia scored a career-best finish of fourth. Matt Mills, driving in his first race for Kyle Busch Motorsports, also recorded a career-best result in fifth.
Corey Heim finished sixth and clinched the regular season championship. Matt Crafton finished seventh and clinched the final playoff spot. Nick Sanchez took eighth, Grant Enfinger crossed in ninth and William Sawalich rounded out the top 10.
Majeski led the 36-truck field to the green flag and led all 70 laps of the caution-free stage one. On the way to the win, he gapped second place by nine seconds. Majeski’s pit crew kept him up front with a fast pit stop, and he led the field to the green flag in stage two.
After a caution for Dean Thompson on lap 110, Heim took the lead from Majeski on the restart before a quick caution on lap 119 for Justin Carroll. Ben Rhodes joined the three-truck battle for the lead, moving to the front for four laps before Majeski took the lead back.
Majeski put together a five-second lead just 10 laps after passing Rhodes and easily swept the stages.
The No. 98 team won the race off pit road, but Majeski sped on pit road and moved rear of the field for the restart. That gave the lead to Rhodes until lap 150, when Hocevar took over the top spot.
During this time, Majeski put on a show as he drove from 18th to second in just over 40 laps. After being more than 10 seconds down, Majeski was less than two seconds behind Hocevar when the No. 42 truck pitted under green with 41 laps to go.
Hocevar found himself in command after pitting, as he ran Majeski down at a rapid pace. With four laps to go, Hocevar drove back to take the lead and the win.
Richmond Truck Race Results
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the playoffs on Friday, Aug. 11 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. You can watch the race on FS1 at 9 p.m. ET.
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Wishing Carson luck in the playoffs. Race clean.