Ty Majeski, Ryan Preece Among the Victims of A Chaotic Slinger Nationals

Race winner Brad Mueller has seen his fair share of Slinger Nationals.

The 45th running on July 9 (Tuesday) stood out to him in one key way.

“It was the longest Nationals I could remember,” Mueller said. “My car was terrible the first half and I was struggling. I was like ‘come on let’s get this over with’ because I was tired of hanging on.”

Mueller came across the line second and was declared the winner after provisional winner Andrew Morrissey was disqualified in post-race tech. After the race, Mueller examined the battle scars on his No. 89 car, which at one point during the feature had sat backward in turn 1.

The three-time track champion was one of the lucky ones.

Only 12 of the 27 cars were still running one of the most chaotic Slinger Nationals in recent memory.

Defending champion and three-time Nationals winner Ty Majeski entered as the favorite with fast times throughout practice and qualifying. But his bid to go back-to-back was effectively over after six laps.

“Our car was really good tonight, probably one of the better cars I’ve had at Slinger in a long time,” Majeski said.

Majeski was collected in a multi-car crash that began with NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece — running for Kevin Harvick Incorporated in his first Nationals — bouncing off the frontstretch wall.

“I don’t know what happened,” Majeski said. “(Ryan) obviously just absolutely miscalculated where the wall was. He hit the wall hard enough where his right front tire came off the ground and stopped his momentum. I went to stop to miss him and the guy behind me couldn’t stop well enough and we just got caught up in a wreck. I know Ryan’s better than that. It’s just a bummer.”

Four-time Nationals champion Rich Bickle Jr. was among those damaged in the pileup. Bickle, out of retirement at 63 years old, set the fourth fastest qualifying time in a car that wasn’t finished being built until Tuesday morning. Gio Ruggiero, Austin Nason and Alex Prunty all fell out as well.

Preece would fall to the back and work his way into the top-10 on a restart with 55 laps to go. That’s when Jordan Devoy got loose and hooked Jeremy Lepak on the backstretch, setting off a crash that collected Preece, John DeAngelis, RJ Braun and Jesse Bernhagen. 

The cautions came rapidly in the early stages. Steve Apel, Levon Van Der Geest, DeAngelis and Willie Nelson would all bring out their own cautions in the first 27 laps.

When on-track incidents weren’t whittling down the field of contenders, mechanical issues played their part. Johnny Sauter, who struggled to find speed all day, retired on lap 52. Luke Fenhaus was running fourth when a power unit gave up under caution on lap 77. Grant Griesbach went from being an early frontrunner to another casualty after 109 laps.

The rash of cautions couldn’t save everyone, but some teams kept themselves in the game with pit repairs. Those that did saw major payoffs for their perseverance.

Apel brought out a caution on lap 8 with a spin that seemed night-ruining. The five-time track champion couldn’t immediately get refired and fell several laps down in the pits. But thankfully for Apel, a caution-filled event granted him plenty of free passes to finish on the lead-lap in fourth.

Braun managed to avoid major damage in the crash that ended Preece’s day and came home fifth. Devoy, who triggered said crash, finished 11th just one lap down.

Ryan Farrell brought out three cautions, including two in the final 80 laps. Farrell kept himself on the lead lap and finished seventh. Nelson, who started 23rd and spun in the early going, stuck around to finish ninth as the final car on the lead lap.

Throw in the post-race technical drama that carried into the early morning, and it was a long day for everyone at Slinger Speedway.

That even included Mueller, though there was still enough time at the end to celebrate his first Nationals victory in 29 tries.