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

Truck race results