BUCHANAN, Wis. — Four-time ARCA Midwest Tour champion Ty Majeski returned to Wisconsin and defended his Gandrud Auto Group 250 victory in front of a large crowd on Tuesday night at Wisconsin Int’l Raceway.
The Seymour, Wis., native drove his familiar No. 91 to his second straight victory by holding off former NASCAR Canadian champion Cayden Lapcevich by 1.283 seconds.
Paul Shafer Jr. came back for another podium finish to round out the top three. Austin Nason and defending ARCA Midwest Tour Champion Casey Johnson rounded out the top five.
NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch finished sixth as he had a spirited battle with Johnson in the closing laps of the race.
Majeski, who was also the fast qualifier, started 13th after the invert for the main event. It only took him 45 laps before put his car at the top of the leaderboard. He would give up the lead on lap 68 for a pit stop and regain the top spot on a restart on lap 101.
He would continue to lead until a caution flew on lap 154 for a multi-car spin in turn four. He would come down to pit road along with all but four cars for the a final controlled pit stop and make a final adjustment for the run to the checkered flag.
It was on a restart on lap 205, when Majeski would battle the lead away from Shafer and hold him off again on a final restart on lap 214 to drive away to his second straight victory in the prestigious event that paid $10,000 to the winner.
“Everything went basically to plan,” Majeski said. “We caught the cautions at the right times. We had a game plan going into the race and didn’t have to use much of the race car coming up through the field.”
Lapcevich was very satisfied with his second-place run.
“We got a good group of guys here. We got good equipment and we had everything we needed to run good,” Lapcevich said. “I struggled to put runs together lately, and I think we did everything right here tonight. We maintained our track position, and it was really tough to pass, so that was big.”
Shafer was hoping to have something for Majeski. Even though he finished third, he was satisfied with his podium finish.
“Anytime I get a chance to be next to the 91 or start alongside him on the front row, I’m going to make it happen. I am going to give it hell and see what happens,” Shafer exclaimed. “We have run third three times here, and here we are again. We want to win, but third is not that bad.”
The finish:
Ty Majeski, Cayden Lapcevich, Paul Shafer Jr., Austin Nason, Casey Johnson, Kyle Busch, Justin Mondeik, Carson Hocevar, Dennis Prunty, Maxwell Schultz, Sammy Smith, Jonathan Eilen, Dalton Zehr, Johnny Sauter, Bobby Kendall, John Deangelis, Luke Fenhaus, Boris Jurkovic, Riccky Baker, Andy Monday, Derek Kraus, Bubba Pollard, Travis Braden, Brent Streika, Ryan Farrell, Rich Bickle Jr., Gabe Sommers, Grant Giesbach, R.J. Braun, Jeff Van Oudenhoven.