KAUKAUNA, Wis. — Ty Majeski’s victory in Tuesday night’s Gandrud Auto Group 250 at Wisconsin International Raceway pushed him past Dick Trickle for the second-most victories in the history of the event that was first run in 1981.
Majeski now trails only Steve Carlson, who has won the traditional Tuesday night affair on seven occasions.
It was also the 38th victory for the five-time ASA Midwest Tour champion, following up his first win of the year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 19.
Fenhaus Back Out Front
Luke Fenhaus finished fourth, but made a strong showing as he led late in the 250-lap event, even having a three-second lead with 30 laps to go. A decision on a restart changed his result.
“For sure, we had them covered with 30 to go. And I was confident that nobody was gonna catch us,” Fenhaus recalled. “Then the yellow flew and I was gonna take the top because I still felt like we could’ve beat him (Majeski) fair and square on the top. But the team and I went back forth on the radio during the yellow and ended up choosing the bottom obviously and was just not the way we should’ve went.
“But we win as a team and we lose as the team. At the end of the day, it’s on me and I know better than to put myself in those spots.”
Late-Race Incident
Levon Van Der Geest, by far, had the fastest car in the final 20 laps of the race. The Kulwicki Development Driver finalist passed Majeski for second with 13 laps to go and had a great battle with Derek Kraus for the lead.
The two young guns were racing side-by-side keeping the fans on the edge of their seats with five laps to go, when it appeared that Van Der Geest hit a bump causing his rear tires to lift and his car bumped into Kraus causing Kraus to spin, bring out a caution. Both were sent to the rear of the field.
“Yeah, all I want to say is I believe neither me or Kraus did anything wrong at the end of the race. I ran my line and he did his job of pinching me down in the battle for a huge race like that,” Van Der Geest clarified. “I didn’t hit a bump like the article said, I ran the same like I ran every other lap. Me and Kraus weren’t banging doors. We just were racing close and we ended up jumping tires. It’s tough seeing everything you’ve ever wanted staring at you one lap and then the next having it all ripped away. We’ll rebound. We had the car to beat.”
Sommers Shares His Side
Defending ASA Midwest Tour Champion Gabe Sommers crossed the finish line first on Tuesday night, but was penalized for having an unapproved tire on his car.
In the event, teams were only allowed to use six tires, four to start and two extra. Any extra tires to be used would come with a one-lap penalty.
“It was a miscommunication on a tire,” Sommers confirmed. “They never docked us a lap when we went back out with the emergency spare. The plan was never to run back to the front, my car was wrecked. The front suspension was drug off from the flat tire. We didn’t have all the same parts but we put on what we could find.
“We were just gonna ride around and salvage the best finish we could. As we took the green after the restart, the car was a rocket and thought we really had something,” Sommers added. “We worked really hard the whole race and it just sucks what happened, but that’s in the past now and we are looking forward to Iowa next week.”
Shafer Surprised
Paul Shafer Jr., the 2021 Gandrud Auto Group 250 winner, admitted his day was up and down, but was pleased with his third-place finish.
“We were all a little surprised, but definitely glad that it turned out that way,” Shafer said. “Car and driver struggled most of the day, but we made some positive changes before the feature. In the race, I think we were pretty good, just struggled with a little bit of race craft things from a lack of seat time this year, but by the end of the race we wound up up front.”
A replay of the Gandrud Auto Group 250 can be found at tracktv.com.