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Ty Majeski (No. 22 Crestliner Ford) scored his second consecutive ARCA Menards Series victory in come-from-behind fashion in Friday’s General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 at Pocono Raceway. Majeski trailed race leader Riley Herbst (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota) by nearly twenty seconds prior to the only caution of the afternoon but was able to stay in contact with him after the race went back green. Majeski was able to get off pit road quicker than Herbst with 12 laps remaining and was able to lead the rest of the way for the win.
“It’s all about being with the right people,” Majeski said. “Being with Chad Bryant and Paul Andrews has been incredible. They have put together a great team and the guys all work hard to make days like today happen.”
Majeski credited his final pit stop and the way he worked through lapped traffic for his win.
“Coming to pit road I thought I could have gotten a little more, but I maximized my speed,” he said. “I came into the box hot and got out pretty good. I knew it was going to be tough for the 18 to match that. I saw him leaving his pit and knew he would have to use the apron in turn one and I had a good head of steam going.”
“You don’t want to catch the lapped cars at the wrong time,” he said. “I tried to back myself up so I caught the lapped cars at the right time and it really helped.”
“Any seat time is good seat time,” Majeski said. “I don’t have a lot of seat time compared to some of the guys that are younger than I am. To be able to run races two weeks in a row is huge for me. We really hit it off well.”
Herbst dominated the first 68 laps of the day, leading by nearly twenty seconds before the caution waved for Bobby Gerhart’s stalled car. Once the race went back green, Herbst still led but Majeski was able to stay in contact, under one second behind. Herbst led as they came to the pits, Majeski on lap 67 and Herbst on lap 68, but Majeski was able to make up time and steal the lead as Herbst exited pit lane.
“I wish it was the fall race when it’s only 60 laps,” a dejected Herbst said. “We freed it up a lot and I couldn’t get the throttle down off one and three. He closed up there at the end and we put two tires on at the end and swung for the fence but I couldn’t make a run on him.”
“The 18 car has finished second a lot this season,” he said, referring to the second-place finishes for the team with himself driving at Talladega and Ty Gibbs driving at Pensacola and Toledo. “That’s good for the owner’s standpoint but I am here to win races and prove myself for the other ranks and I didn’t do that today.”
Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) finished third but had an adventurous day.
“We lost brakes with about 25 laps to go,” Eckes said. “We had a fast car but we fought balance all day. We took some swings and it and put ourselves in position to make a run at it but we lost a lot of time on pit road without any brakes.”
Raphael Lessard (No. 28 Thermal-Bois Cabinets Chevrolet) finished fourth and Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation/Southern States Bank Toyota) rounded out the top five.
Championship leader Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) fought an alternator issue that resulted in an eleventh-place finish.
Practice for the VizCom 200 at Michigan International Speedway is slated for 8 am ET on Friday, June 7, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 12 noon, with the 100-lap, 200-mile race slated to go green shortly after 6 pm ET. The race will be televised live on FS1. ARCA for Me members can access free live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live chat for all on-track sessions at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.