For the second year in a row, the Slinger Nationals came down to a Luke Fenhaus, Ty Majeski restart, but one of them would actually win it this year.
Majeski capitalized on a caution with four laps to go, taking the lead for the first time on the ensuing restart and driving away to his third victory in the marquee event at Slinger Super Speedway in Wisconsin.
Levon Van Der Geest suffered a mechanical failure and came to a stop in Turn 1, erasing a roughly one second lead from Fenhaus over Majeski. Fenhaus had extended the lead through lapped traffic and had the race won if not for the ill-timed incident.
Well, ill-timed for him, as it was quite fortuitous for Majeski.
“I came over the radio and said, ‘oh yeah, that’s what I needed,’ because I was going to run second to him tonight,” Majeski said. “His car was a little more versatile in traffic. He could make more speed than me but in open track, we just matched.
“When we got to second, it was almost the same differential in the run from Lap 15 to 95 but his was a little more versatile. Just as a driver, you want that opportunity to get alongside someone because I’ve lost races that way too, and you just want the chance to get one back.”
Fenhaus chose the bottom on the restart, giving Majeski the top, but it was a no-win scenario in his estimation after they came together in a similar predicament last year and wrapped William Byron a victory in the prestigious race.
“We raced how we raced last year and it wasn’t that way this year, thankfully,” Fenhaus. “But I thought, it I took the top, I wasn’t going to leave with a clean car. That’s just how we race. You come to Slinger, where it’s so hard and tight that you’re going to come together but we didn’t tonight. He was in position to win it and he did.”
This is the third race at Slinger that Fenhaus has lost in disappointing fashion between SRX in 2021, last year at the Nationals and on Tuesday.
“It’s happened multiple times,” Fenhaus said. “We won a weekly show here and thought I got it out of the system, executed well all year and thought I scrubbed the tires well tonight, thought it was perfect, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
It was meant to be in 2018, 2020 and now 2023 for Majeski.
“Listen, I thought we had the dominant car the last two years here,” Majeski said. “It’s fun to dominate and smoke everyone but as a driver, I think we take pride in winning when you don’t have the very best car. I know my favorite Rattler 250 was 2017 when Harrison Burton had the best car and I got him on a late restart, and it’s another one of those races where it wasn’t the best car, but we found a way to get it done at the end of the day.
Derek Thorn, John DeAngelis and Austin Nason completed the top-five.
Chase Elliott finished sixth in his Slinger Speedway debut. His Cup Series teammate, Byron, finished 10th in a return trip with Anthony Campi Racing. Erik Jones overcame racing his way into the field via the LCQ and a crash early in the race with a 11th place finish.
Matt Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion and eight-time Slinger Nationals champion finished 22nd with an electrical issue on Lap 64.
Slinger Nationals
Slinger Super Speedway
July 12 2023
- Ty Majeski
- Luke Fenhaus
- Derek Thorn
- John DeAngelis
- Austin Nason
- Chase Elliott
- Steve Apel
- Levon Van Der Geest
- Brad Mueller
- William Byron
- Erik Jones
- Stephen Nasse
- Gio Ruggiero
- Jacob Nottestad
- Derek Kraus
- Dennis Prunty
- William Sawalich
- Rich Loch
- Grant Griesbach
- Alex Prunty
- Johnny Sauter
- Matt Kenseth
- Conner Jones
- Conrad Morgan
- Brad Keith
- RJ Braun
- Ryan DeStefano
