Cole Butcher Holds Off Ty Majeski for Winchester 400 Victory

Cole Butcher joined the list of Winchester 400 winners on Sunday, holding off Ty Majeski to win the 53rd Winchester 400 presented by Vores Welding and Steel.

Butcher took the lead with 59 laps to go in the marathon race when Wilson Motorsports teammate Gio Ruggiero suffered an engine failure from the top spot. From there, Butcher held strong out front on a day where attrition whittled down a field of 21 cars to just four lead-lap finishers.

Majeski, who had encountered his own mechanical issues nearly 250 of the race’s 400 laps, challenged Butcher in the closing laps, but ultimately Butcher was able to pull away for a special victory in one of Super Late Model racing’s crown jewel events.

“It would have been better if my wife and my baby boy were here,” said Butcher. “This is awesome. I can’t thank Wilson Motorsports enough. It was a rough weekend, to be honest. I didn’t know what we had going into this thing, but I knew Bond, Will, Jerry, Stump, Bob, Chase, Jonathan, Donnie Wilson, Dennis, James, everybody back at the shop, I know they put a hot rod under me. It’s a long race, and I knew I had given two of these away. This feels good.

“My little brother at home won a championship today, so it’s a special day for the Butchers. We’re going to celebrate this one.”

Along with Ruggiero’s issue and Majeski battling a car racing on seven cylinders for most of the final 100 laps, several contenders fell by the wayside throughout the demanding 400 laps at Winchester Speedway.

Pole-sitter Casey Roderick lost multiple laps on pit road under caution, and nearly made those back before a flat tire placed him in the wall over the final green flag run. Roderick ultimately finished fifth, seven laps down.

Stephen Nasse, a two-time winner of the Winchester 400, was called into the pits by race officials for leaking fluid on the race track, a harbinger of larger issues that ended his day after completing 110 laps.

“The 91 [of Majeski], I thought he was the car to beat all day,” said Butcher. “I know Casey [Roderick] and the 51 [of Nasse] had some failures and Gio, whatever happened to him. Thanks to everyone for racing me clean. The right side of this one’s clean for once at Winchester.”

Majeski was pleased to bring home a runner-up finish while down on horsepower to close out the Winchester 400.

“I don’t think we totally fixed it,” said Majeski. “We were on seven-ish cylinders with a heavy miss there at the end. Super disappointed, but very thankful for everybody from Michael Hinde Racing, Chris Cater and their whole crew. It was a pleasure to drive this thing, it was a lot of fun.

“I love coming to this racetrack. This is the most badass race track in America. It’s fun to have the opportunity to come here and drive a great race car. Congrats to the 28 team, they’re always tough. I really think we had the dominant car today. Half the battle in this race is attrition, getting it to the end and having a 100 percent car to race with at the end. We just were not quite there today.”

Kyle Steckly finished third, joining Butcher to put a pair of Canadian drivers on the podium for the Winchester 400.

“We just kept working on it,” said Steckly. “We were 17th and 14th yesterday, so big improvements. This Rette Jones Racing team kept working hard. I was driving it for all it had, for sure. We survived all 400 laps, which was our main goal. It gave us a good finish in third.”

Chase Pinsonneault was another Canadian driver in the top-five, coming home in the fourth position as the last car on the lead lap.

Along with the aforementioned issues, a multi-car incident on lap 142 ended the day early for several competitors. The accident started with contact between Michael Hinde and Gavan Boschele. Hinde, Jake Garcia, Logan Bearden and Dawson Sutton fell out of the race following the turn one melee.

The Winchester 400 marked the penultimate race of the 2024 ASA STARS National Tour season. The ASA STARS National Tour wraps up its 2024 season at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with the All American 400 on November 1-3.

-Photo credit: Reid Scott, Liberty Racing Review

53rd Winchester 400 presented by Vores Welding & Steel Unofficial Results