Majeski leaves no doubt at Phoenix finale

Ty Majeski crosses the finish line to win Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. The win also gave Majeski the 2024 Truck Series season championship. Photo by David Barks.

Ty Majeski dominates the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 2024 Championship Race

AVONDALE, Ariz.— Ty Majeski started from the pole. He ended in Victory Lane.

The 29-year-old from Seymour, Wis., dominated Friday night, Nov. 9, at Phoenix Raceway to win his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season championship.

Ty Majeski (98) leads Christian Ekes (19), and Corey Heim (11) during Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Majeski won the race and the season championship. Heim finished second and Eckes third. Photo by David Barks.

Majeski led an eye-popping 132 of the race’s 150 laps over the raceway’s 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval in the south Phoenix suburb of Avondale.

Just three drivers ever held the lead – Majeski, Corey Heim (twice for a total of 16 laps), and Grant Enfinger (twice; one lap each time).

In NASCAR’s unique playoff format, only four drivers were eligible to win the championship – Majeski, Heim, Enfinger, and Christian Eckes.

None of them had to win the race. The championship would go to whoever finished the highest in the winner-take-all season finale.

The consensus, however, was that one of these men would have to win Friday night to secure his first NASCAR title.

After the evening’s sixth caution, Majeski slowly pulled away from the field for a 3.945-second victory in his ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 over Heim with Eckes another 6.520 seconds back in third.

Nick Sanchez finished fourth, followed by Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, 2023 truck champion and Majeski’s ThorsSport teammate Ben Rhodes, and Layne Riggs.

Corey Heim (11) crosses the finish line for second place just ahead of Christian Eckes (19) in third during Friday night’s NASCAR Truck Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Photo by David Barks.

“I can’t believe it,” said Majeski, who won for the first time at Phoenix, the third time this season at the sixth time in his career. “Huge thank you to (ThorSport team owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson, (crew chief) Joe Shear Jr.—he’s one bad dude.

“This is so much fun racing with this group. I’m so proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. There’s a lot of times in my career when this looked like a far dream. Duke and Rhonda really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities that failed — man, I can’t thank them enough.”

ThorSport has won three of the last four series titles. It was the team’s sixth Truck Series title, a series record, adding to the three earned by Tulare, CA’s Matt Crafton, and two by Rhodes.

Crew Chief Shear now has two series championships, his first with Johnny Sauter and GMS RaCING IN 2016.

“It feels good. Probably the best feeling in the world. I don’t even know what to say. I’m just overwhelmed. I’ve got great people around me, great family that owns the stuff, great sponsors,” Said Shear. “I’m proud to be here. This is hard to do, and I got two of them now, and it’s really hard to do. We had a really good truck tonight.”

Heim was Majeski’s only serious challenger but he put himself in a hole with a restart violation after the fourth caution sent him back to 19th place on Lap 108.

Heim couldn’t catch Majeski. He got close but finished second.

“I’m really disappointed to come up short like that,” said Heim, a 22-year-old from Marietta, GA. “It’s hard to even be upset. I did almost everything right except for that restart violation (changing lanes before the start/finish line). But we were able to get our track position back pretty quick and make the most of it. I just had nothing for the 98. All day, he was so fast… We’ll move forward with our heads up high, a six-win season—career highs for myself, my team, organization, everybody—just one spot short of the championship.”

Ty Majeski carries the champion’s flag around the track after winning the season title Friday night at Phoenix Raceway. Photo by David Barks.

It was a two-man race from the start.

Majeski dominated the opening laps until he started lapping the field.

That traffic jam gave Heim his chance to battle for the lead.

Heim grabbed it on Lap 39 of the scheduled 45-lap first stage and held on for the stage win.

The stage ended under caution on lap 42 after Frankie Muniz’s Ford went into a spin after contact with William Sawalich’s Toyota.

Majeski reclaimed the lead with the fastest pit stop during the stage break.

Eckes lined up second, and Heim, after sliding into his pit box caused a slow pit stop, came out third.

Heim could be heard on the team radio channel that the concrete pit stall was one of the slickest he had ever experienced.

After Jack Wood hit the wall, bringing out the night’s second caution, Heim moved back into the lead on the restart but Majeski was back out front four laps later and then cruised to the Stage 2 win. 

Before the final green-flag run, there were three quick cautions — including a six-minute, nine-second red flag for a nine-truck wreck on the backstretch.

After Majeski took the bead on the final restart, the ThorSport racer was off to his first career season crown.

“We were super dominant tonight,” said Majeski. “Fell off a little bit on the long run on the first run of the race in Stage 1. Corey was able to get by me, but we made one small change and, yeah, propelled us to victory.

“The last thing I wanted to see (at the end) was a yellow, but throughout the race, I felt like no matter what happened we had a truck capable of fending off any type of challenger. In preparation for this race, I put a lot of emphasis on restarts because I felt like that’s where the last two championships were decided, was on restarts.

“So put a lot of emphasis on that. Watched a lot of in-car cam from the Championship 4 last year and two years ago on what I could have done different in 2022 and how Ben (Rhodes) won the championship last year. Just trying to perfect those restarts. That’s where races are won and lost in the Truck Series.

“Track position is so important. I think Corey got me maybe on one restart. I don’t know how many restarts we had when I was the leader, but yeah, he got me on one of them. I was able to get him back and clean track.

“Track position is king. We were able to hold on to a strong lead at the end of the race.”

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship

Phoenix Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

Friday, November 8, 2024

  1. (Started 1)  Ty Majeski (P), Ford, 150 laps completed.
  2. (2)  Corey Heim (P), Toyota, 150.
  3. (4)  Christian Eckes (P), Chevrolet, 150.
  4. (7)  Nick Sanchez, Chevrolet, 150.
  5. (5)  Grant Enfinger (P), Chevrolet, 150.
  6. (14)  Taylor Gray, Toyota, 150.
  7. (8)  Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 150.
  8. (9)  Connor Mosack, Chevrolet, 150.
  9. (20)  Ben Rhodes, Ford, 150.
  10. (11)  Layne Riggs #, Ford, 150.
  11. (15)  Tanner Gray, Toyota, 150.
  12. (10)  Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 150.
  13. (19)  Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 150.
  14. (27)  Jake Garcia, Ford, 150.
  15. (6)  Dean Thompson, Toyota, 150.
  16. (24)  Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, 150.
  17. (13)  Conner Jones #, Ford, 150.
  18. (3)  Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 150.
  19. (22)  Matt Crafton, Ford, 150.
  20. (25)  Dawson Sutton, Chevrolet, 150.
  21. (18)  Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 150.
  22. (29)  Timmy Hill, Toyota, 150.
  23. (23)  Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 149.
  24. (16)  Daniel Dye, Chevrolet, 149.
  25. (28)  Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 148.
  26. (33)  Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, 147.
  27. (34)  Thad Moffitt #, Chevrolet, 147.
  28. (30)  Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 146.
  29. (32)  Keith McGee, Ford, 146.
  30. (35)  Lawless Alan, Ford, 146.
  31. (26)  Andres Perez de Lara, Chevrolet, Accident, 99.
  32. (17)  William Sawalich, Toyota, Accident, 98.
  33. (12)  Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, Accident, 98.
  34. (31)  Frankie Muniz, Ford, Accident, 95.
  35. (21)  Jack Wood, Chevrolet, Accident, 58.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  86.276 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 44 Mins, 19 Secs.

Margin of Victory:  3.945 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  6 for 43 laps.

Lead Changes:  7 among 3 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   T. Majeski (P) 1-38;C. Heim (P) 39-48;G. Enfinger (P) 49;T. Majeski (P) 50-64;C. Heim (P) 65-70;T. Majeski (P) 71-93;G. Enfinger (P) 94;T. Majeski (P) 95-150.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ty Majeski (P) 4 times for 132 laps; Corey Heim (P) 2 times for 16 laps; Grant Enfinger (P) 2 times for 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,98,19,2,9,5,7,38,66,52

Stage #2 Top Ten: 98,11,38,2,19,7,9,17,52,99

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