Ty Majeski Dominates on Path to Phoenix Win, NASCAR Truck Championship
By trade, Ty Majeski is as talented of a short track racer that you'll find anywhere. While the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway is maybe not technically short track length, a lot of the characteristics within the track layout garner comparisons to short tracks across the country.
When it mattered most, the 30-year-old Majeski kept his foot on the floor, and never relented as he started from the pole in Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race, won Stage 2, led 132 of the 150 laps, and ultimately cruised to the win by a margin of 3.945 seconds over Corey Heim, who notched a series-high six wins this season.
"I can't believe it," Majeski exclaimed. "A huge thank you to Duke and Rhonda Thorson, Joe Shear, Jr. He's one bad dude. This is so much fun racing with this group. So proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks."
It was an emphatic victory, and it was one of the patented stompings that the Wisconsin native achieved working his way up through the Kulwicki Driver Development Program on his path to becoming one of the most prolific local short track racers of all-time.
Now, he's a NASCAR National Series champion. What a night, and what a turnaround it's been for Majeski, who nearly saw his NASCAR aspirations flame out after subpar stints with Roush in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Niece Motorsports in the NASCAR Truck Series.
"Man, you know, there's a lot of times in my career where this looks like a far dream, and Duke and Rhonda really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities I failed. Man, I can't thank them enough. My wife, Ali, been there every step of the way. Man, we have had a lot of ups and downs, and just so proud of these guys.
While it was a joyous moment for Majeski, who captured the title after missing out in the Championship 4 a couple of seasons ago, it was another disappointing end to an otherwise dominant season for TRICON Garage's Heim.
Early in the race, it looked like perhaps Friday night would be Heim's time to shine. The driver of the No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra was the only driver who had a truck that looked able to contend with Majeski, and near the end of the opening Stage of the race, Heim actually worked his way around Majeski for the race lead.
Heim would go on to lead the final nine laps of the Stage and would take the Stage 1 win. However, over the final 102 trips around the 1-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona, Heim only led six more laps. Part of that was because of a late-race restart violation penalty, which sent Heim to the rear of the field,
When his team radioed that he was being penalized, Heim admits he was really frustrated in the moment.
"Yeah, I guess surprised would be the best way to put it. I was really frustrated at first because I didn't really understand," Heim explained. "I haven't really seen a replay of it yet, so I guess I'll have to go look at it. But it's hard for me to sit here an criticize without ever seeing it. It's just an instictual reaction for me to just go for it."
Looking back on how things turned out, Heim isn't sure if he avoided the restart penalty that he would have been able to do anything with Majeski. He was just that good on Friday night.
"Probably not. They were unbelievably lights out the whole race," Heim admitted. "From the get-go, I felt like I fired off pretty free in Stage 1. I was able to reel him back in. He seemed to struggle in traffic a little bit. Once they adjusted on it, and once the cautions started cycling to the point where we never really hit any lapped traffic, it was about over for me."
"It's hard to even be frustrated, you know? It's like what could I even do at that point? But super proud of everyone at TRICON Garage, Toyota Racing, and Safelite, they've put together a phenomenal 2024 campaign. Nothing to hang our heads about."
Joining Heim on the losing side of the Championship 4 battle were Christian Eckes, who came home in the third position, and Grant Enfinger, who finished fifth.
For Eckes, this was his final race with the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team as he will move to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing in 2025. Eckes, who found himself on fresher tires than Majeski in the closing laps, was able to knife his way through the field, but by the time the tires equalized out, Eckes could only work his way to the third position.
Eckes never got a chance to showcase his aggressive driving style, which took him the win last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, but the New York native has no regrets after his Championship 4 bid.
"I mean, I really -- we still lost the championship no matter what.," Majeski said when asked if he had regret about not being able to get to Majeski to shove past him. "The 11 beat us. Yeah, no regrets."
By winning two races in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs, Enfinger was able to have the No. 1 pit stall on Friday night, which is typically a massive advantage at Phoenix Raceway. However, ahead of this weekend's action, NASCAR extended the pit road exit line in an attempt to even out some of the advantage that comes with the first pit stall.
Enfinger says he still felt a slight advantage in having the pit stall, but conceded that it didn't give them enough of an advantage to win the race.
"Maybe a small advantage, but obviously not as much as it was in years past," Enfinger said. "I heard a few people were, but I was having difficulty getting in and leaving our box, just slicker than normal, slicker than I remember here.
"Yeah, I still think pit stall 1 was an advantage, but we were twisting on jack bolts the whole time and really couldn't utilize our really, really good pit crew. Appreciate them all year long. Wish we could have taken more advantage of them tonight."
Nick Sanchez was the highest non-Playoff driver in the running order as the driver of the No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet Silverado finished fourth.
Tayor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Ben Rhodes, and Layne Riggs rounded out the top-10 finishers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.