Ty Majeski Dominates NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Finale, Wins First Championship

Ty Majeski and his No. 98 Ford F-150 led 132 of 150 laps of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race to win both the event and the championship Friday night at Phoenix Raceway.

The 29-year-old Seymour, Wis., resident held off Championship 4 rivals Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, and Grant Enfinger, who all finished in the top five, with Nick Sanchez slipping in at No. 4 on the Avondale, Ariz., mile oval.

“There’s a lot of times it looks like a far dream, [but] it’s possible You just need to find a way to set yourself apart from everybody else,” polesitter Majeski said. “I did it by working in the shop. Started out as an engineer at ThorSport in 2021 with three or four races and didn’t know what it was going to turn into. And dammit, now we’re champions.”

It was the sixth of the past seven Craftsman Truck Series championships for the Ford Motor Company, including five straight. And it put an exclamation mark on the 2024 season, in which Ford racers in the series were winless to start but triumphed in five of the final nine. For ThorSport Racing, it was the sixth title in 11 years.

“Once we got ThorSport back at Ford, we knew we could do great things together,” Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports, said. “They want to win, and we want to give them the resources to win.”

Majeski’s crew chief, Joe Shear Jr., said, “We’re short-track aces. Short tracks are our forte. I take it personal. Ty gives me great feedback. He knows what he wants, and I try to give it to him. We’re making a good notebook together. It’s really hard to do. It’s rewarding after you do it. We’re going to get better and better.”

Heim, in the Tricon Garage Toyota, finished second, 3.945 seconds off Majeski’s pace. Christian Eckes – the No. 2 seed, the lone driver in the final quartet to be racing in his first Championship 4, and last year’s winner of this event – was third in his McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet.

“We’re going to move forward with our heads held high. We had a six-win season. We put together some incredible races,” Heim, 22, said after turning his front-row start into a noble effort to stop Majeski when he said he “just had nothing for the 98. He was so fast. They were unbelievably lights out. It’s hard to even be frustrated. Nothing to hang our heads about.”

Top seed Grant Enfinger, the veteran of the Championship 4 at age 39 with six playoff appearances, finished fifth. The CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet driver who narrowly missed earning his first championship last year and finished that season as runner-up called his effort a “disappointing performance.” He said he entered the showdown with “the right mindset and the right strategy” but “we just didn’t have the speed tonight. No regrets.”

The race, which included six cautions and a red flag on the 100th of 150 laps, was considerably tamer than last year’s debacle that saw four overtimes and 29 extra laps and drew criticism from racers, the sanctioning body, and fans.

The red flag came out on the 103rd lap, three after a backstretch melee that collected nine cars and knocked four of them from the race. They included William Sawalich, who was runner-up earlier in the day in ARCA Menard Series West race and who will be competing Saturday in the Xfinity title event.

NASCAR fined Majeski $12,500 earlier in the week for missing a scheduled media function Tuesday at its production headquarters at Concord, N.C., because he was voting in Wisconsin. But Allison Thorson, of ThorSport, defended her driver, saying, “Ty is a champion day in and day out. He’s a proud American, a great guy, happy to be here. We support him being an American citizen.”

Results

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race

Phoenix Raceway

1. (1) Ty Majeski (P), Ford, 150.

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