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Ty Majeski Wins At Phoenix Raceway To Earn First NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship

by Hunter Thomas November 9, 2024 0 comments

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Ty Majeski dominated Friday night’s race at Phoenix Raceway to win his first-career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship.

Majeski outran runner-up finisher and NASCAR Playoff contender, Corey Heim by 3.945 seconds en route to his third win of the season. Majeski is a product of the simulation game, iRacing, and from there, he has methodically made his way up through the motorsports ranks. On Friday night, he led a race high of 132 laps, leading all by 18 laps.

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

“Joe (Shear Jr., crew chief) does a great job. He’s one bad dude when is he on his game, and there’s nobody I would rather go to battle with other than him to win a championship. So super proud of him and how he’s prepared our guys to rise to the occasion when it counted, and our pit stops were phenomenal tonight.”

In addition to three wins, Majeski ended the season with six poles, 10 top-five and 14 top-10 finished.

As for Heim who came up short, after winning Stage 1 and finishing second in Stage 2, he had to overcome a penalty and drive back to the front of the field. On Lap 98, Heim pulled out of line too soon on the restart and was penalized. The TRICON Garage driver very quickly made his way back to the front of the pack, but at the end of the night, he just wasn’t fast enough to keep pace with Majeski. Heim ended the season with six wins a pole and 14 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.

“Really disappointed to come up short like that,” Heim said. “It’s hard to even be upset. I did almost everything right except for that restart violation, 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 (Majeski) all day. He was so fast. You know, I’m just proud of myself for not driving through the fastest truck like I drove through last year by (Carson) Hocevar, and we’re going to go with our heads up high and a six-win season, career highs for myself, my team, organization, everybody. Just one spot short of the championship.”

Christian Eckes finished third on the track and in the Championship standings on Friday night. Eckes finished third in Stage 1 and fifth in Stage 2; however, he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Majeski or Heim. Throughout the season, Eckes earned four wins, 3 poles and 15 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes.

“Just didn’t have enough today,” Eckes “The 98 and 11 were just stronger than us. We threw a Hail Mary with the tires, and I thought for a second I would be able to catch them and just didn’t have enough.”

Nick Sanchez finished fourth, and rounding out the top-five was CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, who ended the year fourth in the Championship standings. Enfinger ended the 2024 season with two wins and eight top-five and 13 top-10 finishes.

“I feel like we came here with the right mindset, the right game plan, and honestly pretty much the right execution for the stuff in our control,” Enfinger said. “We just flat out didn’t have the speed tonight.”

Completing the top-10 at Phoenix was Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Ben Rhodes and Layne Riggs.

The caution flew on six occasions for 43 laps. The largest crash of the night occurred on Lap 100 in the final stage, and it involved nine trucks. Mosack ran out of room and pounded the outside wall coming out of Turn 2. A chain reaction ignited and trucks spun down the backstretch.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, for the Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway. The race will broadcast live on FS1.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images