Ty Majeski dominates en route to Phoenix victory in the NASCAR Truck Championship

By trade, Ty Majeski is as talented a short track racer as you’ll find anywhere. Although the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway may not technically be a short track, many features of the track’s layout make it comparable to short tracks across the country.

When it mattered most, Majeski, 30, kept his foot on the ground and never gave up as he started from the pole in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race, won the second stage, led 132 of the 150 laps and… In the end, he secured the win by 3.945 seconds over Corey Heim, who has six wins this season, the most in the series.

“I can’t believe it,” Majeski exclaimed. “A big thank you to Duke and Rhonda Thorson, Joe Shear, Jr. He’s a bad guy. It’s so much fun racing with this group. I’m so proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks.”

It was a stunning victory and one of the patented achievements the Wisconsin native achieved on his way through the Kulwicki Driver Development Program to become one of the most prolific local short track racers of all time.

Now he is a NASCAR National Series champion. What a night and what a turnaround it was for Majeski, who ended his NASCAR ambitions in NASCAR after subpar stints with Roush

“Man, you know, there are a lot of times in my career where this seems like a distant dream, and Duke and Rhonda really gave me my third chance after two chances that I didn’t have. Man, I can’t thank them enough.” My wife Ali was there every step of the way. Man, we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs and we’re just so proud of these guys.

While it was a joyous moment for Majeski, who won the title after missing out on Championship 4 a few seasons ago, it was another disappointing end to an otherwise dominant season for TRICON Garage’s Heim.

At the start of the race it looked like Heim might shine on Friday night. The driver of the No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra was the only driver who had a truck that could keep up with Majeski, and toward the end of the opening stage of the race, Heim actually worked his way past Majeski and took the lead.

Heim would lead the final nine laps of the stage and secure victory on the first stage. However, in the final 102 trips around the 1-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona, Heim only led six laps. That was due in part to a penalty for a late race restart violation that sent Heim to the back of the field.

When his team radioed that he had been penalized, Heim admitted he was really frustrated at 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 it,” Heim explained. “I haven’t really seen a rerun of it yet, so I guess I’ll have to check it out. But it’s hard for me to sit here and criticize without ever having seen it. It’s just an instinctive reaction for me to do it.”

Looking back, Heim isn’t sure if he would have been able to do anything with Majeski if he had avoided the restart penalty. He was just so good on Friday night.

“Probably not. “They performed incredibly well the whole race,” admitted Heim. “From the start I had the feeling that I started Stage 1 pretty freely. I was able to catch him again. To the point where we never really encountered any lapping traffic, it was pretty much over for me.”

“It’s hard to be frustrated at all, you know? It’s like, is there anything I can do at this point? But everyone at TRICON Garage, Toyota Racing and Safelite is very proud to have put together a phenomenal 2024 campaign. Nothing to hang on to.” our heads around.

Joining Heim on the losing side of the Championship 4 battle were Christian Eckes, who finished third, and Grant Enfinger, who finished fifth.

For Eckes, this was his last race with the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team as he entered NASCAR with Kaulig Racing in 2025. Eckes fought his way forward, but when the tires reached equalization, Eckes could only work his way up to third position.

Eckes never got the chance to showcase the aggressive driving style that earned him victory at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, but the New York native has no regrets about his place in the fourth championship.

“I mean, really – we still lost the championship no matter what,” Majeski said when asked if he regretted not being able to reach Majeski to push past him. “The 11 beat us. Yes, no regrets.”

By winning two races in the Round of 8 of the playoffs, Enfinger was able to capture the No. 1 pit spot on Friday night, which is usually a big advantage at Phoenix Raceway. However, in advance of this weekend’s action, NASCAR has extended the pit exit line to offset some of the advantage that comes with the first pit stop.

Enfinger said he still felt a slight advantage from the pit stop, but admitted it didn’t give them enough of an advantage to win the race.

“Maybe a small advantage, but obviously not as big as in previous years,” Enfinger said. “I heard a few people did, but I had trouble getting in and out of our box, I was just slipperier than usual, slipperier than I remember here.”

“Yeah, I still think pit stand 1 was an advantage, but we were turning the screws the whole time and really couldn’t take advantage of our really, really good pit crew. I appreciate them all year round. I wish we could have taken more advantage of them tonight.

Nick Sanchez was the top 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 finishes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.