Any time the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to a short track race, Ty Majeski is included on the short list of drivers, who are expected to be in the mix for the race win. It comes with the territory of being one of, if not the best, short track racers in the entire world.
And in the opening laps of Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 was living up to his billing as sat firmly in the third position.
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RESULTS: Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol
That is until disaster struck on Lap 53 when he tangled with the lapped No. 33 Reaume Brothers Racing entry, which was driven by Rookie of the Year contender and Malcom in the Middle star Frankie Muniz.
As Majeski was side-by-side with Tyler Ankrum in a battle for position, Muniz drove in the middle lane down the backstretch and as the group of cars reached the entrance of Turn 3, Muniz took his truck to the bottom lane, which Majeski didn’t anticipate he’d do, and the two collided to spark a four-truck crash, which also involved Brandon Jones and Stewart Friesen.
It’s Bristol, baby!
?: @calebbarnes_ pic.twitter.com/HgtTBO1Tpl
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 12, 2025
The 30-year-old Majeski climbed from his truck, which had come to a rest butted up to Muniz’s car, and he was visibly displeased. After being evaluated and released from the infield care center, Majeski composed his thoughts about the incident that ended his once-promising night.
While Majeski sympathized with Muniz’s position, he also feels the lapped trucks need to do a better job at picking a consistent lane for the lead-lap drivers to work their way around.
#NASCAR … Ty Majeski on what he would say to Frankie Muniz after that incident that eliminated Majeski at Bristol. pic.twitter.com/RUwi9k8bXr
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) April 12, 2025
“It’s a tough spot. Obviously, he’s got his own race out there too, so, you can’t [say], ‘Hey, get out of our way. That’s not right either. But I think if there was just a little more predictability in what some of these guys are going to do as lapped trucks,” Majeski explained. “[Muniz] was talking earlier in the year that he wanted to earn all of our respect. We’re not asking you to get out of our way, we’re asking you to be predictable in where you’re going to be in the next corner. If it’s the bottom one corner, it should stay the bottom until we get by you. That’s all I’m asking. [An] Unfortunate spot to be in for all of us, just hate it for everybody involved.”
While Majeski felt Muniz was selecting multiple lanes as the lead-lap trucks were attempting to get past his slower No. 33 machine, Muniz says that he drove in the bottom lane throughout the entire opening 53 laps, and he wasn’t sure if Majeski just chose to punt him out of the way or what had happened.
#NASCAR … Frankie Muniz on his incident with Ty Majeski at Bristol. pic.twitter.com/ShRkCmnxPC
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) April 12, 2025
“It’s hard here, right? Because it’s so fast and I am specifically trying to get out of their way in an instance like that. I’m not trying to race them. And I had been running on the bottom the whole time, so, like, I was just staying on the bottom so they knew to go around me,” Muniz stated. “And I think there were two trucks, I don’t know, but I think there were two trucks behind me racing, and I take the bottom. I don’t know if Majeski just got mad that I went there, and punted me, or if he didn’t expect me to go back to the bottom and go up high.”
Muniz said as they were both climbing from the wreckage in Turns 3 and 4, he heard Majeski yelling at him.
“I mean, he yelled at me when he got out of the truck, he’s like, ‘You’ve got to pick a lane,’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t even come off the bottom every single lap of this race.’ I don’t entirely know what I could have done differently,” Muniz explained. “I’ll have to watch it too, I haven’t seen it.”
Regardless if the two drivers end up seeing eye-to-eye on what happened on Friday night, it won’t change what transpired, and how it affected each driver and their respective teams.
Majeski came into the race second in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship standings, but due to the 33rd-place finish, Majeski now leaves Bristol Motor Speedway, a track that is a strong suit of his, third in the standings now 57 markers out of the lead.
Had he been able to win Friday night’s race, he could have locked himself into the Playoffs, and had the remainder of the regular season to tune up for the Playoffs.
While Muniz was able to log a few more laps in the race before finally retiring after completing 76 laps, his 31st-place finish was the latest in a long run of rough finishes for the Reaume Brothers Racing rookie contender.
The season started off on a high note for Muniz, who finished 10th in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, but it’s been all downhill since February.
Muniz has suffered three DNFs over the last five races, and in the two races where he made it to the finish, he scored 24th-place finishes. Muniz needs a solid drama-free run to turn the momentum back around and in a hurry.
