It was a night to remember for Ty Majeski and ThorSport Racing at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, as Majeski and the No. 98 team took home the victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race.
Since Majeski was part of the Championship 4, the victory also locked up the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship for the driver from Seymour, Wisconsin.
The No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 was strong from the moment it first hit the race track, posting the third-fastest time in practice, winning the pole for Friday’s event, and captured the win in the race’s second stage.
Majeski led 132 of the race’s 150 laps, collecting his first career NASCAR championship and the sixth in the NASCAR Truck Series for ThorSport Racing. It’s the second time that the organization has won back-to-back titles, as Matt Crafton secured the title in both 2013 and 2014 for the team.
Of note, this is also the first time that the No. 98 entry has been the championship-winning team for ThorSport, as its other championships came with Crafton in the No. 88 and Ben Rhodes in the No. 99.
Additionally, this is the third consecutive Truck Series championship for Ford and the blue oval’s fifth overall in the series.
Chevrolet won its 12th manufacturer’s championship in the series, and Layne Riggs was crowned Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year.
Majeski, who got his start in racing on short tracks in his home state of Wisconsin, gave words of advice to fellow local short track racers in his interview. “It’s possible, you just need to find a way to set yourself apart from everybody else”, Majeski said. “I did that by working in the shop, started as an engineer at ThorSport in 2021 with three or four races, didn’t know what it was gonna turn into, and damn it now we’re champions”.
From short-track racer to NASCAR champion.@TyMajeski has some words of encouragement for the future stars. pic.twitter.com/QOuFeD3AFn
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) November 9, 2024
Corey Heim came up just short of the championship, finishing second in his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra. Heim, who won a series-high six races in 2024, led 16 laps and was the winner of stage one. Heim will have another chance at the championship next season, as it was announced this week that he will return to TRICON Garage for 2025.
Regular season champion Christian Eckes finished third in his No. 19 Chevrolet and third in the championship. With the result, Eckes finished the 2024 season with a top ten in every single race except Atlanta, by far the most in the series on the season. This was also Eckes’ last race as a full-time Truck Series driver, as he will be taking over the No. 16 Kaulig Racing entry in the Xfinity Series next season.
Nick Sanchez and Grant Enfinger completed the top five finishers. Enfinger led the two laps that Majeski and Heim did not and finished fourth in the championship standings, by far the best result for CR7 Motorsports.
Rounding out the top ten were Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, 2023 champion Ben Rhodes, and Layne Riggs. Gray, like Eckes, will be moving up to the Xfinity Series in 2025, as he will pilot the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing entry. Honeycutt will also have a chance at the series title next season, as he will drive the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet for the full 25-race schedule.
RELATED: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Results
Championship contenders Ty Majeski and Corey Heim led the field to begin the final race of the 2024 Truck Series season, with Majeski quickly taking control and pulling away by over one second. By lap ten, his lead doubled to over two seconds over Heim and Christian Eckes.
By lap 20, Grant Enfinger, who started the lowest of the Championship Four, had worked his way into the top five, putting all four title contenders fifth or better in the running order.
Later in the run, Heim started to cut into Majeski’s lead, and it shrunk to half a second with 15 laps remaining in the opening stage. With six laps remaining in the stage, Heim finally caught and passed Majeski for the first lead change of the race.
The first caution of the race came out with three laps in the stage for a spin involving Frankie Muniz. Muniz received contact from the No. 1 of William Sawalich going into turn three, sending the No. 27 sliding up the track. Heim, who was rapidly approaching the two trucks, barely avoided running into the back of Muniz, which would have ended his championship bid. The caution caused the stage to end under caution, handing the stage victory to Heim, though stage points do not count in the championship event.
If you're in the #Championship4, you'd want to avoid close calls like this. ? pic.twitter.com/snE90xMFCN
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) November 9, 2024
Majeski and Eckes took the green flag first to begin stage two. Majeski powered by the No. 19 on the outside, who quickly lost second to Heim as well. Not long after on lap 59, Eckes’s teammate Jack Wood crashed hard in turn two. The No. 91 Chevy entered the corner three wide underneath Bayley Currey and Matt Crafton and got loose, sending the truck up the hill and hard into the outside wall. Wood received major rear-end damage and was unable to continue, leaving him as the race’s first DNF.
Heim and Majeski paced the field back to green flag conditions, with Heim seizing the lead. He did not stay in the lead for long, however, as Majeski passed the No. 11 back for the race and championship lead. Majeski’s lead continued to increase to over three seconds and he cruised to the stage two victory.
For the beginning of stage three, Majeski was joined on the front row by Nick Sanchez, who was not able to clear Majeski. The race did not stay green for even a lap, however, as the biggest crash of the night took place down the backstretch. Connor Mosack got loose and hit the wall out of turn two, causing a bottleneck that resuled in the No. 18 of Tyler Ankrum spinning out.
Thad Moffitt, Frankie Muniz, Stefan Parsons, Lawless Alan (who was racing in a backup truck), Kaden Honeycutt, Andres Perez de Lara, and William Sawalich were also collected. Sawalich, Ankrum, Perez, and Muniz suffered race-ending damage and retired from the race. Corey Heim also received a restart violation under the caution, sending him to the rear of the field for the next restart.
Big issues on the backstretch! ? pic.twitter.com/rYMdxFJlGM
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) November 9, 2024
The race was red-flagged as a result of the incident, as fluid was dropped on the race track and needed to be cleaned up. After a ten-minute delay, the red flag was lifted, and Majeski and Sanchez led the field through the gears to take the green. Majeski was able to retain the lead, while Layne Riggs leapfrogged Sanchez for the runner-up spot.
With 40 laps remaining, Conner Jones went for a spin in the middle of turn two, putting the race back under yellow flag conditions. Jones, coming off a suspension for Martinsville, was able to keep his truck out of the wall and continue in the race. Jones’ teammate Ben Rhodes narrowly avoided the No. 66, taking evasive measures on the high side of the race track.
The No. 66 spins and the yellow flag is out with 39 laps to go. pic.twitter.com/3v2gxbeCZr
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) November 9, 2024
Despite the short run under green, Heim was able to jump from 19th to 10th and gained another few spots under caution after some trucks went down pit road.
The race went back green but was only green for about ten seconds, as Layne Riggs went for a spin into turn one from inside the top five. As the field slowed down to avoid Riggs, Nathan Byrd’s No. 02 Chevrolet also spun out. The No. 38’s spin was caused by Riggs getting loose under Sanchez, and he made slight contact with the outside wall. Heim, who restarted eighth, jumped up to third prior to the caution.
The race resumed under green with 27 laps to go, with Majeski keeping the lead and Heim jumping up to second in both the race and the championship. A few laps later, Eckes worked his way around Sanchez, putting championship contenders in each of the podium spots. Enfinger passed Kaden Honeycutt for sixth at the same time in an attempt to catch up to the other three title hopefuls.
Majeski pulled out to a lead of over two seconds with 15 laps left in the race, with Eckes about half a second behind Heim. By the time Majeski took 10 laps to go, the gap had increased to almost four seconds. Enfinger was able to move past Taylor Gray to get into fifth, but it was too little too late for Enfinger, as well as Heim and Eckes, as Majeski was able to cruise to the race win and the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series championship.
Corey Heim finished second to Majeski in the championship, Christian Eckes finished third, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the championship contenders in fourth.
This was the final race of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season. The next Craftsman Truck Series race is scheduled for February 14, 2025, at Daytona International Speedway, and will be broadcast by FS1.
