By Cole Cusumano, Staff Writer
Ty Majeski and the No. 98 team were flawless and flat-out dominant in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series finale at Phoenix Raceway, leading all but 18 laps en route to becoming champions to close out 2024. Not only was the blue-collar competitor able to deliver ThorSport Racing a second consecutive title, his victory marked six national series championships for Ford over their last seven attempts.
“I can’t believe it,” Majeski said. “A huge thank you to Duke and Rhonda Thorson (and) Joe Shear, Jr. He’s one bad dude. This is so much fun racing with this group. So proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. There’s a lot of times in my career where this looked like a far dream, and Duke and Rhonda really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities I failed. I can’t thank them enough. My wife, Ali, has been there every step of the way. We have had a lot of ups and downs, and (I’m) just so proud of these guys.”
Making his second appearance in the winner-take-all race, Majeski started the evening from pole for a series-best sixth time and wasn’t met with any adversity. While evident raw speed prevented any serious threats to the Seymour, Wis., driver’s run-away title, one could point to his and the No. 98 team’s mistake-free race as reason why they were able to secure the checkered-flag. In addition to winning every race off pit road, the 30-year-old was able to execute on all seven restarts throughout the event – a theme he was vocal about all weekend in what he felt would determine the championship.
Runner-up finisher Corey Heim, making his second consecutive title bid in the Championship 4, gave Majeski the biggest run for his money, but was forced into an uphill battle throughout the entire event.
Starting the race where he finished, it looked early on like it would come down to a heated battle between Majeski and the winningest driver in the series for the title, after Heim got around the eventual champion for the stage one win with eight to go in the first segment. From there, errors began for the No. 11 team and would continue to compound.
On the first set of pit stops at the conclusion of stage one, Heim slid into his stall and had to back up in order for the crew to carry out their service, losing two spots after entering as the leader. This would be the first of two issues to plague the No. 11 team on pit road, after a slow stop at the end of the second segment dropped their driver from second to fifth.
To make matters worse, not only did Majeski maintain the lead off pit road following his stage two win, Heim was nailed for a restart violation to begin the final stint. Instead of challenging for the lead from fifth, he would have to drop to the tailend of the field and make his march with 47 laps remaining.
Fortunately, the No. 11 team hadtime to regroup, reset and formulate a plan, courtesy of a red flag brought out by a nine-truck pileup on the backstretch involving actor-turned-racer Frankie Muniz. As cautions continued to fly, Heim advanced his way up to third by the final yellow of the race, but was no match for Majeski, who crossed the finish line with a 3.9-second advantage.
“[The No. 98 team] were unbelievably lights out all race,” Heim said. “They were probably two-tenths better than me a lap (with) me pushing 100%. The unfortunate part is, I feel like our Tundra TRD Pro was really good. We were probably two-tenths better than the guys behind us. I feel like if you take him out of the equation, we were far beyond the best on track.
“It’s hard to even be frustrated. What could I have even done at that point? Super proud of everyone at TRICON Garage, Toyota Racing, and Safelite. They put together a phenomenal 2024 campaign and there’s nothing to hang our heads about. It’s definitely easy to be bummed out sitting here, finishing one-spot short, but it’s part of it, I guess, at the end of the day.”
The other two title hopefuls, Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger, struggled relative to their counterparts throughout most of the race and actually wound up with very similar performances to close out their respective seasons.
Eckes, making his Championship 4 debut, qualified fourth and hoovered around the top-five for most of the night. Whereas Heim struggled on pit road, the No. 19 team was able to excel and put their driver in position on multiple occasions with their speedy stops, consistently helping the 23-year-old maintain his top-five spot.
Hoping to erase heartbreak from last year, Enfinger had the most struggle-filled race of the title contenders. On top of a couple pit road blunders, there wasn’t much fire-off speed in the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, causing the veteran of the quartet to lose positions on every restart.
Eckes and Enfinger attempted to flip the script and pit from the top-10 with just over 30 to go for fresh tires, while Majeski continued to lead and Heim forged forward from his penalty. Unfortunately, the differing strategy calls were only good enough for the driver of the No. 19 to get up to third, while the 39-year-old rounded out the top-five.