By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Ty Majeski and Corey Heim came to a head in the Craftsman Truck Series Saturday at Richmond Raceway that led to contact and a tough points day for the former.
While racing for sixth place alongside Christian Eckes, it was Heim’s opportunity to pounce when Majeski ran tight off Turn 4. And when Majeski saw Heim shoot to the bottom on the frontstretch, he went for the block, chasing him to the apron before the two make contact going into Turn 1.
Heim returned the favor one lap later, cutting Majeski’s tire down and forcing him to the pit lane under green.
“I threw a little bit of a bad block,” Majeski admitted. “I thought it was good enough, and then we got hooked together and I tried to yield the spot to him. Then he sent me into [Turn] 3 and then yeah… he just tried to clear himself out of Turn 2 and got our fender on her left front tire.”
Majeski says he was not surprised to have no breaks from Heim, the defending series champion.
“I should probably know better than to mess with the Cup guys,” he said. “They don’t have much to lose. I probably put myself in a bad spot messing with a guy like him in that situation.”
Heim has won two Cup Series races on a part-time schedule this year, including last month’s Brickyard 400. Majeski feels the rising star has nothing to lose when he comes back down to the Trucks.
“[Cup guys] don’t care. Especially a guy like Corey,” he said. “He’s obviously — he’s got a going on right now, right? He’s in a really good spot and he doesn’t care.
“He doesn’t care about my livelihood or anything like that. Not asking him to. I just should know better than to, you know, put myself in that spot with him.
“I was trying to protect my track position. The No. 91 [Eckes] held me tight off Turn 4 and that’s the reason Corey got a run on me. You don’t want to bleed too many spots on restarts, especially with the truck that we had.”
From there, Majeski’s No. 88 Thorsport Racing Ford pitted for two tires, fell off the lead lap and barely missed receiving the free pass in the closing stages.
The contact with Heim kept him from contending for the win, he feels.
“I thought we had a really good truck at the end, capable of winning,” he said. “But obviously nothing to show for it. I couldn’t weather our way back to the lead lap there and have ourselves a shot.
“That was the difference between probably a top-five run and being stuck where we were in, you know, two laps, two laps to one lap down in 19th. This is one of our really good opportunities to run well and stack some points to potentially win a race and gave it up today.
“So, like I said, I thought it was a decent block, but I just kind of got hooked together there and put both of us in a bad spot. I waved down the backstretch, but I guess he didn’t like my sorry.”