The Championship 4 in any NASCAR national series is just that: four drivers with a chance at the title in the season finale.
Ty Majeski didn’t get that memo. At Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 8, he led a staggering 132 of the 150 laps to win the race and the 2024 championship, his first.
It was Majeski’s third win of the year and the sixth title for ThorSport Racing.
“God, I can’t believe it,” Majeski told FOX Sports 1 post-race. “… So proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. Man, there’s a lot of times in my career where this looked like a far [-away] dream, and Duke and Rhonda [Thorson, ThorSport co-owners] gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities that failed … man, I can’t thank them enough.”
Majeski held off occasional challenges from title foe Corey Heim, but in the end, neither Heim nor fellow Championship 4 contenders Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger could hold a candle to Majeski’s No. 98 for ThorSport Racing.
“It’s hard to even be upset,” Heim said. “I did just about everything right except for that restart violation. … We’re gonna move forward with our heads held high and our six-win season … .”
Heim, Eckes, Nick Sanchez and Enfinger followed Majeski to the line, putting the entire Championship 4 inside the top five in the season finale.
Taylor Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Ben Rhodes and Layne Riggs rounded out the top 10.
After starting from the pole, Majeski was lights out off the bat, leading the first 39 laps before fellow championship contender Heim was able to catch him once Majeski’s No. 98 became tight and caught in lapped traffic.
But with four laps to go, Heim nearly got into the spinning truck of Frankie Muniz off the nose of William Sawalich, swerving at the last minute to avoid the No. 27. Heim was awarded the stage-one win as part of the early caution, followed by Majeski, Eckes, Sanchez and Enfinger.
Majeski regained the lead after between-stages pit stops, leading under green-flag conditions until Jack Wood, pulling double duty after also competing in the ARCA Menards Series West finale earlier in the day, backed his truck into the outside wall on lap 59, ending his day and bringing out the caution.
The restart gave Heim the chance to launch back to the lead on lap 65, but Majeski took it back a short time later, hanging out through the end of stage two, followed by Heim, Riggs, Sanchez and Eckes.
On the stage-three restart, Mosack slid into the outside wall on the backstretch, bouncing back into the field and triggering a multi-truck wreck that collected Tyler Ankrum, Muniz, Stefan Parsons, Thad Moffitt, Sawalich, Andres Perez and Spencer Boyd. Heim was also dinged for a restart violation for going too low before crossing the start/finish line, sending him to the back of the field on the ensuing restart. The red flag was displayed during cleanup with 47 to go.
A few laps later, Conner Jones spun to bunch the field back up; Heim had moved up to 10th at that point with 39 to go. Enfinger and Eckes were among those who pitted via a strategy play to combat the dominance of Majeski, scoring fresher tires in the process.
By the next caution, Heim made it up to third, launching past multiple drivers before Riggs spun in turn 1. But while Heim was able to get up to second after the restart, he couldn’t quite catch Majeski, who held on for his first Truck title.
Phoenix Truck Results
The Craftsman Truck Series returns to the track for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.
About the author
Rutherford is the managing editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2015 after serving on the editing staff for two years. At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.
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