THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, Ty Majeski. Ty, I see you have a beer in your hand. Hopefully you didn't learn too much from your teammate.
TY MAJESKI: It's a lot quieter in here than in the barn for sure.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for Ty.
Q. The shoey seemed like you were a little apprehensive at first. How was it going down?
TY MAJESKI: Well, I didn't want to get my sock wet. I'm paying for it now. My right sock is soaked.
No, it's a little bit of, I guess, a tradition with ThorSport, so what are they now? 6 of 11 championships here. That's phenomenal. It really is.
Duke and Rhonda Thorson, Alli Thorson, everybody at ThorSport has built such a mega team up in Sandusky, Ohio. We're incredibly proud of that to bring home another champion to Sandusky. Being outside of Charlotte means a lot to us.
We put ourselves on an island. I feel like that can be an advantage and a disadvantage at times, but overall we control our own destiny. We build all out of own chassises, hang all our own bodies in house.
Like I said, we do control our own destiny. And that's a big reason why when we find something, we can keep it to us, right? In Charlotte sometimes when you find an advantage, it can get spread around very quickly, but we can keep it to us up in Sandusky.
So just super proud to be a part of the ThorSport Racing organization, and happy to bring home another championship for them.
Q. Corey challenged you for a little bit tonight, but once you were able to get by him, you pulled away pretty much every time. Did you ever not feel in control or command of the race tonight?
TY MAJESKI: No, not really. Really I felt like we had a really good shot at winning this thing last night after practice. You know, over the course of my career, I've built up a notebook on what trucks need to feel like to win, and last night felt like a winner to me.
Yeah, it certainly was. We were super dominant tonight. Fell off a little bit on the long run on the first run of the race in stage one. Corey was able to get by me, but we made one small change and, yeah, propelled us to victory.
Joe does a great job. He's one bad dude when is he on his game, and there's nobody I would rather go to battle with other than him to win a championship. So super proud of him and how he's prepared our guys to rise to the occasion when it counted, and our pit stops were phenomenal tonight.
I feel like, obviously, our truck was great. I feel like I did a good job on the restarts keeping control of the race, and that was the difference.
Q. I want to go back to 2021. So the Roush thing did not go well. You and Phil at Niece had a really tough season. I know you had some options you were trying to put together. I think after the Derby is when that first conversation happened with ThorSport. Was there ever a part of you that thought, okay, this is going to be really harder than I thought it was going to be? What ultimately is what swayed you to I want to go do the ThorSport thing instead of some of the other things you had on the table?
TY MAJESKI: Yeah, first of all, I want to go back to 2018 when Roush shut down their Xfinity program. Chad Bryant, a great friend of mine who I keep in contact with today, I probably talk to him at least once a week, he gave me a great opportunity in 2019. We went out and won three of five or six ARCA races that year, and propelled me into my opportunity with Niece.
Obviously that didn't go as planned. December of 2020 won the Snowball Derby, and a couple of weeks later was in contact with the ThorSport organization on putting something together.
I had a few other opportunities that maybe would have yielded more races for 2021, but I decided to move up to Ohio. My wife and I made the decision to go up and really take a shot on a future, right, something that looked like that could be something that had longevity to it.
I went up in 2021 with ThorSport and only did three or four races and was on their roster as a full-time engineer. Did some engineering for Paul Menard, ran some truck races, and I was an engineer for them. I was scanning parts at the shop, really learning about the race trucks and how they're built.
Every single part, every single truck went through me at one point or another, and I was able to learn really how these trucks work and how they operate.
When I got my opportunity full-time in 2022 with the 66 bunch at the time, with Joe Shear, we just hit the ground running. You know, obviously I wanted to be full-time in 2021, but looking back now and the experience that I gained by touching every single part that went into the race truck, I feel like helped my progression and happened earlier.
When I got that opportunity in 2022 to go full-time, we hit the ground running. We were competitive right off the bat. Obviously made it to the Championship 4. Didn't win the championship, but yeah, just looking back at it, you can go back in your life, and you say, wow, there's different decisions that changed your life and took a different direction, and that's one of them that we made.
It was one of the better decision I've ever made to go with ThorSport. And Duke, Rhonda Thorson, they've built such a great culture up there, and just proud to carry the flag with them.
Q. I did not realize it until just now talking to Joe, but you and Joe didn't really know each other, which surprised me, given the Wisconsin roots and Johnny. I'm curious, how much of the Midwestern roots, what Joe and Johnny did together, was that part of your thinking too that, hey, I want to go work with Joe, or did that kind of materialize later?
TY MAJESKI: Well, Joe and Johnny were chasing me for a little bit in Wisconsin. So Joe right away, he's, like, Hey -- I remember it vividly. I was at my little scanning station early in 2021. Hey, so what are you running for a setup in your late models? And I knew at the time it was probably going to go right to Johnny.
I told a couple of white lies (laughing). It's just crazy looking back at all the races that Johnny and I have raced against each other. Obviously Joe Shear was a part of Johnny's late model program. Just the timing was right to kind of carry that torch for Wisconsin and couple up with Joe Shear.
It was just a natural fit for myself and him. We had so many things to bond on beyond truck racing. And that's one thing that I really hit on is driver/crew chief relationship. Our relationship is more than just, like I said, driver/crew chief. We're friends. My wife knows I talk to Joe just about every day for a long time on how to make these trucks better and how to better ourselves going into these races week in and week out.
I feel like that's one advantage we have on the rest of the field.
Q. You said on media day that the truck that you were bringing here and the setup were a departure from what you had done in the past. Can you elaborate a little bit on how they were different? Did you feel like you were taking a risk when you were doing that?
TY MAJESKI: Yeah, I'm not going to elaborate on how they were different. I'll keep that to myself.
We were good the last couple of years here, but felt like we were lacking a little bit of longevity, and we saw that a little bit in the first stage where we had a dominating lead. It was a lot like last year where we built up a lead, and the 11 caught us. We were able to hold on for the stage win last year, but Corey was able to get by me this year. We made a really good change at the end of stage one to make our truck just that much better.
A lot of work went into sim. I was at the Ford sim at least once for Phoenix, and we were able to tune in the tire and make really good changes. Looking back at it now, the tire was really good, and we were able to make changes on it. Yeah, propel us to a championship.
Any time you can use your tools and trust your simulation that Ford Performance has given us is a good thing when you can trust your tools and have it correlate to real life.
Q. Can you take me kind of through the emotions of a week ago getting in and kind of knowing that, man, it very well could have worked out that you didn't advance, and now six, seven days later you're a champion?
TY MAJESKI: I think the biggest thing, Bob, is we really weren't in control of our own destiny at Martinsville, and I had a lot more nerves going into that race than this weekend.
Like I said, because you can only control so much of the race. When the 17 put on tires and was coming through the field, I was helpless, right? You're not in control of your own destiny.
Tonight or this weekend, for that matter, I knew our truck was really, really good last night, and we knew that we controlled the outcome. There's just, I guess, a little calmness in that, and I was very relaxed this weekend.
I knew we had a great package coming here and a great truck last night, and I was incredibly confident throughout yesterday and throughout today. I knew we were going to be tough to beat.
Q. Ty, when the laps were ticking down and it was clear that the 19 and the 9, their fresher tires had worn out, and they were all losing ground, what was going through your head as you were inching closer to the checkered flag, especially when we saw what happened at the end of last year's finale?
TY MAJESKI: Yeah, it was probably the longest 20 laps of my life. You know, Brian Lyons was counting each lap down one by one. I was, like, man, skip a couple to make it seem like it's going a little quicker.
Obviously you're waiting for that caution. That's obviously the last thing I wanted to see. We had a great truck on the short and the long run tonight after the first stage.
Obviously the last thing I wanted to see was a yellow, but throughout the race I felt like no matter what happened we had a truck capable of fending off any type of challenger. In preparation for this race, I put a lot of emphasis on restarts because I felt like that's where the last two championships were decided, was on restarts.
So put a lot of emphasis on that. Watched a lot of in-car cam from the Championship 4 last year and two years ago on what I could have done different in 2022 and how Ben won the championship last year. Just trying to perfect those restarts. That's where races are won and lost in the Truck Series.
Track position is so important. I think Corey got me maybe on one restart. I don't know how many restarts we had when I was the leader, but yeah, he got me on one of them. I was able to get him back and clean track.
Track position is king. We were able to hold on to a strong lead at the end of the race.
Q. With last week's finish and how close you did come to potentially not making it to Phoenix, was there that kind of extra fire just to say that it's bad news for everyone else the fact that you made it here?
TY MAJESKI: Yeah, yes and no. I thought the 19 made an interesting decision back at Martinsville. I feel like we've been a strong contender all year, and he was in a position to choose who he raced in Phoenix this weekend. Here we are as champions.
It's crazy how one little decision by somebody else kind of can control your destiny, but I've been on the bad end of that stuff. I'm happy to take one.
Q. Ty, this kind of goes into what you've touched on already, but so much success this year on tracks like this, IRP, Richmond. What do you feel like you were able to learn or glean from those races in particular? Obviously each track has its own unique personality, right, but does anything from either of those two tracks translate to what you guys were able to do tonight?
TY MAJESKI: We studied real hard on load profiles of the racetracks. I'm going to get a little bit technical with you, but yeah, one and two is a lot like what we see at Milwaukee or IRP, and then three and four is a lot like Richmond. Max load going into -- or going into one and two is on entry and exit, and then in three and four we're seeing max says load in the center.
It's kind of a combination of a little of IRP, a little of Richmond, a little bit of Milwaukee to come here because the track has two different corners here, and you have to combine those and try and make your truck versatile in both corners.
That's something that we really focused on in the simulator. I was able to start off with our baseline last year, tune the tire in the Ford sim to my baseline, and knowing what the truck felt like the last two days, it was exactly how it felt in sim. That's a testament to the Ford sim and all the work they're putting in on their end to give us the tools that we need to go and compete for championships.
Q. Obviously you're a champion of the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, a lot of great racing in Wisconsin, legends like Alan Kulwicki, Matt Kenseth. You're now a NASCAR champion just like those guys. What does that mean to you?
TY MAJESKI: I'm glad you brought that up. You know, watching -- I shouldn't say watching. Looking back at Alan's championship season and he was able to do a Polish victory lap here at Phoenix to make it really come full circle.
And I was the inaugural 2015 Kulwicki Driver Development Program Champion, and to come here as a NASCAR champion and do that Polish victory lap is so special for that program and Alan's legacy. Was happy to carry that legacy on tonight. He was definitely in my thoughts as I was doing that victory lap.
Their program was really a jump-start to my career. It forced me to step outside of my comfort zone and run different races. My late model crew chief is back there, Toby Nuttleman. We went and put on a great season together in 2015 that propelled me to that championship.
Yeah, really took the next step in my career. We were able to use that money to build a new race car, and that race car went on to win us a ton of races.
Yeah, it's just funny how one little situation can force you to win a championship and make a little bit of money and put that money back into the racing program and build a really good race car that puts you in position to win races. That's why I'm sitting here today.
Just happy to carry that Wisconsin flag. A lot of great race car drivers have come out of Wisconsin and just super honored to be able to carry that flag this evening.
Q. So we learned tonight that your nickname is Golden Shoe. Clearly the team has embraced you. They're super supportive of everything you've done. I was just curious, from your perspective, what makes that relationship so special?
TY MAJESKI: I'm not really sure. Duke and Rhonda are very, very good people. They like people that put their race team in position to win races, and it was just a natural fit, right?
They're very good people, and we just hit it off right off the bat. My engineering mindset, Duke saw that in me and was able to give me an opportunity to go and work at his shop full-time in 2021 and 2022 and put me in the truck full-time as well in 2022 while working full-time with the shop.
Like I said before, that's really what propelled me here today, is being able to learn the race truck inside and out. I really understand and can comprehend any part of the race truck, and I think that's a huge advantage that I have on my competitors.
It's just very cool to look back at those opportunities and how they came to fruition into a championship.
Q. You have alluded with your tenure with Roush. As far as the Ford program, how special is it to keep the moment going for Ford as far as winning championships and also for you knowing that you had a lot of trials and tribulations to get to this point?
TY MAJESKI: That's four in a row. Got one this year, so two more to go. That would be phenomenal to make it, yeah, six in a row for Ford.
Yeah, they gave me my first shot. I always ran Ford motors, engines in my late models. We were always a part of their program at obviously a very low level. Ford and Roush gave me my first opportunity to sort of burst my way into the NASCAR scene. I call it the NASCAR funnel. Once you get in that funnel, you can kind of create different opportunities for yourself once you're in that funnel.
Yeah, huge thank you for Ford. They gave me a simulation job in 2019 after Roush shut down their Xfinity program. Gave me a little bit of money. Every sim session I did -- I didn't do many of them, but it was enough to keep my head above water. As I mentioned before, that was in correlation with the Chad Bryant ARCA Racing program. I was able to win a few races, and I was able to kind of keep my head above water in the NASCAR scene and give me my next opportunity with Niece Motorsports.
Yeah, Ford is a great manufacturer and super proud to be carrying their colors as 2024 champion.
Q. Ty, I know you emphasize about the importance of late race restarts. Did you have any strategies in place for especially that late race -- especially for that last race restart in the race? As a race car driver myself, I know the emphasis of having good late race restarts.
TY MAJESKI: You're just trying to set them up and try and be unpredictable. That's the biggest thing, is once you start becoming predictable, they can take advantage of that. Just trying to change it up a little bit in the restart box.
You only have so much that you can play with inside of that box. Like I said, yeah, just trying to be unpredictable and change up where you fire to keep those guys on their toes. Once you start firing in the same spot over and over again -- this is elementary stuff, not giving out any secrets here -- you make yourself vulnerable on restarts.
Like I said, just switching things up. I felt like I got a really good couple of last restarts there towards the end of the race that I was able to really clear myself by turn one and not have to worry about guys dive-bombing me.
Q. This win is huge for just the late model community. There's already been a huge outpour for you on social media, and it just goes to show that the short track community, the grit, the resilience that you already had to go through just to get to this point. What I want to ask you, what would you say to all of the people who have supported you on the grassroots level, what would you say to them now that you're here as a NASCAR Truck Series Champion?
TY MAJESKI: Yeah, just keep digging. The biggest thing that I have learned and my dad has taught me from a young age is surround yourself with good people and good things will happen.
Like I mentioned before, Toby Nuttleman, my crew chief, he's just back here sharing this championship together. Even though he wasn't a part of this specific championship, he's a huge reason why I'm here talking to you right now as 2024 NASCAR Truck Series Champion.
You surround yourself with good people and stay grounded and never think you're the best. That's exactly when you are going to get beat. So just keeping grounded. Always keeping your head down. Always trying to get better each and every race. Whether you win or not, there's always something that you could have probably done better in that race.
I was very big on watching -- going back and watching film and understanding how the race played out, what I could have done different in different situations to be better. I think that's -- I haven't been the best guy on restarts in this series. I'm not one of those aggressive guys. I feel like some of other guys are probably better on restarts than me, but you don't want to put yourself in a situation to take yourself out of the race early.
I felt like I put myself in good positions tonight and executed very well on restarts. Pit crew did a great job. The truck was great. Executed on all levels, and very proud of our performance this evening.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. Congratulations.
TY MAJESKI: Thank you. Appreciate it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports