- Ty Majeski qualified for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 after his 11th place finish Friday night at Martinsville Speedway.
- This will mark Majeski’s second career series appearance in the Championship 4
- Ford will be going for its third straight series championship next week at Phoenix after Zane Smith and Ben Rhodes won in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
FORD FINISHING UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
2nd – Ben Rhodes
6th – Layne Riggs
11th – Ty Majeski
13th – Matt Crafton
20th – Jake Garcia
23rd – Lawless Alan
24th – Clayton Green
28th – Johnny Sauter
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Road Ranger Ford F-150 – HOW DOES IT FEEL GOING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4? “It feels good. It was drama-filled, for sure. Pretty much all of the scenarios were working out exactly how we didn’t need them to at the end of the race, but Ben did a great job racing those guys hard. Christian, too, obviously wanted to win the race really bad, so we needed him to win that.”
TAKE US THROUGH THE CLOSING LAPS. HOW INTENSE WAS IT? “I’m just excited to be in the Championship 4. Everyone knew I didn’t need a yellow at the end. They were racing me really hard and I just kind of had to yield. I didn’t need a yellow. The 19 was leading, so some days you just have to accept being the ball and not the pin and today was one of those days.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES AT PHOENIX? “I feel good. I’ve been good there the last couple of years and I’m excited to have a shot.”
HOW HARD WAS IT TO LET YOUR TEAMMATE GO UP THERE AND RACE WHILE YOU OBVIOUSLY WANT TO BE THERE YOURSELF? “I knew I had no shot at really even playing defense. It would have taken a really dirty move for me to play defense and that’s just not how I race, so that was my best play at the time and it worked out.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 – YOU WERE RIGHT THERE. IT WAS YOUR RACE TO WIN. “Yeah, it was definitely our race to win. Unfortunately, it was our race to lose, too. We were leading the laps. I drove in five truck lengths deeper than I had all night and thought, ‘Man, if he gets me, there was no way he was gonna make the corner,’ and, sure enough, he got to the bumper. We made it all the way up to the asphalt and I’m on the outside. We raced him again for another corner and we get him back, and then finally he just runs us straight up to the asphalt and once we’re in the asphalt it allowed the 77 – we lost so much time there. That lap would have been two seconds slower. He wasn’t worried about winning the race at that point, it was just more or less not losing to me, and then that allowed the 77 to almost pass us both, so then I was racing side-by-side with the 77 all the way to the checkered flag. He lucked out on that one, really. If he held us up just a little bit more with that dirty move, then he would have lost the race, too. It was one of those deals where if he couldn’t win it, I couldn’t either. That’s kind of the way that was approached.”
YOUR STRATEGY OF PITTING FOR TIRES WORKED AT THE END. “Yeah. The race played out. We were going all night for the win and I guess that’s the beauty of not being in the playoffs – you can go for wins, which set us up for a night like tonight – a chance for the win and almost having it. If we were in the playoffs, we would have played it completely different. We’d have been working on points and hopefully you would get a top 10, but there’s a lot of playoff guys that weren’t running too well there at the end with the new tires versus the old. It’s bittersweet to be here at Martinsville and not run for the championship, but, all in all, I’m glad we’re able to go into Phoenix with some momentum.”
HOW DID YOU VIEW YOUR ROLE AS A TEAMMATE KNOWING IF THE 2 OR 17 WON, TY WOULD GET KNOCKED OUT? “That was very important. We were talking on the radio before the end and it’s like, I don’t know what the points were. They quit showing them on the big screen. I don’t know if they did that on purpose or not, but I know before stage one or two it was like 46 to the good for him, and then I just knew how it was gonna work out if those guys won – he’d be out – so I knew I had to win. It was more or less, ‘You know what? See you later, Ty. You’ve got to take care of yourself. I’ve got to go win this race. You’ll win and I’ll win a race and it’s a win-win for both of us.’ It played out OK. I just wish we were able to bring home the grandfather clock.”
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