by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Ty Majeski picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Heart of America 200 at the Kansas Speedway when his #98 Road Ranger Ford fell out by way of the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” (DVP) after he completed 10 of 134 laps.

The finish, which came in Majeski’s 74th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since February 14, 2020 at Daytona, 98 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 2nd from the DVP, the 5th for the #98, and the 125th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 13th by way of the DVP, the 45th for the #98, and the 1,035th for Ford.

The last time Majeski was featured here, he was about to endure a hot-and-cold season for Niece Motorsports – one which was ultimately cut short after the 15th round in Darlington. Combined with an equally disastrous outing in Roush-Fenway’s struggling #60 entry in the XFINITY Series, the highly-touted late model racer struggled to find his footing. That changed with a move to ThorSport Racing, where in 2022, he scored his first two wins and made the Championship Four. Appropriately, as the inaugural graduate of the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, that first win came at Bristol, and the championship race was Phoenix. Unfortunately, he fell short of the title, won by Zane Smith, then missed the Championship Four last season, when he switched from ThorSport’s #66 to the #98.

Coming into Kansas, Majeski was looking for his first win of the season, but had already been close. He’d finished runner-up at both Atlanta and Martinsville, claiming two poles and leading 117 laps across five of the season’s first seven races. To this end, Majeski’s Kansas weekend began near perfectly: he was fastest of the 33 entrants in opening practice, then qualified outside-pole with a lap of 175.713mph (30.732 seconds), missing his eighth career pole by just four-thousandths of a second. Chase Purdy and his #77 Bama Buggies Chevrolet would instead lead the field to green for the first time in his career as Spire Motorsports occupied three of the top-five positions.

The 33rd and final starting spot fell to Mason Massey, whose #02 Randco Industries Chevrolet spun in practice along with 18th-place Tanner Gray, who looped his #15 Dead On Tools Toyota in a separate incident. Unlike Gray, Massey incurred a tail-end penalty for unapproved adjustments along with 7th-place Jake Garcia in the #13 Quanta Services Ford and Timmy Hill in the unsponsored red #56 Hill Motorsports Toyota. Hill caught a loose jack post bolt likely dropped from an ARCA car, which went through the first “T” on the nose of his Toyota and punctured the radiator. Nick Sanchez was prohibited from qualifying for his #2 Gainbridge Chevrolet thrice failing pre-qualifying inspection, which also cost him pit selection at Darlington.

When the command to fire engines was given, 15th-place qualifier Matt Mills’ #51 J.F. Electric / Utilitra Chevrolet was just being pushed to the grid. Curiously, it was an electrical issue – a wiring harness that needed replacing in the garage. Mills incurred his own tail-end penalty as well, though he crossed the stripe ahead of Massey and Hill, who occupied the final two spots as the green flag dropped. But coming off Turn 4, Majeski had already dropped to 7th place, stuck in the outside line of a massive four-wide logjam that spread even wider across the stripe. The reason was a flat left-front tire, which was starting to go down during the pace laps. Trapped with much of the field still needing to get by, Majeski got into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 2, followed seconds later by the final two trucks now being Jennifer Jo Cobb in her #10 Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet and Mason Maggio in the #22 Proessional AG Services, Inc. Ford. Both soon got by Majeski, who slowed on the backstretch with sparks trailing from his truck.

Under the ensuing caution, Majeski made it to pit road, where his was Stall 39, just the third stall after pit entrance. The crew changed tires, including the left-front with its tread shredded apart, soon drawing the attention of a Goodyear employee. They also grabbed at least two packages of bear bond and made repairs to the right side of the truck before sending him back out. But on Lap 4, he was back in the pits again, the bodywork no longer sparking, but audibly scraping against the pavement. The crew applied more bear bond to the right-rear, and he shut off the engine so the crew could address a brake issue on the left-front wheel. He returned to the track on Lap 7, now three laps down, and as the race restarted, was four seconds back of the next truck in line. But around Lap 15, Majeski cut down another tire on the damaged fender and hit the wall again, forcing a third pit stop for new tires. He now rejoined the field eight laps down before making a fourth stop on Lap 20. This time, the crew didn’t change tires, but focused more on repairs to the right side. On Lap 23, NASCAR officials held up two fingers, signifying two minutes to go on the “Crash Clock.” The one-minute signal came on Lap 25. Then on Lap 27, time expired, and on the 30th lap, he pulled behind the wall. Majeski was directed to the nearest garage entrance, which was actually near the Cup garage, so he had to back up and drive down the fire lane to reach the Truck Series garage.

“Must have had a flat tire honestly during the pace laps,” said Majeski when he was checked and released from the infield care center. “When we went green there, going down the backstretch, it blew out. Really not too much of a warning, just unfortunate. Come out all this way, thought we had a good truck – I love Kansas, it’s just fun running here. There’s so many options here as a driver, just disappointed we couldn’t finish it off.”

Majeski turned out to be the only DNF of the night. Taking 32nd was Cob, who finished six laps down in her #10. Taking home 31st was Spencer Boyd, whose #76 Fr8 Factory Chevrolet had a noticeably lower stance in nose than the rest of the field when he lined up for the start. Onnor Mosack took 30th on a day that saw him win the ARCA race over a dominant Tanner Gray. Mosack’s #7 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet made multiple unscheduled stops in the final ten laps, dropping him three laps down.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was Mason Maggio, who was visibly frustrated after he climbed from his #22, which was pushed back to pit road by a wrecker.

“I think we missed it on the setup or something,” said Maggio. “Just thought we had different issues throughout the day, thought we had a motor that was not giving enough power, turns out it wasn't. Kept kind of experimenting with the handling the whole weekend and I don't know I'm just pretty baffled. We had a great run going on here last year when we came here in the fall. I don't know, it's just disappointing. This is a race that I really look forward to. I love Kansas, love the race track, felt like this was one of our better opportunities to have a really good run just where I've been able to run in the past but I don't know, we've got work to do.”

The race’s challenges were also made clear by Rajah Caruth, who after joining his Spire teammates in the Top 5 in qualifying ended up the highest-finishing of the team, though back in 13th, the next-to-last truck on the lead lap. On top of Mosack’s 30th-place finish, polesitter Chase Purdy finished 28th.

“The night was kind of just a weird one here at Kansas,” said Caruth. “First stage was okay, just was really loose and just couldn't really trust the back of the truck. And then the second stint, I felt like I was really good. And then I think we just got a bad set of tires there for the start of stage three or something because basically, just my balance just was - I was wrecking. I couldn't turn the wheel in the corner and I just had no security to run anywhere, and I was the slowest car on the race track. And then the last one of the race, I'm hauling ass. So I don't really know but super proud of my Hendrick Cars group for what they did tonight. And we still stuck with it and made the most of it and got some stage points. So 13th is not good by any means because that's not what we showed up here to do, but we'll just keep on digging and go to Darlington, a place I feel pretty good at next week.”

Honeycutt finally gets recognized

After outperforming his equipment in both his XFINITY Series starts, in Trucks since 2022, and winning his ARCA West Series debut just last fall, Kaden Honeycutt finally received some attention from the broadcast booth on his way to a career-best 4th-place finish in Niece Motorsports’ #45 Niece Products of Kansas Chevrolet. The run, which was Honeycutt’s first career top-five finish in just his 24th series start, nearly became a victory before a slow pit stop in the late stages dropped him from 2nd place.

Brett Moffitt’s Truck Series return for the first time since his Talladega upset last fall saw him finish 5th in TRICON Garage’s #1 Concrete Supply Toyota, a run which came at a track where he won in 2020.

Dean Thompson took home a season-best 8th in the #5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, his third top-ten finish of the year and first since COTA. Thompson’s best of four previous Kansas finishes came just last year, when he finished 15th.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #98 in a Truck Series race since February 13, 2010, when Landon Cassill’s turn in ThorSport’s #98 EasyToInstall.com Chevrolet ended after he was collected in a first-lap pileup at Daytona.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

33) #98-Ty Majeski / 10 laps / dvp

32) #10-Jennifer Jo Cobb / 128 laps / running

31) #76-Spencer Boyd / 129 laps / running

30) #7-Connor Mosack / 131 laps / running

29) #22-Mason Maggio / 131 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Young’s Motorsports (2)

2nd) Faction 46, Front Row Motorsports, Hill Motorsports, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Terry Carroll Motorsports, ThorSport Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (4)

2nd) Ford, Toyota (2)

2024 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP