AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ty Majeski has long considered Phoenix Raceway one of his favorite stops on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule. On Friday night, vintage Majeski — the version that captured the 2024 series championship at the same 1-mile oval — was on full display.
Majeski showed the strength of the No. 88 Ford in the opening stage, powering by fellow Chase competitor Layne Riggs to claim the Stage 1 victory. It was his first stage win since North Wilkesboro Speedway, some three months prior. He followed with a dominant second stage, giving him more stage victories at Phoenix than he had earned through the first 21 races of the 2026 season.
As the sun went down, the handling on Majeski’s No. 88 truck faded. He remained inside the top five but couldn’t match the pace of Kaden Honeycutt, Christian Eckes or Riggs. Majeski took the checkered flag in fourth, earning his first top-five finish since placing third at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in late July.
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“Missed opportunity, for sure, when you win those stages,” Majeski told NASCAR.com after debriefing with the No. 88 bunch. “The race track came to everybody else and was going away from us. When the sun started going down, we slowly got worse.
“We were really good the first run. We were good the second run — not as. As the sun went down, the track went through a change. I felt like the track came to those guys and didn’t suit the strength of our truck and took away the strength we had from everybody else. Good run, but certainly a missed opportunity.”
Majeski led 49 laps, his highest single-race total since pacing the field for 143 circuits at Richmond Raceway in August 2025. He entered Friday with just 34 laps led across the 2026 season, 23 of which came at North Wilkesboro.
Running at the front of the field was a relief for the Wisconsin native, who said ThorSport Racing had one of its roughest outings in recent memory last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Majeski led the four-truck brigade with an 11th-place finish, with none of its drivers earning a single stage point.
Returning to the top five allowed Majeski to breathe a sigh of relief.
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“Just to get everything back going again for us,” Majeski added. “That was probably our worst race, maybe as a company, in a long time last week at Charlotte. To rebound like this, win two stages — I see the 98 finished fifth. Two trucks in the top five, trying to get the pendulum swinging in the right direction for us.”
With 53 points scored at Phoenix, Majeski leapfrogged Daniel Hemric and Gio Ruggiero to break into the top five in the standings for the first time since Dover Motor Speedway in May. He now has his sights set on cracking the top three by the end of the season, sitting just 23 points behind third-place Eckes.
“It’s going to be tough sledding to win the championship,” Majeski admitted, 135 points behind Honeycutt. “But we’re in the game for a podium or a top five. So, we want to go out, try to win these last few races and see what happens.”
With his fourth victory of 2026, Honeycutt extended his championship lead over Riggs to 39 points entering Talladega Superspeedway. Having captured seven checkered flags this season, Riggs knows the fight is far from over with more than 500 miles of racing remaining between Talladega, Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It’s anybody’s game still at this point,” Riggs stated after Phoenix. “With Talladega coming up, Martinsville, always been good there and Homestead, another track I felt like I’ve been good at. We just have to get on our game.”