Majeski Goes Clock Hunting After Locking Into the Final Four

Two months from now, Ty Majeski will race for the NASCAR Truck Series championship at Phoenix Raceway by virtue of his victory last Thursday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Until then, Majeski is going trophy hunting across three different disciplines.

That mission begins on Saturday night when he seeks to add the prestigious Ridgeway Grandfather Clock to the sword he just acquired by entering the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in a No. 66 for Chad Bryant Racing.

It’s the culmination of a working relationship that began in 2019 in the ARCA Racing Series.

That friendship has continued ever since and has also resulted in victories across each of the first two runnings of the South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway -- to date the only two starts Majeski has made in a Late Model Stock Car.

"At the time, Chad didn't have a Late Model program but he was always a Late Model guy and wanted to do it but the timing wasn't right," Majeski said. "When he started his own (ARCA) team, he got busy trying to keep those ducks in a row, but the second he got a car and wanted to put me in it.

"We won Florence, won there again, and just like working with him. He's been an instrumental part of my career with those five races at a point of my career where it all could have been over after the Roush Fenway days. We're good friends. We talk a lot even when we're not Late Model racing and we try to race together whenever we can."

The next Truck Series race isn’t until Oct. 1 at Talladega and then Oct. 22 at Homestead-Miami so why not tackle a race that both have wanted to do together for quite a while.

Majeski is currently one of roughly 90 entries on the entry list for the biggest race of the year for Late Model Stocks, and that’s something exciting to the 2020 Snowball Derby winner, who says there aren’t many races with this caliber of quality and quantity.

"You don't see that a lot anymore," Majeski said. "Snowball has the teams, but not everyone goes, but because Late Model Stocks are in such a condensed region, everyone goes to Martinsville. It would be like if Super Late Models were in Alabama, Florida and Georgia then everyone would go to the Snowball Derby. That's why you see 90 cars on the entry list. It's remarkable.

"It's like a dirt entry list. You don't see that a lot in pavement and I'm incredibly excited to be a part of it. It's the biggest entry list I've been part of. In 2012, I was part of a Dick Trickle 99 that had 77 cars in Wisconsin. This is awesome to see, given the economy, great to see a field like this."

The two Late Model Stock races Majeski has entered and won, took place at super abrasive Florence, but it is similar to the kind of tire conservation races he dominates in the Midwest in a Super Late Model.

Martinsville, meanwhile, will feature minimal tire falloff and what he expects to be full throttle racing.

"It's going to take a completely different mindset," Majeski said. "At Florence, we were riding three or four seconds off the pace over half the race. Martinsville is going to be about track position. From what I hear, other than saving brakes, it is going to be 200 qualifying laps.

"Get out front as soon as you can, that was the strategy that Landon (Pembelton) used last year because track position is the most important thing. You really have to find speed in your car because it isn’t going to fall off that much."

Majeski has until Nov. 11 to chase a championship and will be chasing a grandfather clock this weekend, so maybe he could add the All-American 400 guitar to his collection on Oct. 30.

"You never know, right," Majeski said. "If we win the grandfather clock, we might have to. With the Snowball Derby, those are the big three Late Model trophies and we've got one of them so if we can get two, let's aim for the trifecta."