After 471 races and 14 full-time seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Justin Allgaier can finally call himself champion.
The 38-year-old Allgaier and No. 7 JR Motorsports driver was first to the start/finish line on Saturday evening in the Xfinity Series finale, prevailing for the title over fellow Championship 4 drivers AJ Allmendinger, Cole Custer and Austin Hill.
“This team right here, Dale [Earnhardt Jr.], Kelly [Earnhardt Miller], LW [Miller], every man and woman that works in this race shop,” Allgaier said. “Jim Pohlman (crew chief), this guy right here, unbelievable. Rick Brandt. I mean, the guys stuck with me through thick and thin. We’ve had a lot of bad years.
“Two years ago, I sat down to dinner, and on Friday night, I told him if we won the championship, I was retiring on the spot. My wife said, you can’t do that. I signed a two-year contract a couple of months ago, and I’ll be honest with you, I thought I’d have different emotions up here, and I thought I’d be ready to be done. It just makes you fired up to come back next year and try to win it again.”
The journey has been a long and winding one for the Spaulding, Illinois native, who began his NASCAR career in 2005 and jumped into the full-time Xfinity pool in 2009. And, aside from a two-year stint as full-time Cup Series driver from 2014-15, Xfinity has remained Allgaier’s bread and butter.
Allgaier’s office since 2016 has been with JR Motorsports, and his tenure as driver of the No. 7 Chevy has been an exceptional one. Heading into Saturday night’s race, Allgaier has 22 Xfinity Series wins in that number and never finished lower than seventh in the final championship standings.
A championship had evaded Allgaier in his quest to seize Xfinity title No. 1. That is, until now.
“He’s (Allgaier) made his home with us, and he’s given us so much and never said no, never rolled his eyes, never shrugged his shoulders, not once,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “And man, we need a lot. We ask a lot from him and our partners, drivers. He does everything with a smile, and so I wanted this really, really badly for him.”
Although Allgaier clinched his Xfinity Series Playoffs berth relatively early — via a Darlington Raceway win in the 11th contest of the season — inconsistent results were an on-and-off nuisance, as shown by nine finishes of 25th or worse.
Nevertheless, experience and talent still played in Allgaier’s favor, including an eight-race stretch from June 22 (New Hampshire) to Aug. 31 (Darlington) that resulted in one win, three top fives and eight top-10 finishes.
Four straight top-10 finishes from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in the Round of 12 finale through the entirety of the Round of 8 led Allgaier to Phoenix, which acted as an avenue to seize a title and squash past heartbreak. After all, it was at Phoenix where an overtime restart in the 2023 Xfinity Series Championship resulted in a deflating title defeat. Add in the fact the veteran had to go to a backup car for the 2024 title race after a wreck in practice, and the same story looked to be written once again.
This time, however, was different. This time, it was Allgaier who, after years of Xfinity Series racing, summited the mountaintop to become a NASCAR champion.
“I’m at a loss for words, and we’re going to celebrate this one, for sure,” Allgaier said. “It’s unbelievable, but I just cannot say thank you enough to everybody that’s ever helped me in my career to get to this point. Seven times in the Championship 4, and we finally got it done.”
And who knows – with Allgaier returning to the JR Motorsports fold next season, perhaps a title defense is in order for a driver who finally overcame the championship hurdle.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock).
Championship Weekend is beginning to feel like the last two seasons. In 2022, Joey Logano dominated at Phoenix Raceway from the pole position. Last year, Ryan Blaney overcame a mid-field starting position to hoist the Bill France Cup. Those story lines are appearing again, with Logano qualifying second and Blaney starting 17th. Throw in William Byron qualifying eighth and Tyler Reddick in 10th, and it’s a challenge to handicap to the Championship 4. Unlike previous seasons, stage points will be tallied for Championship 4 drivers, and it would be beneficial to have some of those drivers available for the race. Byron won’t be appearing in my lineup because I’ve run out of usage for the No. 24 car.
NEXT IN LINE: William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott
RISING: It’s a rarity for Cup Series superstars to have the chance of winning their final race. Jeff Gordon made it to the Championship 4, and Kevin Harvick led 23 laps last year. And while Truex plans on making sporadic Cup starts moving forward, the full-time chapter of his racing career ends Sunday. The No. 19 team prepared Truex a Toyota that could contend for the victory, turning the second fastest speed in practice and then winning the pole. The biggest question mark is whether the team can execute, something it’s struggled with all season long. If so, it could very well be a storybook ending.
It’s been a brutal first postseason run for Gibbs. In the opening nine races of the playoffs, the No. 54 team has finished one better than 13th (fifth at Kansas Speedway) only once. Gibbs hasn’t cracked the top 30 in the last month. However, JGR tends to excel at tracks that are similar to Phoenix — and Gibbs finished third in the spring after leading 57 laps. Wouldn’t advise putting the No. 54 car in your lineup, but he’s jumped up the pecking order.
FALLING: In Fastlane this week, Chris Buescher was listed as a sleeper. I’m abandoning that pick because the No. 17 Ford was average at best in practice and qualified 24th. Buescher’s streak of padding consecutive top fives at Phoenix is in jeopardy.
Because RFK Racing put both cars inside the top five in the spring Phoenix race, we might as well throw Brad Keselowski in the mix of drivers to stay away from this weekend. Keselowski has had a tough postseason himself, with only a pair of top 10s. Keselowski was 27th on long-run speed in practice and backed that up in qualifying by qualifying 27th.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Ryan Blaney vs. Joey Logano: The Team Penske duo looks to have the best cars among the Championship 4 drivers. Blaney led the way in single, five-, 10, and 15-lap averages during an extended practice session Friday afternoon. The No. 22 ranked second in 10-lap averages and put his Ford on the front row. I’ll give the nod to Blaney, but would it really surprise anyone if Logano continued his postseason magic?
William Byron vs. Tyler Reddick: Hendrick Motorsports looks better overall at Phoenix compared to eight months ago in the spring. The No. 24 ranked in the top five in one-lap and 10-lap averages. Meanwhile, Reddick slotted in 21st on single lap and improved to 10th over a 10-lap run. Going to flip to Byron here, who also bettered Reddick by two positions in qualifying.
Denny Hamlin vs. Kyle Larson: Hamlin was the best non-Penske driver on the 10-lap average and paced the field over a 20-lap run. He also led 68 laps in the spring, tied with Reddick for the race high. Hamlin will have a 10-position buffer to overcome at the start of the race, and the No. 5 team wasn’t much behind Hamlin’s pace. I’m taking Larson.
Ross Chastain vs. Chase Elliott: This is a tough one because Chastain lacked raw speed in practice but said his car felt similar in practice to how it did last year when he ended up dominating the race. He found speed in qualifying and will take the green flag from third position. To further complicate matters, Elliott has four straight finishes outside the top 10 at Phoenix but appeared to have a car capable of breaking that streak and will start fifth. I’ll stay the course and give Chastain the nod.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — The Team Penske No. 22 Ford for championship contender Joey Logano failed NASCAR Cup Series pre-qualifying inspection twice Saturday at Phoenix Raceway.
NASCAR officials penalized the No. 22 team with the ejection of car chief Tommy Ellis and the loss of pit-stall selection for Sunday’s season finale (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock) at the 1-mile track.
Logano is among four drivers who will vie for the Cup Series title Sunday. Teammate Ryan Blaney, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick are the other contenders in the Championship 4 field, and their cars passed inspection on their first try.
Logano earned the second starting spot for the season-ending race in Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying. Travis Geisler, Team Penske’s NASCAR competition director, said that the first two failures were “kind of the normal process, unfortunately,” and that forfeiting pit selection may not be such a disadvantage at Phoenix.
“I think it can be a challenge or it cannot be,” Geisler said. “It just depends on how all that works out, as far as who ends up around you. I think that, typically, when you get down to it, guys work together pretty well on pit road. We have really long stalls here, so it’s one of the easier places to have to get in and out. Somewhere like Martinsville, it’s a lot tougher issue. But I think here we can make do with wherever we end up.”
Logano said there were no extra nerves watching his car make multiple inspection attempts, while the other title-contending teams each sailed through on try one.
“Yeah, business as usual,” said Logano, a two-time Cup Series champ. “I mean, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve got to focus on my job. That’s out of my hands, what goes on with that stuff. So obviously, when it comes down to this, everyone’s pushing and trying to get as much as they can. We thought we fixed it enough for the first time, and we didn’t, so we had to fix it even more so to really make sure you make it through. So just pushing the edge and just didn’t quite get by with what we thought was OK, but obviously it was too far.”
Additionally, the No. 50 Chevrolet, driven by Jeb Burton, failed pre-race inspection four times. Car chief Greg Kibler was ejected, the team lost pit-stall selection and Burton will have to serve a stop-and-go penalty after taking the green flag.
Bobby Allison, founding member of NASCAR’s legendary “Alabama Gang,” the 1983 premier-series champion and winner of 85 races, died Saturday. He was 86 years old.
Allison gained fame and fortune during a racing career that lasted nearly three decades and earned the Florida native practically every racing accolade imaginable. But it was a career that also included more than its share of tragedy –- Allison lost two sons in tragic incidents, and his own career ended after a nearly fatal on-track accident in 1988.
A member of NASCAR’s second Hall of Fame class in 2011, Allison currently holds fourth place on NASCAR’s all-time win list for its premier series. He was recognized for an 85th victory on Oct. 23, 2024, with NASCAR officials deeming him the winner of a disputed race in 1971 at Bowman Gray Stadium.
His 718 career starts are 14th in series history and his 336 top-five finishes are second only to fellow Hall of Famer Richard Petty.
Allison also earned 446 top-10 finishes and 59 poles during a career that began in 1961 and lasted until midway through the 1988 season. He was honored as one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
Along the way, the affable Allison won some of the sport’s biggest events on multiple occasions. He captured the prestigious Daytona 500 three times (1978, ’82, ’88), the legendary Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway four times (’71, ’72, ’75, ’83) and he was a three-time winner of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (’71, ’81, ’84).
His 1988 Daytona victory was especially memorable — the then-50-year-old held off a strong late-race bid by his son, Davey, to collect the win.
“I was having a ball out there,” an elated Bobby Allison told reporters post-race. “Coming down to the finish, it was really good to be in first and to look in my rearview mirror and see someone I really feel is the best driver coming up — and knowing he’s mine. It really is a special feeling.”
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Nearly a decade earlier, also at Daytona, Allison had found himself in the headlines — this time with his younger brother, Donnie, and fellow racer Cale Yarborough.
“And there’s a fight!” CBS announcer Ken Squier excitedly told a national television audience, “between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, the tempers overflowing. …”
“And Bobby Allison has stopped by his brother to help,” analyst David Hobbs added.
The post-race scuffle between the Allison brothers and Yarborough captured the attention of a nation — particularly those on the East Coast and Midwest where a severe winter storm had kept most folks housebound.
Richard Petty won the race, his sixth Daytona 500 title, but it’s the fight afterward that has remained etched in NASCAR lore.
“I think I questioned (Yarborough’s) ancestry,” Bobby Allison recalled, recounting the event while appearing on the FOX Sports program “Race Hub.”
“He lunged at me and hit me in the face with his helmet,” Allison said of Yarborough. “Cut my nose, my lip, blood is dripping in my lap and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of the car and handle this right now or run from him the rest of my life.’ So I got out of the car and the guy got to beating on my fists with his nose.”
Besides his ’83 championship, Allison finished runner-up in the title battle five times — to Bobby Isaac (’70), Petty (’72), Yarborough (’78) and Waltrip (’81-’82).
Allison was named NASCAR’s most popular driver six times. In addition to his success in the premier series, he was a two-time winner in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series and won the International Race of Champions (IROC) title in 1980.
Allison also tried his hand at open-wheel competition — he made two starts in the Indianapolis 500 for team owner Roger Penske (1973, ’75) with a best finish of 25th in his final start. He also ran Ontario (twice), Pocono and Michigan Champ Car races for Penske.
“Bobby Allison personified the term ‘racer.’ Though he is best known as one of the winningest drivers in NASCAR Cup Series history, his impact on the sport extends far beyond the record books,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a statement. “As a driver, he won races and championships across several NASCAR divisions. But as the leader of the famous “Alabama Gang,” Bobby connected with fans in a profound manner. In the most significant ways, he gave his all to our sport. On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to Bobby’s family, friends and fans on the loss of a NASCAR giant.”
Born Robert Arthur Allison on Dec. 12, 1937 in Miami, Florida, he had won back-to-back NASCAR Modified titles in 1964-65 before embarking on a full-time premier-series career in ’66. By then he and younger brother Donnie, along with veteran modified racer Red Farmer, had relocated from Miami to the Hueytown, Alabama, area where they dominated the short-track scene, earning the “Alabama Gang” moniker.
“We go to Alabama and find this little track, cute little quarter‑mile track,” Allison recalled after his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction. “(I finished) fifth, fifth, fifth. I go to the pay window (and) they gave me $135. I said, ‘Donnie, look at all that money. We have died and gone to heaven.’ …
“The people were good and friendly to us. The country was very beautiful in my eyes, lakes and rivers, mountains, lower into the Appalachian Mountains there. Really nice race tracks.
“I wanted to run pavement because I thought pavement was going to lead to NASCAR. The big tracks were going to have to be paved. Dirt style was different. … I felt like I had a really good touch for pavement. I could go to a place I’d never seen before, maybe win the race. You know, I felt good about that, so … that’s kind of how my attitude was.”
In 1966, Allison competed in 33 of the 49 scheduled races, driving for several team owners. His first win came July 12 at Oxford (Maine) Plains Speedway, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet for owner Donald Brackins. Allison started on the pole and led 238 of the 300 laps on the .333-mile paved track.
He won twice more in ’66, at Islip, New York, and Beltsville, Maryland, to end the season with three wins and a 10th-place points finish.
It was the first in a streak of 10 consecutive seasons that saw Allison win multiple times on the premier circuit, including back-to-back 10-win seasons in 1971 and ’72.
Allison was 45 when he ended his time as a bridesmaid in the championship battle, finally capturing the NASCAR crown in 1983. After finishing second to Waltrip the two previous years, he piloted the DiGard Racing No. 22 entry to six wins, including three in a row during the final months of the season, to beat Waltrip by 47 points.
A ninth-place finish in the season-ending race at Riverside International Raceway sealed the title.
He won five more times after his championship season, including the emotional Daytona 500 1-2 finish with son Davey in ’88, and finished in the top 10 in points three more times.
Allison was sixth in points in ’88 entering that season’s Miller High Life 500 at Pocono Raceway. On the first lap of the race, his No. 12 Buick blew a tire and slammed into the outside wall. The Stavola Brothers entry was struck in the driver’s side door when it slid back across the track into oncoming traffic.
Allison suffered broken bones in his left leg, broken ribs and a concussion.
The head injury left Allison with gaps in his memory — including winning the ’88 Daytona 500 that had occurred only months earlier — and he never returned to competition as a driver.
He fielded a premier-series team from 1990 through ’96 with various drivers with no wins and only marginal success.
Son Clifford Allison was attempting to make his 23rd career start in August of 1992 at Michigan International Speedway when he died of injuries sustained in a crash during practice. He was 27.
Davey Allison, 32, was a rising NASCAR star, winner of 19 races and one of the series most popular figures when he crashed his helicopter while attempting to land at Talladega Superspeedway. He died the next morning on July 13, 1993, less than a year after his younger brother’s passing.
Four members of the “Alabama Gang” have been elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, headlined by Bobby Allison’s 2011 induction. Davey Allison was selected for the Class of 2019, followed by Farmer (2021) and Donnie Allison (2024). Neil Bonnett, a fifth “Alabama Gang” member, was among the most recent list of Hall nominees.
The elder Allison’s win total had been a matter of dispute until the fall of 2024, when NASCAR officials opted to credit him as the official winner of a 1971 race at Bowman Gray Stadium. The event was staged as a combination race between Grand National (now Cup Series) cars and the Grand American division’s lighter pony-car models, with the move meant to bolster the field sizes of both series.
Grand National drivers expressed their displeasure after Allison prevailed in a peppy Grand American Ford Mustang, and officials vacated the victory from the all-time win list. NASCAR executives Jim France and Mike Helton restored the win on Oct. 23, paying a personal visit to Allison to inform him of the ruling.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Retiring veteran Martin Truex Jr. claimed the Busch Light Pole Award for his last race as a full-time competitor, besting the field in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock).
The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will start on the front row alongside Team Penske’s Joey Logano, the top qualifying championship contender. Logano’s No. 22 Ford was a slight .010 seconds slower than Truex’s Camry in Saturday’s qualifying session around the desert one-miler.
“It’s very cool, honestly, you always want to be a guy known for going fast at any track, any situation,” said Truex, who claimed the pole with a lap of 134.741 mph and is racing for his first victory of the season. “It feels good, very cool. The big prize is tomorrow, though, and hopefully, we can get that one.”
Logano, who is racing for his third series title, was equally as happy with his effort and the championship implications.
“We’ve got them where we want ‘em right now, just got to keep them there,” Logano said smiling.
Three of the four championship-eligible drivers advanced to the final round of qualifying for the season finale. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron will start his No. 24 Chevrolet from eighth position and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick will start his No. 45 Toyota 10th.
Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney was the only driver among the four title contenders not to advance out of the opening round, his No. 12 Team Penske Ford got loose between Turns 1 and 2 on his hot lap and he will start 17th in the 40-car field.
Because Logano’s car had to go through inspection two extra times before passing, he lost the benefit of getting to select his pit stall and his car chief was ejected for the race. He did not appear to be overly concerned, however.
“We feel confident,” Logano said. “I feel like our car is strong.
“We feel strong about our team and these type of pressure situations, we feel very solid as far as our team and these moments. We’re just executing our plan.”
His Penske teammate Blaney also remained confident despite the qualifying setback.
“Our lap obviously didn’t go well, I just got kind of free going into [turn] one and ruined it all and couldn’t really make it back up,” Blaney said. “I’m surprised honestly it ran as well as it did for as loose as I got. I think our car is pretty good and still nice to have a decent pit stall.
“We’ll just kind of take it how we can get it tomorrow, just work through the first handful of laps and kinda start marching forward. Pretty similar to last year, hopefully, it ends the same. If we can charge through the field, I think our race car is good enough we can make that happen.”
Byron was pleased to get that first pit stall pick with his qualifying effort but had hoped to turn a faster lap. He was quickest in the opening round.
“Sucks didn’t just quite get the lap I wanted in the second lap but feel really good about our race car and get first pit pick and that’s huge. Really excited about those things and just want to put together a good start to the race. It’s such a long race, it’s really about getting to the finish and having what you need there.”
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson will start third and fourth. Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs make up the third row.
Christopher Bell and Byron will line up alongside one another on the fourth row, with Wood Brothers Racing’s Harrison Burton and Reddick completing row five.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — A hectic week for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team culminates Sunday in a repeat appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4.
The Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway one week ago left the 26-year-old leaning on his Chevrolet in agonizing anticipation, awaiting a review of the legality of Christopher Bell’s last-lap wall ride to determine which of the two would advance to the title bout. Bell was penalized, leading Byron back to the title quartet.
Days removed from the anxious wait on pit road, Byron still shivers thinking back to those Martinsville moments.
“It was excruciating,” Byron said in Thursday’s Championship Media Day availabilities. “I felt like it was so long. I was honestly numb to whatever was going to happen. I was honestly just preparing for not being in, then thinking about I felt like we did all we could do. It is what it is at this point.
“It was a lot of waiting. I felt like the longer I waited in some ways that it wasn’t going to work out. But yeah, it did.”
With his advancement comes attempt No. 2 to win Cup title No. 1. Byron won three of the year’s first eight races and none since. But Byron’s unsteady summer has been rectified by an outstanding postseason performance, in which the No. 24 Chevy has compiled six consecutive top-six finishes.
The unity within the walls of Hendrick Motorsports — a company celebrating its 40th anniversary — has brought the group surrounding the No. 24 car closer.
“I haven’t ever felt as bonded to my team as I am now,” Byron said. “We had a meeting on Sunday night about it. I feel like we’ve turned the page really, really quickly. For me personally, I’ve blocked out a ton of the noise. I haven’t looked at social media. I don’t really care. I’m just focused on trying to get the 24 car as fast as I can.
“I think past experiences have probably helped fuel that where I’ve been through enough BS in my Cup career where I know what to focus on and what to block out.”
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media
Proving himself is nothing new to Byron, whose entire racing career started via the computer simulation on iRacing. His resume since then has done plenty to state he deserves to be here: Rookie of the Year honors after a record season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2016; an Xfinity Series title as a rookie; Cup Series Rookie of the Year one year later. Since 2020, Byron is a 13-time winner at the sport’s top level. Unsteady no longer, Byron now seems unflappable.
“That’s how my career started, was always having to prove something,” Byron said. “No one ever felt like I was supposed to be in a race car, so… from day one, it’s always been that motivation for me. Then this year’s no different because of the nature of, yeah, not winning yet in the playoffs.
“We’re still waiting to peak. That’s a good feeling.”
In a year so special to team owner Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports, the NASCAR Cup Series’ winningest organization, Byron has already furthered his name in the legendary team’s history books. He opened the year returning the storied No. 24 Chevrolet to Victory Lane in the “Great American Race” with a Daytona 500 triumph then scored a sentimental win just seven races later at Martinsville Speedway, where Hendrick donned its cars in ruby red and had hundreds in attendance to celebrate its 40-year milestone.
“I feel like our team has just been through a lot of big moments,” Byron said. “Like, no bigger than the 500 this year, lining up on the front row with a shot to win that race. I feel like those moments really prepare you for moments like this weekend. And moments like Martinsville, just kind of putting yourself in those pressure situations.
“There was no more pressure than the 40th-anniversary race at Martinsville in the spring. Just feel like those moments definitely prepare us.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Byron, the first Daytona 500 champion to reach the Championship 4 since Denny Hamlin in 2020, can bookend the season with victories and stands as the only Hendrick driver in the Championship 4 — with all hands on deck from the four-car organization to help prepare his Chevrolet for Phoenix.
“We have worked super closely on the setup this week with all the other teammates we have at HMS,” Byron said. “That’s one thing, just the hands on the car. We don’t have the dilemma of what Penske has where we’re trying to prepare two cars. It’s all focused on the 24. I feel like there were a lot of hands on deck this week at the shop, which is really cool to see. Then we’ll have simulation going on back at the shop all the way up till the green flag. I think that’s what’s different, is just the fact that we don’t have really any other focus but this race.
“Yeah, it’s cool (to have all focus on the 24). I didn’t expect that. Yeah, it shows the teamwork at HMS, kind of what Mr. H and everyone there has built for that to be the case. We all race hard. I feel like at the end of the day, we always want the best for one another.”
In Friday’s 50-minute practice session at Phoenix, Byron posted the fourth-quickest lap at 132.004 mph, his 27.272-second lap time just 0.098 seconds shy of fellow Champ 4 contender Ryan Blaney’s fastest lap. Blaney was quickest across 15-lap averages ahead of Hamlin and Byron, with Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano just behind Byron. Tyler Reddick, who won at Homestead-Miami Speedway to advance to his Championship 4 debut, was 11th of the 24 drivers who posted a run of 15 consecutive laps and ran the 21st-fastest lap in Friday’s session.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Corey Heim and Christian Eckes combined to win 10 of the 23 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in 2024. But on the night it mattered most, neither had enough to contend with Ty Majeski.
While Majeski scurried away to dominate the Truck Series’ season finale at Phoenix Raceway, Heim and Eckes were left to settle for second and third, respectively. Fellow Championship 4 contender Grant Enfinger, who won two of the season’s final four races, left the Arizona desert with a fifth-place finish, fourth in the final season rundown.
Heim and his No. 11 Tricon Garage team, six-time winners this year, rallied from Heim’s only penalty of the season — a Lap 99 restart violation that sent Heim to the rear of the field for the following restart. Two quick cautions allowed Heim to charge through the field and back into the top five, but Majeski’s Ford was simply untouchable.
“They were unbelievably lights out all race,” Heim said. “From the get-go, I felt like we fired off pretty free in Stage 1 and we were able to reel him back in. He seemed to struggle in traffic a little bit. Once they adjusted on it and the cautions started cycling to the point where we never really hit a lot of lapped traffic, it was about over for me.”
Heim’s frustration with the penalty was obvious on the radio, but crew chief Scott Zipadelli both understood the penalty and why Heim’s pressure valve popped in the final stage of Friday’s 150-lap showdown.
“He definitely got frustrated,” Zipadelli told NASCAR.com. “You know, there’s a lot on the line when you come here for this race, and there’s a lot of pressure we put on ourselves. You know, you think about it, and you dream about this day, and you don’t want to give it away on a penalty like that. Obviously, he didn’t see the view that we saw.”
A runner-up result doesn’t negate what the No. 11 team was able to do in 2024, doubling its three-win total in 2023 to six in 2024 and collecting two more top fives in the process.
“It was a good year,” Zipadelli said. “NASCAR threw a lot of rule changes at us over the winter, and we had a lot of work to do. And I think we achieved our goals. We wanted to win more races than last year, and we doubled our wins. We gave a few away this year, but we’re going to work really hard on our short-track package over the winter time and get that as good as our mile-and-a-half packages. And next year, we hope to achieve more.”
They’ll have the opportunity to build further on that success in 2025 as both Heim and Zipadelli return to the No. 11 team for a third season next year.
“The more you work together, the easier it gets,” Zipadelli said. “The biggest thing is you want to keep all your people. It’s all about people. You don’t want to go through the year changing road guys, mechanics, all that. So yeah, being able to keep our group together for a few years is really going to be something special because you saw what we did the first year and then the second year. Obviously the third year, we’re even more motivated to get that big trophy.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
Eckes and his No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing program were victorious four times this season and entered as the defending winners of the season finale. Friday, Eckes qualified fourth — third of the Championship 4 drivers behind Majeski and Heim but directly ahead of Enfinger. Eckes ran approximately third of the group all night long, unable to make headway on either Majeski or Heim.
But a Lap 111 caution allowed Eckes and Enfinger to hit pit road for tires that were 20 laps fresher than either of the other two frontrunners. Eckes charged from 16th back to the top five but still needed one last caution for a real shot at the ultimate prize.
“We kind of felt like we had maximized what we were going to get before that pit stop,” crew chief Charles Denike told NASCAR.com. “And the 98 and 11 were just stronger. I didn’t have much left to work on on balance. We needed to do something different and try to flip it on tires. We still had another set of tires left laying. And if the caution had come out with 10 to go, I feel confident that all of us would have come and put them on, so it at least allowed us to be on the attack.
“It was starting to feel a little vulnerable there running wherever we were — fifth or so — so (fresh) tires were better than not being on tires.”
Championship or not, the No. 19 team’s season was phenomenal, collecting four wins in consecutive seasons and this year earning 22 top-10 finishes — 21 straight, with only a 32nd-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February a blemish on an otherwise perfect year in the top-10 column.
“All you can ask for is to have a shot here, and that’s what we did,” said Denike, who will move to the Cup Series to crew chief Bubba Wallace in 2025. “We just came up a little bit short against those two. But still really proud to go home third in points and with four wins — four wins on both years, so total of eight. Incredible streak of top 10s and a bunch of top fives this year, led laps and almost all the races. So I mean, it’s so much to be proud of, and the whole group has worked extremely hard to be where they’re at right now.”
Enfinger’s season in the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet was not as dominant as either Heim’s or Eckes’, but a solid showing late in the year culminated in yet another Championship 4 appearance.
“I feel like we’ve proven to not only maybe y’all and our competitors, but to ourselves that we can do this, we can contend for wins and contend for championships,” Enfinger said. “I’m really proud of kind of the growth we’ve had all year, the buying-in from everybody we’ve had all year. We still have a long ways to go from an organization to get it to kind of what me and Jeff (Stankiewicz, crew chief) and (team general manager Michael) Shelton all envisioned and Codie (Rohrbaugh, team owner).”
“Proud of how far we have come. I feel like we earned our spot here.”
AVONDALE, Ariz. — All Ty Majeski needed was a green-flag run to finish off his domination of Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race — a victory that earned him his first series title.
Majeski led 132 of 150 laps at one-mile Phoenix Raceway, and when the race-ending 27-lap green-flag run finally came, Majeski pulled away to a 3.945-second victory over Corey Heim, who recovered from a restart violation to finish second.
“I can’t believe it,” said Majeski, who won for the first time at Phoenix, the third time this season at the sixth time in his career. “Huge thank you to (ThorSport Racing team owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson, (crew chief) Joe Shear Jr. — he’s one bad dude.
“This is so much fun racing with this group. I’m so proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. There’s a lot of times in my career when this looked like a far dream. Duke and Rhonda really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities that failed—man, I can’t thank them enough.”
The championship was the second for Shear, who guided Johnny Sauter to the title with GMS Racing in 2016. For ThorSport, it was a series-record sixth championship, adding to three with Matt Crafton and two with 2023 champion Ben Rhodes.
ThorSport has won three of the last four Truck Series titles.
Heim restarted 19th on Lap 108 after his penalty and quickly moved forward, but the driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota couldn’t overcome the speed in Majeski’s No. 98 Ford.
“I’m really disappointed to come up short like that,” said Heim, who will return for a third season with Tricon next year. “It’s hard to even be upset. I did almost everything right except for that restart violation (changing lanes before the start/finish line).
“But we were able to get our track position back pretty quick and make the most of it. I just had nothing for the 98. All day, he was so fast … We’ll move forward with our heads up high, a six-win season — career highs for myself, my team, organization, everybody — just one spot short of the championship.”
Championship 4 drivers Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger finished third and fifth, respectively, after pitting for fresh tires on Lap 113. Though they were able to move through the field, they had nothing for the race winner.
Before the final green-flag run, three quick cautions — including a six-minute, nine-second red flag for a nine-truck wreck on the backstretch — interrupted the action at the start of the final stage, bringing the total for yellows to six for 43 laps. After Majeski got away in clean air from a restart on Lap 124, however, the race was over.
Starting from the pole position, Majeski streaked to a lead of more than two seconds, but Heim tracked him down in traffic and passed the No. 98 Ford for the top spot on Lap 39.
Three laps later, the Ford of Frankie Muniz spun after contact with William Sawalich’s Toyota, ending the first 45-lap stage under caution.
But Majeski reclaimed the lead, with Eckes advancing to second, after Heim slid past the marks in his pit stall under the caution for the stage break and came out third.
Heim complained on the team radio channel that the concrete pit stall was one of the slickest he had ever experienced.
Majeski flipped the script in Stage 2, passing Heim for the top spot on Lap 71, six circuits after a restart that followed Jack Wood’s hard crash into the Turn 2 wall.
By the end of the stage at Lap 90, Majeski had expanded his advantage to 3.597 seconds. But stage wins were inconsequential to the Championship 4 contenders, who would settle possession of the title in the frenetic final segment of the race.
Nick Sanchez finished fourth as the only non-Championship 4 driver to crack the top five. Taylor Gray was sixth, followed by Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Rhodes and Layne Riggs.
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Truck Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Majeski as the Phoenix race winner and 2024 Truck Series champion. The No. 98 ThorSport Ford will undergo engine teardown Saturday, Nov. 9.
Ty Majeski held off Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim and Christian Eckes to win his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Friday night at Phoenix Raceway.
The championship run comes in Majeski’s second appearance in the Championship 4 in just his third full-time national series campaign. It also marks ThorSport Racing’s sixth Truck Series title, the most of any organization in the series.
“This is so much fun racing with this group,” Majeski said. “So proud to have the opportunity to drive these great race trucks. There’s a lot of times in my career where this looks like a far dream, and [team owners] Duke and Rhonda [Thorson] really gave me my third opportunity after I had two opportunities that failed. I can’t thank them enough.”
Majeski came on the scene late as a 2024 championship contender, winning back-to-back races at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway to close out the regular season.
The driver from Seymour, Wisconsin, went winless through the Truck Series postseason, pointing his way through the rounds leading up to the Phoenix finale, propelled by runner-up finishes at Milwaukee and Homestead.
Majeski made his Truck Series debut in 2019, driving for Niece Motorsports at Phoenix for one start before joining the team for 15 starts the following season.
In 2021, he moved to a part-time role with ThorSport Racing, scattering a pair of top 10s across four races. He would get the full-time call for the 2022 season, driving the No. 98 for ThorSport and riding a two-win campaign to his first Championship 4 appearance.
“It’s been a long road here,” Majeski said. “These people behind me, everybody at Ford, really gave me another opportunity when my career looked like it could have ended, and they brought me on as an engineer in 2021 with a few races and turned into a full-time deal. We made our first Championship 4 in ’22, and now we’re sitting here as champions.”
ThorSport Racing also became the first team in Truck Series history to have multiple back-to-back driver championships after Ben Rhodes won last year and Matt Crafton went back-to-back in 2013-14. Majeski adds to the lore for the team owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson that was established in 1996 and is run out of Sandusky, Ohio. All five of Majeski’s career Truck wins entering Friday’s championship race have come with ThorSport, along with 44 top-10 finishes in 72 races.
