The front row at Richmond is getting familiar for Ty Majeski. He won the pole the last time the Truck Series raced at Richmond, Virginia last season, and he’s won it again ahead of the WorldWide Express 250 at the track this season.
He says the results show just how much the track suits his driving style.
“It’s a short track, right? I’ve had a decent amount of success in my career on short tracks,” he pointed out. “And this is a very slick one, it doesn’t have a lot of grip. So this track just takes a lot of discipline to get around, even in qualifying.”
“This place just takes so much discipline,” he added. “Your initial reaction is to just drive it as hard as you can in qualifying and you can’t do that. So as long as you hit a good lap and your car’s decent, you can make up a lot as a driver, and I feel like this sort of fits my driving style.”
The race is the regular season finale for the Truck Series. Sitting 110 points above the cutline, Majeski has no reason to worry about his lack of a win at this point in the season. But he certainly wants to get one, and it was at this point last season that his results began to improve before ultimately getting two wins.
Can he do that again? “Definitely.”
“I think a combination of a few things,” he explained: “there’s a lot of good racetracks for us in this stretch… and I think throughout the season we’ve learned things as well. I feel like this time of the season is a little bit more spread out and we’re caught up as a race team and I’m well-rested for this stretch coming up here and we’re excited to get going.”
Starting up front certainly will help that effort to get a win since it’s hard to pass at the track. Last season he ended up third, and he’ll be hoping to make up those final positions on Saturday.
“This place you can move around at. There’s typically not a lot of yellows here, just because the track is wide and it’s got very low grip and we’re not going very fast, so typically everything happens at a slower pace,” he said.
“Usually less chaos – I say that and then we’ll have a chaotic race tomorrow night – but typically this race goes green and it’s hard to pass, just like anywhere in the Truck Series. To get that track position on a race that has a tendency to go green is an advantage.”
And even in a regular season finale, Majeski isn’t expecting any more chaos.
“You can get to somebody’s bumper here, but everything’s just so slow-paced,” he argued. “This race has had a lot of history of going green. I don’t foresee it getting crazy just because it’s a cutoff race. I don’t really see anybody taking those types of chances.”
Corey Heim recorded the second-fastest lap and will start next to Majeski on Saturday.
The standout performance came from William Sawalich, who will start third in his third-ever Truck Series start, driving for Tricon Garage.
With 38 drivers entered for a 36-truck field, Justin Carroll and Trey Hutchens didn’t make the field and will head home.
The WorldWide Express 250 will air at 7:30 pm ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Truck Series Lineup Richmond (PDF)
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