Majeski Eager for NASCAR’s Return to The Milwaukee Mile

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For Ty Majeski, Sunday’s Clean Harbors 175 at the Milwaukee Mile will be a like home game in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series playoffs. The Seymour, Wisconsin native scored an opening-round win at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park two weeks ago and is looking to keep the momentum going in front of friends and family at Milwaukee.

“I’m going to have a lot of hometown friends, family, supporters, people that supported me from the go-kart days, late models. It’s going to be an opportunity for people to finally see me on the NASCAR stage and people that had a hand in getting me to this point.”

“To be able to race close to home and have a lot of those people at a truck event that they usually aren't able to go to just because usually the truck races are far away and this one's local. It's going to be such a cool event. Wisconsin is such a honey ball for short track racing and I expect the stands to be absolutely packed and I'm just so excited to get there. It's gonna be a cool atmosphere.”

Majeski, a two-time winner at The Mile in ASA competition, would love to bookend his Father’s Day 100 ASA STARS victory there two months ago with a NASCAR Truck Series win.

“Yeah, it would be incredibly special and I feel the win (at IRP) sort of opens it up for us to be a little more aggressive on strategy, restarts, even a set-up, try something a little bit at Milwaukee for Phoenix. I feel good about that.

“The only things that matter now these next two races for us are playoff points, stage wins or race wins so we need to take advantage of that, build up our points gap, or cushion, from the bubble going into the second round.”

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Given his experience and success at Milwaukee, Majeski would seem to be an obvious favorite for Sunday’s race. While he downplays whatever advantage he might have going into the race, Majeski hopes it works in his favor.

“Well, I think there is an advantage. But these guys are good, right? We're all professional race car drivers. I don't expect it to take but two or three laps for everybody else to be up to speed and I think there's little nuances with the race track that maybe I’ll know in the race before everybody else does. But everybody's gonna figure it out by the end of the first stage or lap 20, right?

“These guys are good, super talented. All the simulation we have between iRacing and manufacturer simulators are so many tools now that race car drivers can use to adapt to these places and adapt really quickly. So, although I think it is a little bit of an advantage, we're still going to have to be on our game there.

“Everybody's going to be really tough there and you know Milwaukee's a racetrack that's a lot like, turns three and four at Gateway (WorldWide Technology Raceway at St. Louis) and turns one and two at Phoenix, so there's a lot of places that sort of emulate Milwaukee in the package that we're probably going to have to run there. I expect everybody to be on their game and hopefully those little advantages will will pay off.”

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Despite his experience at Milwaukee, the 29-year-old Majeski says The Mile still presents a lot of unknowns for he and crew chief Joe Shear, Jr.

“The shape and the corners are kind of like IRP, but a lot longer straightways,  so aero matters a little bit more and you’re going faster.

“Very conflicted on what package to go with there. Joe and I have been talking a lot about it, if you go with something more toward Gateway, IRP or somewhere in the middle. A lot of discussion, the jury’s still out on that. We’ll talk and try and figure which package.”

As well as he’s been running of late, the 2023 season hasn’t been without its challenges, beginning with a manufacturer switch from Toyota to Ford in the off-season

“I think with the manufacturer change, naturally there's some growing pains with that. It takes a lot out of the race team to switch everything over from a technology and development standpoint to the actual race truck. I feel like we've gotten back to where we were for sure. I feel good about where we're at as a race team.

“Our short track package is really good,” Majeski continued. “We've had speed on the intermediates as well. We've been winning Charlotte and we had a really fast truck at Kansas in the spring, so we feel good about it. We feel like the playoff schedule and the racetracks that we go to really play into our hands as an organization. And, you know, there's no reason why we can't get all three of us (teammates Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes) in the championship race at Phoenix.

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Now in his second full season driving for ThorSport Racing, Majeski feels more confident his second time around in the truck series playoffs.

“The blueprint that I took last year was easiest, winning Bristol and locking your way in. Obviously, we want to do that again. The goal is to do that again. But if we don't we just have to be consistent throughout the playoffs.

“I felt like May and June was a little disappointing. We had a lot of great race tracks in that section of the season and just not the results to go with it.

“So just being consistent throughout the playoffs, collecting points and all stages and finishing these races where we need to if it's fifth that day, finish fifth. The message is not to put myself in a bad spot and not finish one of these races. You don't really have a mulligan, everybody's on top of their game. Just need to keep the trucks in one piece and finish these races where we should and hopefully the points will take care of itself.”

Soaking in all the home-race vibes, Majeski hopes to keep the playoff momentum going at Milwaukee. A win in front of family and friends would be even better.

“It would be so special to be able to bring all those people down into victory lane and share that with them.”