Ty Majeski advances Round of 8 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series after securing a fifth-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, on a day filled with both determination and disappointment among Ford drivers. While Majeski and fellow driver Layne Riggs celebrated moving on to the next playoff round, Chandler Smith and Jake Garcia faced elimination despite strong performances on the track.
Majeski Secures Playoff Advancement Amid Struggles
On a challenging day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ty Majeski finished fifth in the EJP 175, navigating a turbulent race that threatened to derail his playoff hopes. Despite struggles in traffic and a series of cautions that disrupted his momentum, Majeski managed to hold his ground and gather enough points to advance to the Round of 8. His performance continues a trend of consistency, with six top-five finishes in his last seven starts.
Majeski acknowledged the difficulties faced during the race, noting persistent handling issues that left his No. 98 Ford slipping in traffic. Describing his efforts, Majeski provided insight into his mindset:
“I wish I knew. It’s not a balance issue. It’s not loose or tight, we’re just kind of four-wheel sliding in traffic. It’s really frustrating because there’s nothing that we can do at the racetrack to help it, so I don’t know. We’re gonna have to go back to the shop and think about it. We’ve got a lot of good people at ThorSport and we’ll be able to figure it out. It was just a frustrating day. It started out promising and once the field flipped our day just turned upside down and really took me all day to fight back to where we did. All of those yellows didn’t help me. If we could have had a green flag run, I probably could have picked my way through there a little bit quicker, but those restarts just killed me and needed the race to develop and everybody get single-file before my truck would show.”
Ty Majeski, Driver
Looking ahead to the upcoming playoff round, Majeski expressed cautious optimism, relying on both recent results and his team’s strengths on road courses:
“I feel like we’re in a good spot. Six of the last seven races we’ve been in the top five, so we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and if we do that, we’ll advance to Phoenix. There are some crazy racetracks coming up. It’s kind of a wild card round. Our road course package has been pretty good and that’s been one of our strengths. Hopefully, we can go to the Roval and have a good run and not be in a must-win situation come Talladega and Martinsville.”
Ty Majeski, Driver
Layne Riggs Joins Majeski in Playoff Advancement
Layne Riggs finished third in the race, clinching his spot in the Round of 8 alongside Majeski. Although Riggs expressed satisfaction with his performance, he acknowledged there were challenges with the truck setup and adapting to a new track. He also spoke about his effort as a teammate, trying to help Chandler Smith advance.
“I feel like this was a solid day. It wasn’t the truck’s fault, like the chassis and truck itself, we just kind of missed the setup. I’ve never been here before. I feel like the sim didn’t really 100 percent correlate, so that kind of screwed me up in practice and just kind of missed the front end. It didn’t really turn as good as it needed to all day, so we were a third-place truck and did what we were supposed to do and finished third. I tried to be a good teammate trying to help Chandler get in. I wish he could have gotten the win, but just glad both Front Row Motorsports trucks were fast at the end and in contention for it.”
Layne Riggs, Driver
Chandler Smith’s Bittersweet Second Place
Chandler Smith, driving for Long John Silver’s, delivered an intense charge late in the race to finish second, yet he fell short of advancing in the playoffs. Reflecting the complicated emotions of the day, Smith described his results and the journey with his team:
“I feel like it’s a little bittersweet, to be honest with you. I had a fast truck that was capable of winning. I started hauling butt there at the end and running down the 11, but it wasn’t in the Lord’s Will today, honestly. I pulled everybody together before the race. We prayed together and I wanted to let them know that I’m proud of them no matter the outcome today. We’ve had so much fun this season and the way this deal came about so late, I felt like honestly, don’t get me wrong, we had the expectation of wanting to go win, but we’ve really accomplished a lot more than I think we all envisioned us to do, so it’s bittersweet. It’s bitter because I would obviously like to race for a championship, but it’s sweet because I know that we have trucks capable of winning every time we show up to the racetrack. It just wasn’t meant to be, it’s as simple as that. We finished 30th at Darlington, which was on me. We had a mechanical issue last week at Bristol and finished 30th again and then came here and finished second. We’ll move on and just try to win these last few races.”
Chandler Smith, Driver
Jake Garcia Reflects on Playoff Disappointment
Jake Garcia finished 16th in the EJP 175 but was unable to secure enough points to continue his playoff run. The Quanta Services driver analyzed his performance and challenges faced during the race, as well as his season as a whole:
“I didn’t really think we were ever that good today. We never got the balance right and didn’t have a good day speed-wise. It sucks to get bounced like that, but I’m still proud of everything our guys accomplished over the course of the season and getting our trucks good for a lot of these races. We had some shots to win and had a pretty good year, so it’s unfortunate to get bumped from the playoffs, but still proud of what we accomplished this year.”
Jake Garcia, Driver
“We were just super tight. We never got it to turn. We took some really big swings at it and nothing really did much for it, so we’ll have to figure out why that is and what went so wrong this weekend and we’ll move on to the next one. Hopefully, when we come back here or a track like this, we’ll have a little bit better notebook.”
Jake Garcia, Driver
“Probably Phoenix. I’ve run second there in the past. Talladega is anybody’s ball game. We’ll see what happens there. I ran third at Martinsville earlier and I think we learned a lot there for when we come back. I don’t consider myself a good road course racer, but I was running fifth at the end of Watkins Glen, so anything can happen. I would say I feel like we’ve got a shot going into all of them, but definitely think we take this opportunity to work on some stuff for next year hopefully and try to get our trucks a little better and build our notebook a little bit.”
Jake Garcia, Driver
Other Notable Results and Team Perspectives
Beyond the playoff implications, several Ford drivers recorded various finishes at New Hampshire. Derek White placed 30th, Stephen Mallozzi ended up 35th, and Ben Rhodes, Blake Lothian, Matt Crafton, and Tyler Tomassi finished 24th, 20th, 26th, and 27th respectively. The continued presence of both new and veteran names, such as Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton, highlighted the intensity and unpredictability of the Truck Series playoffs and the depth of Ford’s lineup at the event.
Looking Ahead to High-Stakes Races
With Ty Majeski advancing Round of 8, his ThorSport team will focus on analyzing the challenges faced at New Hampshire, especially their performance in traffic, before heading into a critical stretch of wild card tracks. The upcoming races at Talladega, the Roval, Martinsville, and Phoenix are expected to test every aspect of the teams and drivers as they push towards the season’s conclusion and a shot at the championship.
As the stakes get higher, the mix of resolve and uncertainty captured in team comments from New Hampshire signals that the path to Phoenix will demand every bit of skill, collaboration, and speed the drivers and organizations can muster.
