How Ty Majeski’s playoff strategy backfired despite having “saved enough” for the final lap?

Ty Majeski looked as if he was about to pull off the win in Friday's night Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway on a fuel strategy call. However, with Corey Heim looming in the runner-up spot, the 30-year-old couldn't save enough gas and ran out on the last lap, ultimately costing him the victory.

The driver of the #98 ThorSport Racing Ford looked to have his third victory of the 2024 season in hand at the 1.5-mile track as he held a sizeable lead over Heim's #11 TRICON Garage Toyota. However, in an unfortunate end for the five-time Truck Series winner, Majeski's truck sputtered coming to the white flag as he slowly ran out of gas and surrendered the lead, ultimately finishing 15th in the end.

After the race, Majeski told Frontstretch that he thought he had enough fuel to reach the finish, but in the end, he was one lap shy of a victory. The Wisconsin native added:

“[Corey Heim] was coming, so I don’t know that I really could have saved a lot more and made it to the end and still won the race, unless I was just off on my technique. We’ll have to go back and see what I could have done better to save,” he said.

Majeski filled up with fuel under the last caution period with 53 laps to go. Drivers such as Heim pitted on the last green flag run of the race, but the #98 team decided to take a gamble in an attempt to win the race.

It was either win the race or run out of fuel trying and Majeski didn't want to have any other options, as he said:

“I still think it was worth the gamble. I still like the call. We weren’t going to win the race the way it was. And at the end of the day, that’s all that mattered to us today,” Majeski said.

“Second does us no good. There were three laps that mattered to us tonight, and it was each stage and the end of the race for playoff points,” he added.

Majeski started Friday's race from the pole position, earned the stage one victory, and placed fourth in stage two before ultimately finishing 15th.

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Ty Majeski moves on to the next round of the playoffs

Despite coming up short in Friday's race, Ty Majeski still has a shot at the ultimate prize, the Truck Series championship, as he'll be a part of the Round of 8 of the playoffs, which kicks off next Friday at Talladega.

Having already clinched a spot in the upcoming Round of 8 of the Truck Series playoffs, Majeski said winning was all that mattered. He said (via the aforementioned source):

“We had a strong truck tonight, just kind of lost the handle of it throughout the middle parts of the race and felt like our best shot to win was to gamble there, so that’s what we did."

Majeski has two victories this season, with one coming at the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and the other at the Richmond Raceway. He'll start the Round of 8 from third in the standings with a 14-point gap over the cut-line.

He is seeking his first Truck Series championship. His previous best finish in the series was fourth in 2022 after making a Championship 4 appearance that year.