'This place is badass': Ty Majeski is back at home at his favorite racetrack, cashing another $15,000 paycheck
KAUKAUNA - Ty Majeski can’t tell you exactly the night he first came to Wisconsin International Raceway. It has to have been 15 years ago now.
He was a young go-kart racer from nearby Seymour, and he’d never been to a race like that at a track like this. But he knew he liked it.
“Right down in Turn 1,” Majeski recalled. That’s where he and his family sat. “We came to a Red, White & Blue race and Steve Holzhausen wore ’em out.”
The next time Majeski got back to the D-shaped half-mile, he was driving a car of his own. And the last time he left — Tuesday night — he’d been back in victory lane.
“It’s my favorite racetrack, not only because it’s my home track,” Majeski said after winning the ARCA Midwest Tour Gandrud 250. “This place is badass.
“Always happy to come back here. Always a lot of fun.”
The 27-year-old, five-time Midwest Tour champ didn’t exactly wear out the competition Tuesday night the way Holzhausen did all those years ago. This victory, Majeski’s third in four years, came through a combination of perseverance, speed, experience and good fortune. Majeski and his team overcame mechanical issues in qualifying and late in the race, he took the lead from Gabe Sommers with 26 laps left and he held off always-tough Casey Johnson in an eight-lap shootout.
One of the country’s premier short-track racers and now a full-timer on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Majeski picked up his third $15,000 payday of the season following wins at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida, and South Alabama Speedway.
“It’s been March since we won,” Majeski said, sounding surprised by the realization. “Honestly we’ve had really good cars but haven’t had the results and gotten back into victory lane.
“So it feels good to get back in victory lane, back up an awesome truck race Saturday night (in Clermont, Indiana). Almost won that one. So a lot of good things on the horizon for us.”
Majeski became the event’s second three-time winner, following Butch Miller in 1985, ’86 and ’88.
His drought just as easily could have continued, given the trouble Majeski encountered.
Before qualifying, his car got stuck in first gear, and crew chief Toby Nuttleman had to use a pry bar to free it. The team changed the transmission before the race.
Then Majeski fought a failing power steering system throughout the feature, finally coming to pit road under the caution flag with 66 laps to go.
“It’s hard to counter-steer when you don’t have power steering, so hopefully I wasn’t going to self-spin on the exits,” said Majeski, who fell from fourth to seventh on the stop. “I was being super smooth, trying not to get loose and thankfully I was able to hang onto some track position.
“Thankfully the pinhole was small enough that we filled it up with power steering fluid and it lasted. Kind of got lucky.”
Johnny Sauter, Majeski’s sometimes ThorSport teammate in trucks, led twice for 95 laps and controlled the race until the left rear axle on his car snapped as he led the field to a restart with 55 laps remaining.
“Brand new,” Sauter said. “Everything’s brand new.
“I rode around under caution, I felt a little bit of vibration … I went to get on the gas and it just broke.”
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Sauter’s trouble opened the door for Sommers, the Midwest Tour’s 2019 rookie of the year from Plover, but he needed the race to go caution-free to the finish.
“Wish I was in victory lane, but we’ll be there soon,” Sommers said.
“The tires had 60, 70, 80 laps more on them, so it’s just hard to compete with that. But the car was really good up to that point and really balanced, and I’m happy with today.”
Johnson did his best to challenge Majeski, but Majeski got the jump on the restart for the eight-lap shootout after Bobby Kendall’s spin and finished 0.324 of a second ahead.
“Finishing second in the (Gandrud) 250 is nothing to hang your head about,” said Johnson, who won the 2017 race after Kyle Busch was disqualified. “But we had a great car and a great team, and we’re competing at a real high level. We want to get these wins.”
Stephen Nasse, the Florida barnstormer making his first start at the track, had the best result of the visiting drivers, sixth. Matt Kenseth, a two-time track champion and recent NASCAR Hall of Fame selection, finished 11th after a late spin with Grant Griesbach. Kenseth was making his first start at the track in 15 years. NASCAR Cup Series driver Erik Jones dropped out after contact and finished 21st.
“This place is hard on equipment,” said Majeski, who won the Gandrud 250 in 2020 despite an engine miss. “We’ve had a lot of mechanical failures here. We had a water pump belt go out in ’15, we’ve had a clutch hub go out, we’ve had all kinds of things happen. It’s just hard on equipment.
"It’s an old, rough racetrack. So you have to cross your t’s and dot you’re i’s when you come here.”
You’ll notice Majeski’s other description of the place — favorite — includes both of those letters.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ty Majeski wins $15,000 ARCA Midwest Tour Kaukauna race at WIR
