On Friday, Corey Heim claimed his season’s 6th victory. However, that storyline may be buried under some other spicier events that unfolded at the Mission 176 race. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series visited Watkins Glen International and left with a truckload of broken fenders, faulty brakes, and burnt bumpers. Among these mishaps was a possible flare-up between rivals. One of them was Ty Majeski.
The 2024 Craftsman Truck Series champion has not been able to match his glittering stats from last year. Posting 10 top ten and 4 top five finishes, Ty Majeski is still pursuing that elusive first victory of the 2025 season. That may have made him a little impatient during the Watkins Glen race.
Ty Majeski douses potential flames
Flames had indeed engulfed Watkins Glen International on Friday. So much so that the road course event reminded people about the Craftsman 150 at Phoenix Raceway in 2023. Carson Hocevar had wrecked out Corey Heim in the final laps of that race, depriving both himself and Heim of the championship. On Friday, however, Heim got away luckily despite a slew of braking issues. His rivals were not so lucky. With mechanical issues already plaguing drivers, the impatience increased towards the latter part of the race. Just after Toni Breidinger’s truck literally went up in flames, flames of conflict erupted between Ty Majeski and Tannery Gray.
With 9 laps left, Tanner Gray slammed the wall hard after hooking himself off the nose of Ty Majeski. He suffered major damage, forcing the umpteenth caution to fly. The front portion of Gray’s No. 15 Truck was mangled and severely damaged. Although people had anticipated a confrontation, Majeski cleared up any possibility of that in a post-race interview. He said, “Yeah, I talked with Tanner, he kind of felt the same thing. We apologized to each other; obviously, none of us wants to tear up trucks. So yeah, he and I are all good. He took responsibility, and so did I, two people were involved in that wreck…so we’re all good.”
No hard feelings between @tannergray5 and @TyMajeski as the pair talked and agreed on who was at fault for their late-race tangle. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/iNbg55ye9q
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) August 9, 2025
Ty Majeski currently stands 6th in the championship standings. After the Watkins Glen race, the garage area was a mess with multiple damaged trucks – even in the chaos, Majeski felt a little optimistic. The ThorSport Racing driver said, “We were fighting some brake issues today, felt like maybe a lot of guys were. After what happened this morning, I think today was a solid day. I think we got some stage points in stage 2 and ended up 7th. A lot of the guys who were racing for points had worse days than us. Certainly not a banner day for the No. 98 team, but a good step in the right direction towards the playoffs here.”
Besides the Truck Series regulars, even some Cup Series stars faced solid trouble on Friday.
The champion’s woeful streak continued
We all know about Kyle Busch’s misery. Since 2023, the Richard Childress Racing driver has been riding an 80-race winless streak. He could not escape that trend of misfortune even in the Truck Series this time. Since the Craftsman Truck Series raced at Watkins Glen for the second time since 2001, many Cup Series stars were interested. They included Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher. And also, of course, Busch – but the two-time Cup Series champion faced misery early.
Kyle Busch had his No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck’s steering box break during the first caution. His team judged it to be unrepairable, resulting in Busch going behind the wall and finishing 36th. He was not alone, though. Ross Chastain, who was one of Heim’s biggest rivals early in the race, went down under. He was forced to have his fuel pump replaced under caution, and a second failure finally took him out. Christopher Bell, on the other hand, fought back from a mechanical issue to clinch a 4th-place finish. Chris Buescher could wash up in 22nd place.
Clearly, Ty Majeski was hardly the only person whose day went haywire. Although he steered his relations with Tanner Gray in the right direction, the defending champion needs to focus on winning.
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