Ty Majeski cruises to Homestead Trucks win over Zane Smith

Majeski dominated the final stage in Saturday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and cruised to a 4.524 second win over Zane Smith, his second series win in the last three races.

Majeski is the only driver who advanced to next weekend’s title race at Phoenix Raceway by winning his way in.

“Man, this is awesome,” Majeski said. “This place is so hard to read in practice. Nobody had any grip, right, so I didn’t really know what we had. But this (car) was bad to the bone today.

“Thank you to Joe Shear (Jr.), my crew chief, we’ve been working great this year together. I’m just so thankful we were able to make the most of this thing. We’re going to chase a championship in two weeks.”

The three other drivers who will compete for the 2022 series title are regular season champion Zane Smith, Chandler Smith and reigning champion Ben Rhodes.

Rhodes took the final position by one point over Stewart Friesen.

Friesen finished third in the race, Ryan Preece was fourth and Corey Heim rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Rhodes, Christian Eckes, Matt Crafton, Parker Kligerman and Chandler Smith.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap trucks all pit with Preece first off pit road. Kaden Honeycutt had a loose wheel on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

On the restart on Lap 67, Preece was followed by Majeski, Eckes and Zane Smith.

Majeski powered to the front on the inside line on the restart to take the lead for the first time in the race.

On Lap 80, Grant Enfinger – who was running sixth at the time – hit the wall and was forced to pit under green with a flat right-front tire.

With 40 laps remaining, Majeski maintained less than a half-second lead over Zane Smith as some drivers kicked off a final round of green-flag pit stops to take new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 102, Majeski returned to the lead. He was followed by Zane Smith, Preece and Friesen.

With 20 laps to go, Majeski had built a 1.6-second lead over Zane Smith as Preece remained in third, more than 11 seconds behind the leader.

Majeski’s lead over Zane Smith approached five seconds with five laps remaining in the race.

Stage 2

Zane Smith held off Majeski to claim the Stage 2 win, his eighth stage win of the 2022 season.

Preece was third, Friesen fourth and Rhodes completed the top-five.

Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, the lead-lap trucks all pit with Zane Smith first off pit road.

Kligerman was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field. Crafton had a crew member over the wall too soon and also had to restart from the rear of the field.

On the restart on Lap 37, Zane Smith was followed by Enfinger, Rhodes and Preece.

Rhodes went to the outside and took the field three-wide on the restart and reclaimed the lead.

Zane Smith went to the inside of Rhodes off Turn 4 on Lap 42 to reclaim the lead.

With 15 laps remaining in the stage, Zane Smith held just under a 1-second lead over Preece with Majeski close behind in third.

With five laps to go, Zane Smith had built a 1.8-second lead over Majeski as Preece dropped to third.

Stage 1

Rhodes held off a late charge from Zane Smith to take the Stage 1 win, his ninth stage victory of the 2022 season.

Friesen was third, Majeski fourth and Enfinger rounded out the top-five.

Matt DiBenedetto started on the pole but Rhodes quickly moved into the lead on Lap 1.

With 20 laps remaining in the stage, Rhodes maintained a small lead over Chandler Smith with Zane Smith close behind in third.

On Lap 14, John Hunter Nemechek hit the wall and fell off the pace. He was forced to pit under green with a flat tire. He returned to the track in 35th and a lap down.

Three laps later, Nemechek was forced to pit again with another flat right-rear tire.

With five laps to go, Rhodes had built a 1.4-second lead over Zane Smith as Chandler Smith dropped to third.

Preece, who was slated to start on the pole, had to start the race from the rear of the field after making unapproved adjustments prior to the race.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led
1	66	Ty Majeski		Toyota	134	1:30'34.765			67
2	38	Zane Smith		Ford	134	1:30'39.289	4.524	4.524	26
3	52	Stewart Friesen		Toyota	134	1:30'48.092	13.327	8.803
4	17	Ryan Preece		Ford	134	1:30'54.680	19.915	6.588	2
5	51	Corey Heim		Toyota	134	1:30'56.057	21.292	1.377
6	99	Ben Rhodes		Toyota	134	1:31'01.430	26.665	5.373	37
7	98	Christian Eckes		Toyota	134	1:31'01.471	26.706	0.041
8	88	Matt Crafton		Toyota	134	1:31'02.019	27.254	0.548
9	75	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	134	1:31'09.305	34.540	7.286
10	18	Chandler Smith		Toyota	134	1:31'09.626	34.861	0.321
11	16	Tyler Ankrum		Toyota	133	1:30'36.410	1 Lap	1 Lap
12	42	Carson Hocevar		Chevrolet	133	1:30'38.680	1 Lap	2.270
13	91	Colby Howard		Chevrolet	133	1:30'43.042	1 Lap	4.362
14	23	Grant Enfinger		Chevrolet	133	1:30'43.439	1 Lap	0.397
15	19	Derek Kraus		Chevrolet	133	1:30'44.980	1 Lap	1.541
16	61	Chase Purdy		Toyota	133	1:31'00.889	1 Lap	15.909
17	1	Hailie Deegan		Ford	133	1:31'08.554	1 Lap	7.665
18	02	Kaz Grala		Chevrolet	133	1:31'08.684	1 Lap	0.130
19	25	Matt DiBenedetto		Chevrolet	133	1:31'09.820	1 Lap	1.136
20	56	Timmy Hill		Toyota	133	1:31'09.970	1 Lap	0.150	2
21	22	Max Gutierrez		Chevrolet	133	1:31'10.746	1 Lap	0.776
22	9	Blaine Perkins		Chevrolet	132	1:30'37.877	2 Laps	1 Lap
23	40	Dean Thompson		Chevrolet	132	1:30'41.755	2 Laps	3.878
24	46	Brennan Poole		Toyota	132	1:30'42.407	2 Laps	0.652
25	15	Tanner Gray		Ford	132	1:31'02.811	2 Laps	20.404
26	20	Stefan Parsons		Chevrolet	132	1:31'06.378	2 Laps	3.567
27	30	Kaden Honeycutt		Toyota	132	1:31'13.106	2 Laps	6.728
28	33	Nick Leitz		Toyota	131	1:30'39.095	3 Laps	1 Lap
29	5	Tyler Hill		Toyota	131	1:30'46.685	3 Laps	7.590
30	44	Chad Chastain		Chevrolet	131	1:31'06.640	3 Laps	19.955
31	24	Jack Wood		Chevrolet	130	1:30'56.697	4 Laps	1 Lap
32	43	Mason Maggio		Chevrolet	129	1:30'50.378	5 Laps	1 Lap
33	32	Bret Holmes		Chevrolet	129	1:30'56.477	5 Laps	6.099
34	45	Alan Lawless		Chevrolet	129	1:31'07.073	5 Laps	10.596
35	4	John Hunter Nemechek		Toyota	128	1:30'58.072	6 Laps	1 Lap
36	12	Spencer Boyd		Chevrolet	124	1:28'43.855	10 Laps	4 Laps