Tyler "Ty" Majeski (born August 18, 1994)[1] is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 60 Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Racing. He started his racing career on dirt karts near his hometown of Seymour, Wisconsin. Majeski later moved up to racing late models on asphalt, and then began racing in touring series. He was the champion of the ARCA Midwest Tour in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 while win
Majeski after winning an ARCA Midwest Tourrace in 2016
ning the series' 2014 Rookie of the Year award.Majeski is a member of the 2016 NASCAR Next class, and a development driver for Roush Fenway Racing. He raced in three NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Roush Fenway in 2017 and will continue in the team's No. 60 car in 2018.
Racing career[]
Early years (2004–2011)[]
Majeski began racing as a nine-year-old on dirt karts in 2004 at Hi-Go Raceway.[2][3][4] Majeski's first win came on his tenth birthday.[2] In his first eight races, he had won three features.[5] He eventually was racing at several different tracks in his home area: GSR Kartway near Clintonville, Wisconsin, Hi-Go Raceway in Cecil, Wisconsin and Meadowview Kartway by Hilbert, Wisconsin.[4] Between 2005 and 2009, he had won five track titles and 84 features.[5] By the time that he was 15 year old, he had won a national championship in the Mid-American National Series.[4] In karting, he had won six national championships, three state championships, and five track titles.[3]In 2009, Majeski took second overall in the National Indoor Championship at Batesville, Mississippi;[5] he won three of five events which caught the attention of Bobby Waltrip, the brother of Darrell and Michael Waltrip.[4] In 2009, Waltrip arranged for Majeski to test an asphalt late model at Hickory Motor Speedway.[5] After Majeski got used to driving the car, he was posting lap times quicker that the driver[5] and Waltrip wanted Majeski to move to North Carolina for the 2009 racing season but his family didn't want to move.[4]
Majeski ended up remaining in Wisconsin and started racing limited late models in Wisconsin at Pathfinder Racing Chassis / JJ Motorsports Racing as a teammate to Ross Kenseth.[4][5] He raced a various tracks for the 2010 season including Columbus 151 Speedway, Dells Raceway Park, and Madison International Speedway with former NASCAR Busch Series driver Jason Schuler as his crew chief.[4][5] Majeski joined the Big 8 Late Model Series tour in 2011 and was awarded the series Rookie of the Year title.[3]He won three races including the Big 8 race at the National Short Track Championship weekend at Rockford Speedway.
ARCA Midwest Tour/TUNDRA Late Models (2012–2016)[]
He moved up to racing Super Late Models in 2012.[3] In 2013, he raced 27 events in four different cars for four different owners.[3] In the season, Majeski record his first ARCA Midwest Tour pole position at Marshfield Motor Speedway.[3] He won three races at the Oktoberfest race weekend at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway to end the season Majeski raced for the ARCA Midwest Tour Rookie of the Year title in 2014. His first tour victory happened at Illiana Motor Speedway in May 2014.[6] That season, he also ran occasional selected weekly races at State Park Speedway on Thursdays, and LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway on Saturday nights, TUNDRA Super Late Model Series events, and the three Red, White, and Blue series races at Wisconsin International Raceway.[6]Majeski also won at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in July 2014.[3] He was awarded the series' the Rookie of the Year title along with the ARCA Midwest Tour championship in 2014,becoming the series' youngest champion.[7] At the 2014 Snowball Derby, Majeski started 32nd and passed his way up to a 19th-place finish.[3] He had a total of five victories in 35 races that year.Majeski was named one of the seven finalists for the inaugural Alan Kulwicki Driver Development Program in 2015.[7] Participants were awarded $7777 to help develop their careers. He raced a similar schedule in 2015, starting with a seven-night series at New Smyrna Speedway for the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.Majeski won the second program on Tuesday night and lead the series points for two nights.[3] In July 2015, Speed51.com had ranked him #4 on their short track power ranking with seven victories.[7] At the Slinger Nationals, Majeski started 20th and passed up to second place.[7] While battling for the lead near the end of the race, he got into an incident while trying to pass a lapped car and restarted at the back of the lead lap cars to finish fourth.Majeski raced four times during the LaCrosse Oktoberfest weekend; he won the late model feature on Thursday night, the Dick Trickle 99 on Friday night, the JMcK 63 Big 8 Series race on Saturday night.[10]With 10 laps to go, he was leading the ARCA Midwest Tour race on Sunday when a vapor lock caused his car to temporarily lose power on a restart; he finished third.[10] Majeski traveled across the United States to Florida for the Governor's Cup at New Smyrna Speedway in November. He started 27th after an A-arm broke in qualifying. After passing up through the entire field, Majeski held off Steven Wallaceon numerous restarts to take the win.[11] Dale Earnhardt, Jr. tweeted about Majeski's win calling him "the Deal".[12] At the Snowball Derby, Majeski qualified second quickest and was awarded the pole position after Christopher Bell's Kyle Busch Motorsports entry was disqualified.The Kulwicki Driver Development Program (KDDP) named him their inaugural winner.[8] In 56 events, he had 18 wins,[14] 19 pole positions, and 48 Top 10 finishes.[8] Speed51 ranked him #3 on their final short track season rankings behind Whelen Modified Tour winner Doug Coby and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Jonathan Davenport.[15] ESPN featured Majeski as the main driver to watch in the future in an off-season article as it described him accepting the KDDP trophy.He started the 2016 in February racing in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna, a week-long series of racing in the Speedweeks. Majeski finished second in the first night and won the second night.[16] He won the final night for his third win and the Speedweeks division title.[17] He followed the series by racing in another southern race; he quickly went from a seventh place start to the lead as he dominated to win the Rattler 250 race at South Alabama Speedway.[18] Speed51.com rated Majeski as its #1 Short Track Draft pick in May 2016.[19] That month he won the first race of the ARCA Midwest Tour, the Joe Shear Memorial at Madison International Speedway, over Johnny Sauter.[20] In May, he joined Roush Fenway Racing's driver development program.[21] He was one of eleven drivers named to the NASCAR Next 2016–2017 joined Roush Fenway Racing's driver development program.[21] He was one of eleven drivers named to the NASCAR Next 2016–2017 class on the following day.[22] In June 2016, Majeski made his first ARCA start in the No. 17 Roulo Brothers Racing car.[23] He had the fastest time in practice, started seventh, raced up to second, and finished fourth.[23] For the season, Majeski won 9 of 10 races at LaCrosse plus had several high finishes at Madison.[24] Majeski noticed that he was high in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Seriesnational points in August despite not intentionally racing for any track's points championship. The driver's top 18 finishes determine their standings.[24] He had 17 starts, so he made a late season decision to try for the national title.[24] He started double features at Elko Speedway and climbed to tenth in the standings.[24] On the following weekend he won the another feature at Madison for his 13th NASCAR weekly win of the season to climb to third in the standings.[25] He raced more at Elko and Rockford Speedway but finished third in the final points.[26] Majeski capped off the season by winning the Oktoberfest main event at La Crosse to earn his third consecutive ARCA Midwest Tour championship.[27] He returned to New Smyrna Speedway and qualified on the pole position for the Governor's Cup. He fell nearly two laps down during the race and came back to win the race for the second consecutive year.
National touring series (2017–)[]
Majeski moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in early 2017 to work in the Roush organization as an engineer.[29] He reportedly was close to securing a Ford development contract but ARCA champion Chase Briscoe received the contract since he had more large track experience.[29] He began the season racing in the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna.[29] Majeski won his second consecutive Rattler 250 over Harrison Burton and Steven Wallace.[30] In March 2017, Majeski announced he would be making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Iowa Speedway in June, followed by a part-time schedule in the series and ARCA.[31] On April 24, 2017, after testing a car at Daytona[32] it was announced that Majeski would run five ARCA races for Cunningham Motorsports.In April, he returned to Wisconsin for the first asphalt race of the year; he led the last 44 laps to take the Icebreaker 100 win at Dells Raceway Park.[34] Two months later, in his Xfinity debut at Iowa, Majeski qualified tenth and ran as high as fifth,[35] but was involved in a crash with Kyle Benjamin on lap 114; he finished 34th.[36] Majeski clinched his fourth consecutive ARCA Midwest Tour at Elko Speedwaywith one race remaining for the season.[37] Majeski won his third consecutive Governor's Cup in a Super Late Model at New Smyra Speedway in November over Bubba Pollard, Wallace, and Burton.[38] He returned to the Xfinity Series at Iowa and the season finale at Homestead-Miami, finishing 10th in the latter for his first top ten in Xfinity competition.[39]
Roush Fenway has announced that Majeski share the No. 60 ride with Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric in 2018.[40] Majeski had his first Top 10 result with a seventh-place finish at Iowa. In July 2018, he dominated to win his first Slinger Nationals.
Personal life[]
Majeski graduated from Seymour Community High School in 2013.[42] In February 2017 Majeski moved from his home s
Majeski with his fiancé Ali VanderLoop
tate of Wisconsin to Charlotte, North Carolina to be closer to the racing community.[31]He reportedly took off a semester at UW-Madison as a senior majoring in engineering.[43][30] He has also been the number one ranked player in the world for the online racing simulator IRacing.com, which sponsors him in his racing.[44] In early August 2018, Majeski announced his engagement to Ali VanderLoop on his Twitter account.