AVONDALE, Ariz. — The time has come for one final Craftsman Truck Series race. Corey Heim may have dominated the season, but have no doubt, the drivers expect to take part in a heavyweight bout at Phoenix Raceway.
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This holds especially true for defending champion Ty Majeski, who dominated last season's championship race by leading 132 of 150 laps after starting from the pole.
"I think (Heim has) overshadowed everybody when you have a season like that and you win 11 races," Majeski said during Championship 4 Media Day. "He's overshadowed the entire series and credit to them, but we're here in Phoenix and none of that matters anymore. He's not carrying any of those playoff points.
"I caught an interview that he did after Martinsville and he was talking a lot about how it would be a shame if we were able to take it from him and how dumb the format is, so I think we've got him right where we want him. I think he's worried about the 98. I don't think he wanted to race us this weekend and here we are with another shot at it."
Heim has taken part in two previous Truck Series championship races as a playoff driver but has fallen short of the title both times. In 2023, he and Carson Hocevar took part in a heated on-track battle that led to in-race incidents and postseason penalties.
Last season, Heim entered the season finale with six wins, by far the most in the series. Many viewed him as the favorite to win his first title. However, he just didn't have the same speed as Majeski as he started second and ran second throughout the evening.
"I'd say it feels similar to last year," Heim said. "Last year, I came in with the most wins on the season, and I feel like we were kind of the favorite to win the whole thing, and I feel like it's probably similar from a media perspective this year. But, at the end of the day anything could happen, and I feel like anyone could bring your best stuff and win the race.
"So, my first year, I felt like it was just different because I'd never been a part of it before, and I was I guess, not a rookie technically, but a rookie from a full time perspective so that was just a whole different animal just being in the Championship 4 for the first time, but kind of after that first year, I feel like I've sort of settled in and kind of understood the pressure a little better."
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
Majeski and Heim are the two drivers taking the spotlight heading into Friday evening's race, but neither driver is overlooking their fellow Championship 4 contenders. Both Heim and Majeski believe that Kaden Honeycutt or Ty Majeski could deliver an outstanding performance and win the title as the "underdog."
This is a belief that both Ankrum and Honeycutt share despite having the fewest laps led and fewest top-10 finishes in the Championship 4. They know that what they did throughout season doesn't matter.
They just have to bring fast trucks for a one-race bout. The best truck and driver wins the title. This benefits Honeycutt, who goes for his first championship while driving for his third team this season.
"I feel like everyone's known though we've had speed the whole time, it's just a matter of everything coming together," Honeycutt said. "The No. 11 has been extremely good this year, been hard to beat for sure.
"I feel like we definitely are the underdog coming into this, as we should be. I mean it's been hard, but I feel like speed-wise, we've always been there just a matter of things going regularly."
The fourth member of this group, Ankrum, is the only other championship-eligible driver with a win this season. He captured the return race at Rockingham Raceway and locked up a spot in the playoffs.
Ankrum hasn't visited victory lane since, but he has turned in a career-best season with the most top-10 finishes (15), most top-fives (eight), best average finish (10.7), and laps led (102) of his career.
Ankrum said that he has grown significantly as a driver since joining McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and taking over consistently stronger equipment, which he believes sets him up to cap off his first Championship 4 appearance with his first title.
"I think in a weird way it kind of unloads a little bit of pressure on yourself even though you're going to have a tall mountain to climb to beat (Heim)," Ankrum told reporter Toby Christie. "That means all the pressure's back on him, right. You know you have three guys chasing you.
"And you know you have three guys that are going to just go do everything to topple you off your hill. It's essentially a game of King of the Hill, right. Not saying we are all going to send each other firewall deep, we know how that ended in 2023."
