“If he don’t make it to NASCAR or wherever he wants to go, there’s a problem in racing.” Toby Nuttleman said this about Ty Majeski in 2016. Although Majeski made it to the stock car racing series, Nuttleman still found a problem, somewhere else. The 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion was well on his way to a third Snowball Derby title. But then his car wheels came in the way.

Before the race, Ty Majeski sang high praise for Hoosier, the tire provided for the race. New tires were scheduled to be run at the Superbowl of Late Model racing. But while other drivers could cope with them, Majeski lost his dominant streak towards the end.

Ty Majeski’s third time lost the charm

In both 2022 and 2023, one name echoed through the grandstands of cheering fans at the Snowball Derby races. 2024 witnessed the same – but it ceased with 18 laps remaining. Ty Majeski grabbed the pole on Friday, posting a time of 16.175 seconds. Then, on race day, he seemed to be on fire – the Truck Series champ led 192 laps. Yet Kaden Honeycutt was determined to bypass the leader, and did so after exchanging bump-and-runs. Eventually, Honeycutt prevailed and won his first Snowball Derby – while Majeski lamented in the background with a third-place finish.

His crew chief, Toby Nuttleman – whose hobby is engineering and assembling car parts – narrowed down the problem. Journalist Matt Weaver updated his opinion on X: “Asked Toby Nuttleman where they missed it at the end with Ty Majeski “Last set of tires sucked.”

Ironically, the same Hoosier tires received a fair amount of praise from Majeski and other drivers before the race. Hoosier put all teams on ST3 right-side tires alongside the ST1 left sides. While Majeski emphasized the wheels would not throw a wrench in his plans, the Late Model sensation Bubba Pollard applauded Hoosier for bringing quality and consistency.

However, things went haywire, as Ty Majeski‘s crew chief shared. The tire situation was the last piece of the puzzle that the No. 91 iRacing Toyota team could not solve. It solved the earlier pieces with a lot of effort. On Thursday, Majeski hit a piece of track surface that had come loose, damaging the front end.

Then his crew chief and the rest of the crew worked diligently Thursday and Friday to repair the car for the all-important qualifying session. Moreover, when Majeski set a blistering lap faster than anyone else, little did the team suspect any trouble would come later. Yet it did, and during the crucial final laps of the Snowball Derby.

This consequence may have rattled Nuttleman, who does not give himself rest for such mistakes.

A man of precision

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When Ty Majeski and Toby Nuttleman first came together in 2016, they were leagues apart. The former was a college student pursuing an engineering degree and running races in his free time. The latter was an old-school mechanic, having worked with some of Wisconsin’s best stock-car drivers like Dick Trickle, Steve Carlson, and Tony Raines – he was ready to retire.

However, both clicked in their Late Model passion and won races together. What fascinated Majeski the most about Nuttleman was his love for building winning race cars. Majeski won a TUNDRA Super Late Models series race with a car, that Nuttleman engineered almost two decades ago.

Nuttleman expressed his precision in making the car perfect in 2016. “This car is an extension of me, and if it doesn’t perform the way I think it should, well, then I didn’t do something right or there’s a problem and it needs to be addressed.”

Even Ty Majeski backed his claim: “You’ve almost got to back him off of some changes because he wants to try so much stuff. He’s always wanting to get better. He’s always been that way. And in this sport, when you think you’re the best, that’s exactly when you get beat.” Now, with NASCAR strengthening its chokehold over car engineering, Nuttleman must be more rattled with the Snowball Derby race.

Evidently, Sunday’s race failure has saddened Ty Majeski and his team. Despite this, they can take solace in their past victory and anticipate 2025.