Inside the Ty Majeski and Stephen Nasse restart that decided the Derby

Objectively, the 58th Snowball Derby was decided by race control but nominally, it’s no different than how the 52nd was decided in post-race technical inspection. 

Just ask Stephen Nasse. 

He kissed the Tom Dawson Trophy on the frontstretch in 2019 but was not allowed to keep it when Ricky Brooks ruled that his brakes were in violation of the titanium rules as written in the rule book.

Brooks is gone these days, running the nascent UARA National Tour, but this race was adjudicated by the chief technical inspector too as Freddie Query was overseeing the restart zone throughout the race … and the decisive moment of it.

Ty Majeski had dominated the afternoon when he was called for a jumped restart with 12 laps to go. That was a warning and another violation would result in a penalty. The next attempt later, Query radioed another violation in to race director Nicholas Rogers and the narrative of the afternoon had shifted.

Majeski, who would otherwise have been 10 laps away from his third kiss with the Tom Dawson Trophy, refused to come down pit road and Rogers stopped scoring him with 10 laps remaining.

Nasse, who shared the front row with Majeski each time, inherited the lead and spotter Chris Burton simply told his driver to ‘give me 10 qualifying laps’ and got exactly what he asked for.

In his 15th try, Nasse got to kiss the Tom Dawson Trophy and took it home with him this time, too. 

“I really do hate it for Ty,” Nasse said afterwards. “He was really stout. I don’t know that we would have been able to pass him otherwise, but I’ll take this. I gave him one before and he gave me one now.

“This is awesome. We have worked so hard to get back here and it just feels amazing.”

Nasse, of course, is referencing the 2023 race where he and Bubba Pollard dramatically crashed in the closing laps with Majeski driving by to the victory. In short, there is always something dramatic to observe in the aftermath of this race.

There was again a scene in the area formerly known as the ‘Room of Doom,’ as Majeski parked his car on the frontstretch along with the official podium finishers. On FloRacing, he said he wanted a conversation with race control and that he believed himself the rightful winner.

After a chat with assistant director Scott Menlen and general manager Tim Bryant, Majeski took his car to the inspection area with the other top finishers.

Once there, Majeski got his phone from car builder Toby Nuttleman and they watched the video. Majeski took the video to everyone standing in the inspection shed and said ‘watch this,’ and ‘there is no way’ to everyone in sight. He was convinced and convicted. 

He sought out Query and said he was filing a protest, and the response from the racer turned crew chief turned inspector was ‘you can but I don’t know that it’s getting overturned’ and that was that. The appeal was on.

“I am protesting the results,” Majeski said out loud, waving his arms, making sure everyone in the shed knew that the results needed additional clarity beyond the teardown. 

For his part, Nasse was indifferent to the scene beyond an injured right arm from pulling himself out of the car. Nasse kept calling it ‘tennis elbow,’ to which his gathered friends said ‘you don’t even play tennis’ and making lewd jokes about other reasons his right arm would be sore. Nasse said he just needs to see a doctor soon to get it scoped out at some point.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t concerned about the Majeski protest or the inspection of the Anthony Campi Racing car he drives only three times a year for the Super Late Model triple crown events.

“I ain’t worried about this Anthony Campi car a bit,” Nasse said.

Meanwhile, Majeski and Nuttleman again found themselves face-to-face with Bryant, a track operator who always empathizes with his racers, and tries to diffuse any legitimate tension. 

Majeski said that penalty call was ‘too close to make’ for $50,000 and now the race ‘has a black cloud hanging over it.’ Nuttleman was far more frustrated as he told Bryant it was ‘bullshit’ with the track owner saying they would all go into the inspection shed once Rogers made his way to the infield.

It wasn’t a particularly long conversation as Rogers told Majeski the decision would stand and that he would consider a restart rules revision for next year. Naturally, that wasn’t what Majeski wanted to hear as he said he didn’t care about next year because this was about $50,000 now while placing ‘a black cloud over’ the biggest race of the year.

Rogers, for his part, told Short Track Scene there was no ‘protest’ mechanism and that the call needed to stand because what would it say to the industry if he didn’t stand by the call and his fellow officials.

“The first time it happened, it was obvious, two and a half car-lengths probably and he admitted very candidly that ‘yes I did jump that one’ and didn’t argue that at all,” Rogers said. “The second one he rolls through there (and) it was way closer, probably a half to three quarters, but coming off an immediate warning, waving it off and warning him to make sure he is in the box, as it’s clearly stated, the rule book says a slow steady increase from turn 3 to the box.

“He tried to argue, ‘well that was my increase’ but when you pull away from another car rapidly, that’s not an increase.”

Rogers said he trusted in Query to make the call.

“So getting confirmation from a senior official that was sitting down there within eye shot of it, that could hear it, that backed-up what all of us in the tower already had seen so the penalty was issued for the black flag.”

It’s the second time Majeski felt like race control cost him a Derby on a restart.

Back in 2018, the Derby used a fast restart rule, and Majeski felt like that contributed to a stack-up where he crashed off the nose of Casey Roderick behind him. Majeski advocated for the slower restart rule used now.

Majeski said part of the reason he fired off where he did is so he wouldn’t risk a crash like that but Rogers didn’t accept that.

“The 201(8) issue we were doing fast restarts to where they were supposed to pick up the speed and be at high speed by the time they got to the restart box and he didn’t wanna do that,” Rogers said. “He wanted the NASCAR style to be able to gain the advantage of a four speed transmission so he actually got called for being too slow coming into the box and then got run over subsequently by cars behind him.

“That’s completely different and he is the reason that rule was changed because he complained to enough people that other people decided to change the rule. So that’s how we ended up with the rule we have today. You know, that’s been the rule that’s been in place for years. It was the rule that was in place before we went to the fast restarts and we went back to it after that and usually don’t have a problem.

“And I mean, we have probably the biggest restart box we go to at this racetrack and they have all the way to the second line to fire. So he had plenty of opportunity to wait until he knew he was good, especially coming off a warning.”

Around the time of this conversation with Rogers, the ACR No. 51 passed inspection and Nasse left the former ‘Room of Doom’ when the prize he was denied six years ago.

Did this still feel like his first win?

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Nasse said. ” So, it doesn’t really feel like the first one but there’s a lot of emotions that come with it. You know, getting the two to go and the one to go and then crossing that finish line and just a big weight lifted off your shoulders. You know, I can be very proud of this for a long time. This is something that my name is going to be on that trophy forever. I hope we can maybe put it on there a couple of more times.

“And, I was able to get it before Bubba (Pollard) so that worked out.”

Oh, Stephen.

But there were a lot of other emotional things about the win too, like spotlighting the stange brother like bond between the winning driver and his crew chief.

Chris Cater and his driver have won big races. They argue like a figurative old married couple over the radio. They’ve split up and then gotten back togther, all to end up with the Tom Dawson.

“We’re like brothers,” Cater said. “I mean, truthfully, we fight each other. He’ll cuss me out. I’ll cuss him out. It’s the way it goes. We get along though, even when we split, we still get along as well. We just came back together and it worked out.”

The feeling is mutual from the driver.

“I love working with Chris Cater,” Nasse said. “I love working with Chris Burton, my spotter, and this Campi team is a lot of fun to work with too. We’re here on serious business but at the same time, we share a lot of laughs, and I’m already looking forward to coming back to get two in a row.”

While the celebration formally got under way, Majeski was left jaded and not content with the decision in that moment.

“They decided they weren’t going to do anything about it,” Majeski said. “I felt like there was a black cloud over the race with that call and from there, it was probably an uphill battle trying to get it revesed. It would have been even worse.

“Yeah, just incredibly disappointed. … So all my guys, they’ve been here this whole week, obviously, a tough week weather-wise. We just want to go home and here we are basically getting disqualified on a ball-strike call.”

As for the assessment about 2018 versus 2025?

“I told Nick, I had been going pretty early in the box all day and I didn’t want to put myself in a spot to get spun like I did in 18,” Majeski said. “I felt like Nicholas put me in that spot in 18 because he was saying I was doing it wrong so I tried to change it up and ended up getting myself wrecked.

“I think the biggest their biggest problem is they don’t protect the leader enough and it creates games in the restart box. You almost have an advantage as the second place driver. You can’t control the lead with the rules as they are. Again, it’s such a ball and strike call.

“To me, we’re all professionals. We all have great transmissions. It’s very difficult to miss a shift. These aren’t Late Model Stock transmissions. Make it NASCAR style where you cannot pick up your speed before the box and you fire inside the box, period, and a lot of the issues go away. I told that to Nicholas and he said he didn’t disagreee so I think they know they have some things to clean up and clarify.

“But what a dominant race car. …I have a lot to look forward to next year but after this I need a racing detox to go home and spend time with the family.”