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Cole Butcher discusses his ASA STARS win over Ty Majeski at Slinger
Cole Butcher withstood the pressure from Slinger Speedway veteran to pick up the victory in the El Bandido 300 on June 15. See what he had to say.
SLINGER – Ty Majeski had 20,000 reasons to rough up Cole Butcher for another victory at Slinger Speedway. Instead he raced with respect and settled for second on his home turf.
Butcher held off Majeski in the battle of the first two ASA STARS National Tour champions in the El Bandido 300 on June 15 at the challenging high-banked quarter-mile where Majeski is always a factor.
The win was worth $15,000 to Butcher but would have been worth an extra $5,000 to Majeski after he won the pole and then opted to start at the rear of the field in pursuit of a bonus.
“I was trying to use him up on the restarts,” said Majeski, a Seymour native who won the 2023 ASA STARS title and the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.
“I just didn’t have a good enough car or (didn’t do) a good enough job to complete the pass. I wasn’t going to keep running him up, running him up. I just really don’t want to win the race that way.”
Three times Majeski, 30, has won the Slinger Nationals, the track’s biggest race, and he might have a fourth Nationals in 2019 were it not for Matt Kenseth running him to the wall in their battle, a move Majeski called fair at the time.
Butcher, a 28-year-old Canadian going for his second straight ASA STARS title, showed his appreciation for the respect when he left the victory stage to give Majeski a hug.
“I kind of have a reputation of doing this, but I’ve never really complained about it,” Butcher said in the inspection area. “As long as if I get it you better be ready to take it, and if I give it, I’m going to be ready to take it. So yeah, I love hard racing. I always have.”
The victory came on the heels of Butcher’s runner-up finish to Carson Brown on June 13 at Madison International Speedway in the first half of the Father’s Day weekend in Wisconsin.
Stephen Nasse finished third, Derek Kraus of Stratford fourth – a positive outcome after getting caught in two wrecks at Madison – and Gavan Boschele, one of Butcher’s Wilson Motorsports teammates, fifth.
Wausau native Luke Fenhaus led 131 laps in the first half of the race but crashed out on the 171st lap when a flat tire put him into the back stretch wall and finished 16th. That came two days after being involved in a vicious crash after an axle failure at Madison.
Majeski cut through the field quickly, getting to sixth before the first stage break. He was second on the restart after Fenhaus’ crash.
Majeski has a history of accepting challenges when the fastest qualifier is incentivized to start in the back. In this case, he actually nudged the series into offering it for it. The idea hadn’t come up until he suggested it, and then he got cold feet.
“I called Todd (Nagel), my team owner, right before driver intros, I’m like, ‘Hey, Todd, 5k to start in the back?’ And he goes, ‘Hell yeah,’” Majeski said.
“So it was a great show. I’m glad we did it.”
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