Up and coming NASCAR star, Christian Eckes made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut Saturday night driving the No. 46 Kyle Busch Motorsports Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra at Iowa Speedway.
On Lap 32, the second caution of the night was brought out due to an incident on the backstretch involving Austin Hill, Grant Enfinger, and Christian Eckes. The Mobil 1 driver had slight damage from the wreckage, but that didn’t stop the talented breakout star from making his way forward.
In the last thirty laps in Stage 1, he managed to fight his way to the 10th position after the early incident. Some pit strategy was played by the 46 team and others. Eckes was on older tires than the rest of the field but salvaged a 14th place finishing position in the second stage.
With some track position and strategy that continued to play out, he fought his way up as high as fifth in the final stage. At the end of the night, he brought home the KBM machine in the eighth position for his first ever top-10 finish in the series. Not bad for the 17-year-old rookie who made his national series debut.
“It started out a little rough,” Eckes said. “Not sure what happened on the backstretch there but we got in a wreck and had to fight back all day. Everybody on this 46 Mobil 1 team did a great job today getting me where I needed to be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the finish that I really wanted at the end, but a top-10 finish in my debut is definitely a positive.”
