Christian Eckes capped off a perfect run that involved leading every lap en route to a resounding NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday, June 28.
The 2019 ARCA Menards Series champion from Greenville, New York, led all 150-scheduled laps in an event where he started in third place, quickly assumed the lead from pole-sitter Stewart Friesen on the first lap, swept both stage periods and withstood a flurry of caution flags and restart periods from start to finish. Retaining the lead both on the track and on pit road, Eckes had enough muscle to power away from teammate Daniel Dye and the field during the final restart period with 32 laps remaining to win by two seconds and cash in with both his third Truck victory of the 2024 season and first $50,000 prize as part of the Triple Truck Challenge.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Friday, Stewart Friesen notched his first Truck pole position of the 2024 season and his first since 2019 after posting a pole-winning speed at 158.980 mph in 30.117 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Grant Enfinger, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 158.859 mph in 30.140 seconds.
Before the event, Nick Sanchez dropped to the rear of the field in a backup truck after he wrecked his primary truck during Friday’s qualifying session. Timmy Hill also dropped to the rear of the field due to a transmission change. Ty Dillon, Matt Mills and Tanner Gray all started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
The start of the race lasted for three turns as a multi-truck wreck that involved Dean Thompson, Bret Holmes, Mason Massey, Mason Maggio, Timmy Hill and Akinori Ogata, all of whom started towards the rear of the field, wrecked in Turn 4. Prior to the early carnage, Eckes, who started in third place and behind Friesen on the inside lane, had muscled past both Enfinger and Friesen through the first two turns to assume the lead.
The start of the next restart period on the seventh lap lasted only a lap as Holmes, who was trying to continue after being involved in the opening lap wreck, spun and wrecked his No. 32 Golden Eagle Chevrolet Silverado RST against the outside wall in Turn 2. At the time of Holmes’ incident, Eckes had managed to fend off Friesen from the inside lane to retain the lead.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 14, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Eckes muscled ahead of Friesen to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Behind, Riggs battled and overtook Friesen for the runner-up spot while Majeski, Honeycutt and Enfinger followed suit in the top six. Amid the early battles, Eckes led by half a second over Riggs by the Lap 20 mark.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Riggs followed by Friesen, Kaden Honeycutt and Corey Heim while Ty Majeski, Daniel Dye, Grant Enfinger, Rajah Caruth and Clint Bowyer were scored in the top 10. Behind, Tyler Ankrum trailed in 11th place and ahead of Stefan Parsons, Chase Purdy, Tayor Gray and Ben Rhodes while Bayley Currey, Jake Garcia, Matt Crafton, Matt Mills and Jack Wood were mired in the top 20 ahead of Brenden Queen, Lawless Alan, Connor Jones, Ty Dillon and Dawson Cram.
Ten laps later, Eckes extended his advantage to over Riggs while third-place Honeycutt was up to third and trailing by less than four seconds despite reporting the sight of smoke and the smell of gear oil within his No. 45 AutoVentive/Precision Chevrolet Silverado RST. Another lap, however, Honeycutt surrendered third place and nursed his truck to the garage due to his mechanical issue. Honeycutt’s early misfortune moved Heim, Friesen and Enfinger in the top five on the track while Eckes retained his advantage by more than a second.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Eckes captured his fourth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Riggs followed suit in second place ahead of Heim, Enfinger and Daniel Dye while Caruth, Friesen, Majeski, Bowyer and Tyler Ankrum were scored in the top 10. By then, 25 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while select drivers, including Tanner Gray and Nick Sanchez, were lapped by the field.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Heim, Riggs, Caruth, Enfinger, Dye, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Chase Purdy and Ben Rhodes followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, Matt Mills was penalized for equipment interference.
The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Eckes and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, however, the caution quickly returned when Taylor Gray, who restarted in the top 10, was bumped by Rhodes as Gray got sideways before he shot back across the track and wrecked his No. 17 Caden Ingram Foundation Toyota Tundra TRD Pro against the Turn 1 outside wall as he was taken out of contention. The start of the following restart on Lap 59 also did not last a single turn as the field got jumbled up through the frontstretch, with Bowyer ramming into the rear of teammate Purdy, who was stacking up the field after he ran into the rear of Ankrum, while Lawless Alan, who was rammed in the rear by Dawson Sutton, rammed and sent the No. 46 Faction46 Chevrolet Silverado RST piloted by Dawson Cram for a spin through the frontstretch’s grass.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 65, the field fanned out as Eckes fended off Riggs and Heim to retain the lead. With the field still fanning out through the frontstretch during the following lap, Enfinger and Dye battled for fifth place in front of Rhodes while a flurry of competitors including Friesen, Ankrum, Majeski, Crafton, Jack Wood, Jake Garcia, Stefan Parsons and Bayley Currey battled for positions as high as eighth place. Amid the battles, Eckes stabilized his advantage to half a second over Heim by the Lap 70 mark.
Just past the Lap 75 mark, Eckes stretched his advantage to a second over Heim while Caruth battled and overtook Dye for third place. Meanwhile, Riggs dropped to sixth place as he was running behind Enfinger while Rhodes, Friesen, Parsons and Crafton were mired in the top 10 ahead of Ankrum, Currey, Majeski, Wodd and Conner Jones. Meanwhile, Sanchez was racing back in 20th place ahead of Brenden Queen while Bowyer, who pitted for extensive repairs to his truck, was running in 24th place ahead of teammate Purdy.
By Lap 85, Eckes continued to lead by a second over Heim while third-place Caruth trailed by three seconds. Dye and Enfinger continued to run in the top five ahead of Rhodes and Friesen while Riggs, who was continuing to lose ground of the leaders, was trying to fend off Parsons for eighth place. Shortly after, Parsons and Riggs both made contact entering the frontstretch while battling for eighth place, which allowed Crafton and Ankrum to overtake them for positions.
Then on Lap 92, Riggs, who was fiercely battling Parsons for 13th place and had made repeated contact with Parsons as both dropped out of the top-10 mark on the track, rammed into the rear of Parsons’ No. 75 Popsells.com Chevrolet Silverado RST as Parsons was sent sideways and wrecked against the outside wall in Turn 4. The incident was enough for NASCAR to enforce a two-lap penalty on Riggs with the driver forced to serve the penalty in his pit stall for reckless driving.
As a result of the Riggs and Parsons incident, the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 95 officially concluded under caution as Eckes proceeded to captured his fifth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season and sweep both stages at Nashville. Heim settled in second followed by Caruth, Dye and Enfinger while Rhodes, Friesen, Crafton, Ankrum and Majeski were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Caruth, Dye, Rhodes, Ankrum, Friesen, Crafton and Wood while Heim exited in ninth place due to losing seven spots as he struggled to launch his truck out of his pit box following his service.
With 48 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Eckes and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Eckes muscled ahead with the lead while Dye and Rhodes quickly overtook Caruth to move up to second and third, respectively. As Eckes continued to lead in front of Dye, Rhodes and Caruth for the following lap, Friesen, who endured a slow pit service earlier in the event that cost him spots, muscled his way back into the top five while Ankrum, Heim, Crafton, Tanner Gray and Connor Jones were battling within the top 10.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Eckes was leading by more than half a second over teammate Dye while Caruth, Rhodes and Ankrum trailed in the top five. Behind, Heim carved his way up to sixth place while Friesen, Tanner Gray, Matt Mills and Crafton battled in the top 10 ahead of Garcia, Enfinger, Wood, Connor Jones and Bowyer.
Two laps later, the caution flew when Jack Wood, who was running in 13th place, received a tap from Connor Jones that sent Wood’s No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet Silverado RST spinning down the apron in Turn 4 and just past the entrance of pit road, though Wood managed to continue without sustaining any significant damage. During the caution period, some including Friesen, who had a loose left-rear wheel, pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green with 32 laps remaining, Eckes fended off teammate Dye to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Caruth was trying to fend off Rhodes and Ankrum for third place. With Heim charging his way back into the top, he then made a bold three-wide move to boost his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro all the way up to third place during the following lap. Soon after, Ankrum overtook Rhodes for fifth place and Tanner Gray carved his damaged No. 15 Dead On Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to seventh place while Eckes retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Dye with less than 30 laps remaining.
With 25 laps remaining, Eckes extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Dye while third-place Heim and fourth-place Caruth both trailed the lead by more than two seconds. Eckes would add another second to his advantage with 20 laps remaining, thus leaving Dye to trail teammate Eckes by two seconds as Caruth, who overtook Heim for third place earlier, was trying to close in on Dye’s No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST for the runner-up spot. By then, Heim, Ankrum and Rhodes remained in the top six while Enfinger and Garcia overtook Tanner Gray for seventh and eighth on the track.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Eckes stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Dye and by nearly three seconds over Caruth as Heim and Ankrum continued to round out the top five. Behind, Rhodes, Enfinger, Garcia, Matt Mills and Friesen were in the top 10 while Majeski, Connor Jones, Tanner Gray, Nick Sanchez and Brenden Queen trailed in the top 15. As Crafton, who had been drifting out of the top 10, pitted his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 under green and dropped out of the lead lap category, Eckes grew his advantage to three seconds over teammate Dye with 10 laps remaining.
With five laps remaining, Eckes’ advantage barely decreased as he was still leading by less than three seconds over teammate Dye while third-place Caruth continued to trail Dye by four-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Heim and Ankrum trailed Eckes by three and four seconds, respectively, in the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Eckes remained as the leader by two seconds over teammate Dye while Heim overtook Caruth’s No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST amid a fierce late-race battle for third place. With the latter three unable to gain any ground on Eckes, Eckes was able to navigate his No. 19 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet Silverado RST around the Nashville circuit smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by two seconds over teammate Dye.
With the victory, Eckes, who joins Corey Heim as the second competitor to achieve three or more victories through the first 13-scheduled events, became the first competitor to lead every lap en route to a Truck Series win since Timothy Peters made the last accomplishment at Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2012. In addition, Eckes achieved his eighth career win in the Craftsman Truck Series, his first since winning at Martinsville Speedway in early April and his first at Nashville Superspeedway. The victory was the third of the season for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and the ninth of the year for the Chevrolet nameplate.
As an added bonus, Eckes pocketed his first $50,000 bonus by winning the third and final Triple Truck Challenge event of the 2024 season, thus becoming the 15th competitor to achieve the bonus in the initiative’s sixth season of existence.
“It was just a badass truck,” Eckes said on FS2. “Man, I can’t say enough about these [No. 19] guys. We felt like we should’ve won last time at Gateway and came up a little bit short, finished second and we were really motivated to get this truck better. [The truck]’s done its job for the day. What an Adaptive One Chevy. That was an ass-kicking today. I love it. I saw [Corey Heim] have four [race-winning stickers] on [his truck]. I got a little bit upset when I walked in, so now, we got another one to go catch.”
Teammate Daniel Dye was also left smiling on pit road as he achieved his first top-five career result in the Truck Series by notching a runner-up result in his 36th series start. With the result, Dye trails the top-10 cutline to make the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs by 14 points with three regular-season events remaining on the schedule.
“Man, the confidence is so important when you’re driving a race car and to finish second like this,” Dye said. “Obviously, Christian [Eckes] drove away, but I think there at the end, we were running similar speeds. Man, it feels really good. Our NAPA Nightvision Chevy was really fast. Just super excited that this happened…To finish runner-up feels good.”
Corey Heim rallied from his late pit road issues to finish in third place for his ninth top-three result of the 2024 season, Rajah Caruth nabbed his first top-five result since winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March by finishing in fourth place and Tyler Ankrum recorded his fourth top-five result of the season by finishing in fifth place.
Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia finished in the top 10.
Notably, Stewart Friesen came home in 11th place, Brenden Queen ended up in 19th place in his second Truck career start, Matt Crafton ended up in 23rd place while two laps down and Frankie Muniz settled in 31st place in his Truck debut while scored 20 laps down.
In addition, Clint Bowyer nursed his damaged No. 7 Rush Truck Centers Chevrolet Silverado RST to a 17th-place result in his 15th Truck Series career start, first since 2016 and first with Spire Motorsports.
“I will be back!” Bowyer exclaimed while being interviewed by former team owner Michael Waltrip. “I promise you there’s no way in hell I’m ending on that note.”
There were no lead changes for a single leader. The race featured seven cautions for 42 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 13th event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes continues to lead the regular-season standings by 40 points over Corey Heim, 89 over Nick Sanchez, 92 over Ty Majeski and 163 over Rajah Caruth.
Results.
1. Christian Eckes, 150 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Daniel Dye
3. Corey Heim
4. Rajah Caruth
5. Tyler Ankrum
6. Grant Enfinger
7. Ben Rhodes
8. Matt Mills
9. Ty Majeski
10. Jake Garcia
11. Stewart Friesen
12. Conner Jones
13. Nick Sanchez
14. Tanner Gray
15. Ty Dillon
16. Jack Wood
17. Clint Bowyer
18. Dawson Sutton
19. Brenden Queen
20. Dawson Cram
21. Chase Purdy, one lap down
22. Spencer Boyd, one lap down
23. Matt Crafton, two laps down
24. Lawless Alan, two laps down
25. Layne Riggs, two laps down
26. Stefan Parsons, two laps down
27. Timmy Hill, three laps down
28. Dean Thompson, four laps down
29. Bayley Currey, four laps down
30. Akinori Ogata, six laps down
31. Frankie Muniz, 20 laps down
32. Mason Massey – OUT, Brakes
33. Kaden Honeycutt, 66 laps down
34. Taylor Gray – OUT, Accident
35. Mason Maggio – OUT, Mechanical
36. Bret Holmes – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, for the CRC Brakleen 175. The event is scheduled to occur on July 12 and air at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
