Christian Eckes capped off the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season stretch by officially capturing his first regular-season championship with a runner-up finish in the Clean Harbors 250 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, August 10.
The 2019 ARCA Menards Series champion from Greenville, New York, came into the regular-season finale at Richmond with a 50-point advantage over Corey Heim in the standings. He commenced the weekend on a strong note by notching his third Truck Series pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 118.655 mph in 22.755 seconds.
Eckes led the first 12 laps of the main event before he was overtaken by Ty Majeski for the lead. Despite restarting in fourth place during the event’s first caution period on Lap 56 and amid early pit and tire strategies, Eckes used his four fresh tires to quickly bolt his way back to the lead. Once in clear air, Eckes proceeded to capture the first stage victory on Lap 70, which also marked his eighth stage victory of the 2024 campaign. With the stage victory, Eckes garnered enough points to automatically clinch the regular-season title.
For the remainder of the event, Eckes, who retained the lead at the start of the second stage period on Lap 79 through 115, battled towards the front and kept his No. 19 Instacoat Premium Products Chevrolet Silverado RST intact amid a series of on-track incidents, various shuffles within the field and late-race restarts.
During the final restart period with eight laps remaining, Eckes attempted to make a three-wide move on eventual winner Ty Majeski and Grant Enfinger for the lead. Despite navigating his way past Enfinger in the closing laps, he lost ground to Majeski and would take the checkered flag in second place while trailing Majeski by nine-tenths of a second.
With the runner-up spot, Eckes officially wrapped up the regular-season title by 74 points and became the eighth competitor overall to claim the championship since the Playoff’s inception in 2016. The regular-season championship was also the first for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing as Eckes also became the first Chevrolet competitor to claim the title since Johnny Sauter made the last accomplishment in 2018.
With an additional 15 Playoff points awarded to him and his No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet team, Eckes will commence the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs in second place in the Playoff standings with 2,038 points, where he only trails Corey Heim by three points entering the Playoff opener at the Milwaukee Mile two weeks from now.
The 2024 season marks Eckes’ fourth full-time campaign in the Truck Series, second driving the No. 19 entry for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and third consecutive season making the Playoffs as the New York native strives to make the Championship 4 round and contend for the series title after missing the cutline a year ago.
“Confidence is high, for sure,” Eckes said on FS1. “I feel like we’re in better position than we were last year and I thought we were in a pretty good position last year too, so just overall proud of the team. We didn’t have quite we needed today. I was just way too tight all race, but overall proud of everybody and just ready to get these next seven races underway.”
To add with the confidence, Eckes, who is in his second season driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, took note of the points he garnered over the 16-race regular-season stretch highlighted with three victories, 10 top-five results and 15 top-10 results for an average-finishing result of 5.9.
“The points are good, for sure,” Eckes added. “I’ve said it multiple times today, I missed [the Championship 4] by, I think, four points last year than six points the year before, so any kind of points you can get is definitely crucial when you get to those final rounds. Excited about that, but more excited to get this [Playoff] underway.”
Eckes’ opponents for the 2024 Truck title include teammates Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Dye, both of whom made the Playoffs based on points, as all three will square off against Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger, Taylor Gray and the reigning series’ champion Ben Rhodes.
Christian Eckes’ pursuit of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series championship behinds on August 25 at the Milwaukee Mile for the LiUNA! 175, with the event’s broadcast time slated to commence at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
