DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner - GOOD JOB BY THE WHOLE TEAM! THIS IS YOUR FIRST CAREER POLE. HOW DOES IT FEEL? “Yeah, it’s pretty special. I kind of just feel crazy. I got out of the car and I thought I’d be maybe fifth to eighth but man, these guys on this Caterpillar Camaro ZL1 have done a great job all year of no matter what’s thrown at us, kind of just rising to the occasion and showing back up at the race track every week ready to work."
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 MDS Ford Mustang -- Qualified 2nd “I hope we can be the fastest on Sunday too. We made adjustments on our Ford Mustang last night anticipating a little warmer race on Sunday. We looked at the weather and we looked at what we did here in the spring and so we really didn’t think much of qualifying."
The ARCA Kansas 150 was a microcosm of the entire season for Christian Eckes. The Middletown, New York native was fast in practice, but engine issues necessitated a change following qualifying. That sent Eckes to the rear of the field for the start, but he quickly knifed his way through the field to the top five.
Toyota Racing development driver Christian Eckes captured his first ARCA Menards Series championship after winning the season finale event at Kansas Speedway on Friday evening. Eckes is the sixth driver to run a Toyota to clinch an ARCA Menards Series championship, joining the group of previous champions including Sheldon Creed, Austin Theriault, Frank Kimmel, Patrick Sheltra and Justin Lofton.
“I feel like we’ve come such a long way at Ganassi from our first race at Martinsville. I’m looking forward to going back to apply all the season-long trends. Martinsville is so early in the year and we were such a new team. I think we finished 12th. We learned so much together as a group. That’s what’s cool about going back to these tracks a second time.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW YOU FELT IN THE FIRST PRACTICE.
“I thought it was OK. We started not very good I thought. Once we kind of got back in the ballpark, I thought we were decent. We’re just trying to get it as close as we can and I think, now, there are going to be a handful of guys that will have their cars driving the way that it should. Hopefully, we’re amongst that group and can give ourselves a shot. We have to try to be the first guys off pit road or be the guy with the best restart at the end of the race because there are going to be a few guys that will have the car driving well enough to win.”
ARE YOU LOOKING AT KANSAS AS A MUST-WIN SITUATION?
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely a must-win situation. I think we can look at the stages and try to get a bunch of points in those. Ultimately, we’re going to have to win and that’s our goal.”
