Christian Eckes closed out the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season with an 11th-place finish on Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. The driver of the No. 19 Instacoat Premium Products Chevrolet Silverado RST ran in the top-five for most of the event before stretching his last set of tires for the duration of the final stage. After posting two wins and earning five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in the first 16 races, Eckes finished the regular season sixth in points. He’ll begin the first round of the NCTS playoffs fourth in the championship standings, 11 points behind the lead.
Eckes qualified sixth under intense heat on Friday afternoon and started the 250-lapper from the outside of row three. The New Yorker instantly asserted himself as a contender by grabbing the fourth position on the opening lap and ran there for the entire first stage. His steadily consistent lap times allowed him to earn seven points at the end of Stage 1 on lap 70 in fourth position.
Crew chief Charles Denike called Eckes to pit road under the stage caution for four tires, fuel, and a minor adjustment to fine tune his tight condition in the center of both turns. Eckes elected to restart on the bottom lane in third position on lap 80 and continued to hold his residence inside the top five. He maintained the fourth position through a restart on lap 125 and pocketed another seven points by holding that position to the end of Stage 2 on lap 140.
The second stage caution saw Eckes make his final pit stop of the evening for four tires, fuel, and a small wedge adjustment. He briefly took the third position after the restart on lap 150, but began to wrestle with the balance of his Chevrolet. He ran seventh on lap 195, but stayed on track as several lead lap trucks began to pit under the green flag. He ran as high as second on lap 215 but began to lose time to competitors on fresh tires over the final 35 laps. Eckes ran out the balance of the event to finish in 11th position.
Christian Eckes Quote:
“We were pretty good the first two stages and gambled there at the end. To come home 11th is a little disappointing. It sucks a little bit, but we had a really good truck tonight, so it’s optimistic for IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park), which in a way being a similar racetrack. Just looking forward to it. Huge thanks to Instacoat Premium Products, NAPA Auto Care, just everybody involved. We’ll be ready to go playoff racing.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
