The Man on Top … Christian Eckes enters Kansas Speedway as the man on top of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) point standings and the driver to beat on Saturday night. The driver of the No. 19 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet Silverado RST recently took over the points lead after a fourth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12th and is the most recent NCTS winner in Kansas. Eckes executed a wild three-wide maneuver on an overtime restart last September and returns looking for his third victory of the season.
On the Border of Dominance … Through the first seven races, Eckes is outperforming his 2023 season and has been borderline dominant. The winningest driver from a year ago is the only full-time competitor with multiple victories this season and is the only driver to have led laps in all seven events. Eckes has been a mainstay near the front of the field with 337 laps led, the most of any driver and only 14 laps shy of his career-high in a single season. His presence near the front of the pack is a result of his 6.7 average starting positions (third-best among all drivers) and has 136 of the fastest laps run this season, more than double the next closest full-time driver. Eckes has also been a consistent threat in eight prior NCTS starts at Kansas with one win, four top-five’s, and six top-10 results.
Season to Date … Eckes has become the second MHR driver to lead the point standings this season, along with teammate Tyler Ankrum, by virtue of two victories and finishes of eighth or better in the last five-consecutive races. He holds a two-point advantage in the standings as the regular season reaches the halfway point on Saturday night in the “Sunflower State”. In addition to his two race victories, Eckes has collected three stage wins (most among NCTS drivers) along with three top-five results and an average finish of 8.9.
Tune In … Coverage from Kansas can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) beginning at Noon ET on Saturday with practice and qualifying. Coverage continues with NASCAR Raceday on FS1 at 7:00 p.m. ET followed by the green flag at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 19 Adaptive One Calipers team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On his outlook for Kansas:
“Having two weeks off was a good reset for our team to get caught up and prepared for this five-week stretch. Our mile-and-a-half program didn’t start the year where we wanted but we’ve made some improvements, so hopefully we can get our Adaptive One Chevrolet up front on Saturday night and validate the direction we’ve been working. We’ve done a great job executing for the most part this year and gaining a lot of stage points. That’s been a big help for us, so we’ll try to keep doing that this week. Hopefully we can lead some more laps and we’d love to go back-to-back at Kansas.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
