Christian Eckes secured his place in the Championship 4 with a dominating sweep of Martinsville Speedway on Friday night. The driver of the No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST led 187 of the 200 laps and swapped the lead twice in the final five laps to secure his fourth victory of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) season. Eckes also became the first driver to eclipse 1,000 laps led in a single season since 2009 and will race for his first title next Friday night at Phoenix Raceway.
Eckes and the Gates Hydraulics team were the class of the field from beginning to end on Friday. He set the fastest lap in practice and backed it up with his third pole award of the season in qualifying. From the drop of the green flag, Eckes was untouchable and drove away to his 10th stage win in the first 50-lap segment. Crew chief Charles Denike kept Eckes on track to retain his track position for the second stage and the strategy play paid off.
On the lap 61 restart, Eckes scooted away from the field, driving out to over a two second lead during the second segment. The stage ran green until lap 98 as Eckes had worked his way deep into lapped traffic. The second stage concluded on lap 100 under yellow to give Eckes the 11th stage win as he swept the night’s segments. Denike brought Eckes to pit road under yellow for the lone four-tire pit stop for the event under the ensuing caution period.
Eckes restarted second on lap 111 and swiftly reclaimed the lead on lap 116. His outright speed was unchallenged over the subsequent 53-lap run. He built a lead in excess of six seconds prior to a caution on lap 163. The lead-lap competitors split strategies as roughly half of the trucks elected to pit for tires under the caution as Eckes and seven others stayed on track to preserve track position. On lap 190, Eckes fended off a bump-and-run maneuver prior to the final caution to retain the race lead. He briefly lost the lead on the lap 196 restart and took it back from the No. 17 in Turn 3 with a bump-and-run of his own. The quintessential close-quarters racing continued the next lap as the No. 99 made contact with Eckes to take the lead. Not to be outdone, Eckes sealed the win on lap 198 as he reclaimed the lead. He took the checkered flag by 1.19 seconds to sweep the season’s events at Martinsville.
Eckes’ victory advanced him to his first Championship 4 appearance and is his fourth victory of the season. He extended his streak of top-10 finishes to 20 races and tied the record for top-10 finishes in a 23-race NCTS season with 21.
Christian Eckes Quote:
“Just a really good race truck. This Gates Hydraulics Chevy was on rails and felt like I couldn’t lose with it. Had to race a little bit harder than I’d like to, but at the same time it’s Martinsville and sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Proud of the team. Proud of the effort. Glad to be going to Phoenix. Just happy to be in Victory Lane.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
