Christian Eckes Leads Truck Series Practice at Vegas, Kyle Busch 14th-Fastest

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When Kyle Busch is in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series field, many expect the No. 51 truck to be atop the board in every practice, qualifying session and the race. However, it was a different Kyle Busch Motorsports truck that paced the only practice session of the weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — Christian Eckes in the No. 18 truck.

Eckes posted a lap of 177.848 mph, which equates to a 30.363 second circuit. Eckes was a little over three hundredths of a second faster than Johnny Sauter.

Sauter was among four drivers who were docked 10 championship points earlier in the morning, when NASCAR discovered alterations to their trucks that resulted in a L1 penalty.

Brett Moffitt was third in the session followed by Ty Majeski and Sheldon Creed.

Kyle Busch, who is expected to contend for a win as he has won his last six Truck Series starts dating back to 2018, was only 14th-fastest in the session.

Of course, a crew chief shakeup at KBM in the offseason sent Rudy Fugle to the No. 18 team, while Busch’s No. 51 truck now has Danny Stockman Jr. as the crew chief.

Obviously, it’s still early and the 56-time Truck Series race winner could very easily cruise to another win on Friday night, but if he doesn’t many will wonder if he will have the same dominance in the series this season.

Toby Christie

Toby is the Founder of TobyChristie.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. Toby is also the co-host of The Final Lap Weekly Podcast. Additionally, he is an award-winning writer, and has followed the sport as a fan since 1993.