Christian Eckes may not have won the pole Friday at Nashville Superspeedway, but the rest of his night was perfect.
The McAnally Hilgemann Racing driver became the first driver in more than a decade to lead every lap of a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, capturing the victory in the Rackley Roofing 200 in dominant fashion, his third win of the 2024 season. The result also netted Eckes the points lead with just three races remaining in the regular season.
In doing so, the New York-born driver captured the third and final $50,000 bonus awarded via the Triple Truck Challenge, marking three different winners in the promotion’s three-race stint — Nick Sanchez (Charlotte), Corey Heim (Gateway), and now Eckes (Nashville).
Friday’s victory marks the eighth of Eckes’ career and the ninth of the season for Chevrolet.
“Man, I can’t say enough about these guys. We felt like we should’ve won last time out at Gateway, came up a little bit short, and finished second, and we were really motivated to get this truck better”, Eckes said in his post-race interview.
150 laps led. Could've led 150 more.
Hear from @christianeckes! pic.twitter.com/6JXcFOdSgo
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) June 29, 2024
The flag-to-flag win for Eckes was the first in the Truck Series since 2012 when Timothy Peters led all 204 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway. Like Eckes, Peters had a teammate finish second, with current Xfinity Series full-timer Parker Kligerman finishing runner-up that evening for the now-defunct Red Horse Racing.
Daniel Dye, Eckes’ teammate, recorded a career-best second-place result, and his first top-five. The finish also gives McAnally Hilgemann Racing its second 1-2 finish, with the first coming in last season’s championship race at Phoenix.
Corey Heim finished third in his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota, earning his series-leading ninth top-five finish on the season. Las Vegas winner Rajah Caruth finished fourth, and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five, giving MHR three trucks inside the top five.
Grant Enfinger, defending champion Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski, and Jake Garcia completed the top ten.
RELATED: Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Results
Polesitter Stewart Friesen led the field to green, but Eckes made quick work of the No. 52, passing him for the lead on the race’s opening lap. The race did not make it a single lap before the first incident, however, as contact from Mason Maggio sent the No. 5 of Dean Thompson spinning in turn three, collecting the No. 02 of Mason Massey before hitting the outside wall.
Tanner Gray, Akinori Ogata, Bret Holmes, and Timmy Hill, who had to drop to the rear of the field before the start of the race, were also collected in the incident. Despite the damage each truck received, all six trucks involved managed to stay on the lead lap.
Video: Dean Thompson Spins After Contact From Maggio on Lap 1
The next green flag run lasted only three laps, as another caution came out on lap ten. Tanner Gray, who received damage from the lap one accident, made contact with Bret Holmes, who was also involved in the first incident, sending the No. 32 into the outside wall in turn two. Holmes sustained major rear-end damage on top of his existing damage, leaving him with his first DNF since Nashville last season.
On lap 37, Kaden Honeycutt, who was running in third in his No. 45 Chevrolet, had to come down pit road and head to the garage with an engine issue. Honeycutt, who had made his way up from eighth, spent much of the race in the garage, finishing 33rd, 65 laps behind the leader.
The remainder of the stage was run incident-free, with Eckes leading every lap en route to his fourth stage win of the season.
Just like stage one, the start of stage two also did not last a full lap under green. Going into turn one, the No. 17 of Taylor Gray got bumped by Ben Rhodes, sending Gray up into the outside wall. The contact left Gray with major damage to the driver’s side of the truck that would prove to be terminal, as the No. 17 would suffer its first DNF since the season-opening race at Daytona.
Taylor Gray Suffers Early End to Race After Crash at Beginning of Stage Two
The following restart was also green for less than a lap, as a massive stack up on the inside line led to multiple trucks with damage and the No. 46 of Dawson Cram spinning into the infield grass. Cram, filling in for Thad Moffitt in the Faction46 entry, received a tap from the No. 33 of Lawless Alan that caused him to spin. Chase Purdy, Clint Bowyer, Dawson Sutton, Alan, and Cram all received damage from the stack up.
Video: “Motherf***er!” Clint Bowyer Not Happy After Major Stack Up on Restart
The next incident occurred with three laps remaining in stage two for an incident involving Layne Riggs and Stefan Parsons. The two drivers, who had been having a very heated battle over the back half of the stage, made contact multiple times during that span. The battle finally came to a head on lap 94, when Riggs got into the back of Parsons, sending the No. 75 into the outside wall and leaving it with major rear-end damage. The incident caused stage two to end how it started, under caution, handing Eckes a stage sweep. Riggs would receive a two-lap penalty for reckless driving as a result of the contact.
NASCAR holds Layne Riggs for two laps for reckless driving after the incident with Stefan Parsons. https://t.co/MHqCI08c2K pic.twitter.com/kSk0yr2hAv
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 29, 2024
On lap 114, another spin occurred, with Jack Wood’s No. 91 Chevrolet being the truck that went around. Wood received a tap from the No. 66 of Conner Jones in the middle of turn three, sending the No. 91 spinning onto the apron and down pit road.
The remainder of the race would be run caution-free, as Eckes cruised to his third victory of the Truck Series season.
With the victory, Ford’s winless streak to begin the series reached thirteen races and fifteen races overall. The blue oval’s last trip to victory lane in the series was with Brett Moffitt at Talladega last season. Chevrolet also became the first manufacturer to win nine of the first thirteen races of the Truck Series season since 2021, when Toyota won ten of the first 13, including the first seven.
Leaving Nashville, Christian Eckes holds a 40-point advantage over Corey Heim for the regular-season points lead, with Nick Sanchez, Ty Majeski, and Rajah Caruth rounding out the top-five.
The next Craftsman Truck Series race is scheduled for Friday, July 12, at Pocono Raceway, and will be broadcast by FOX.
