Eckes Goes Wire-to-Wire in NASCAR Trucks Race at Nashville

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

LEBANON, Tenn. – The perfect race.

Christian Eckes was not to be deterred in Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, scoring his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the season. But this time around it was something not seen since 2012.

Starting the night in third place, the driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet ascended to the top of the scoring pylon off Turn 2 on the first lap and never looked back, leading every single lap from there on out en route to the victory.

“Just a badass truck, man,” Eckes said after climbing from his truck in celebration on the frontstretch. “I can’t say enough about these guys. We felt like we should have won last time out at Gateway. Came up a little bit short and finished second. Came here really motivated to get this truck better.

“What an Adaptive One Chevy. Just can’t thank everybody enough. Chevrolet, NAPA, Gates….that was an ass kicking today, I love it.”

Eckes’ teammate at McAnally-Hilgemann, Daniel Dye, came home in second-place, finishing some 2.028 seconds back to help his hopes for the Truck Series Playoffs, which are just three races away. With Friday’s finish, Dye now sits 14 points back of the cut-off line.

“To finish second like this, obviously Christian drove away, but there at the end we were running similar speeds,” Dye said. “It feels really good. Our NAPA Night Vision Chevy was really fast. Just super excited that this happened. The confidence is huge…

“Just speed all night. Fourth in stage two, fifth in stage one, and to finish runner-up feels good.”

Corey Heim would end the night in third place, followed by Rajah Caruth, Tyler Ankrum, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski, and Jake Garcia to round out the top-10

Polesitter Stewart Friesen would finish just outside the top-10 in 11^th place.

The race was slowed by caution seven times, six of which were for incident and one for the stage one conclusion.

Clint Bowyer returned for his first NASCAR national series start since stepping away from full-time racing at the end of the 2020 season.

Early on, Bowyer was holding his own in his No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck, but after a stall on pit road following the second stage put him back in the pack, things took a turn for the worse for the driver turned NASCAR on Fox broadcaster.

As the leaders checked up on the restart, it was an accordion effect through the rest of the field, with Bowyer getting the worse of it when he rear-ended his teammate Chase Purdy, causing damage to the front end of his truck.

Though the team was able to get it repaired as best they could, Bowyer’s truck was just not the same the rest of the night as he struggled with the handling and the impatience of the Truck Series field mid-pack.

Bowyer lashed out at the way the field was driving around him at one point, wondering if any of them had spotters on the roof to guide them around.

Ultimately, Bowyer would finish the night in 17^th place, a far cry from how he wanted his return to the cockpit to go.

“I put us in that situation,” Bowyer said. “I killed it on pit road. I mean, that’s fundamental stuff that I knew was going to rear its head. You know, the power in this truck surprises me. They don’t have much power. It’s just been a long time. Just frustrating, you know? I hate it for these guys.

“The restart, I don’t know what the hell happened. I know the 19 [Eckes] took off, hit the brakes, took off, hit the brakes. I don’t know. You get back there in the hornet’s nest. We watch it every week. Those guys are… They do it because there’s no throttle response and it’s really hard to pass. I’m glad I saw that and experienced it first-hand. Just frustrating.”

Even though it was a frustrating night, Bowyer proclaimed that he would be back to avenge Friday’s struggles.

“I can’t quit like that. There’s no way in hell. I’ll find something.”

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Results