By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
Short track tempers flared in Friday night’s Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway after Christian Eckes moved Taylor Gray out of the way to punch his ticket into the Championship 4 at Phoenix next Friday.
The particular move left Gray raging in heartbreak as a race win was his only guaranteed option to fight for a championship.
Coming to a restart with five laps remaining, race leader Eckes chose the bottom while Gray chose the outside line to be alongside him.
Once the green flag came out, the race had just begun as no driver was giving an inch to each other, especially when Gray had the jump he needed to best Eckes and muscled his way to the lead.
Fenders were rubbed entering Turn 3 with Eckes using the front bumper to move Gray out of the groove and regained the top spot he held nearly all night.
Meanwhile, the bump knocked Gray out of contention as Ben Rhodes, Chase Purdy, and fellow Playoff contender Nick Sanchez passed him for position.
As Eckes took the checkered flag, Gray would pass Sanchez to settle for a painful fourth-place result. Therefore, there will be no championship fight for the 19-year-old racer, but Gray insisted of getting to the bottom of things during post-race.
A frustrated Gray made it known to Eckes after the race that his actions weren’t appreciated before bringing his No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota to pit road, but the madness was far from over.
After Eckes celebrated with a burnout, he commented that his aggressive move on Gray was hard racing, but indifferent of how he or anyone else felt. Especially, when the 23-year-old is gunning for a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship at the venue he won a year ago.
“I wasn’t gonna let us lose this race. This truck was too good. The 17 (Gray) was just hard racing,” said Eckes, who led 187 of 200 laps. “I felt bad about the 99 (Rhodes), I just got way too late into the corner. Everybody’s really happy, but I really don’t care. We’ll go onto Phoenix.”
Far from being done of voicing his disapproval, Gray stormed out of his truck and went on a voyage to confront Eckes in victory lane.
Various pleas from a NASCAR security to calm down were had, but Gray was fuming and shoved the FOX Sports microphone away from his face after Amanda Busick wanted a remark from him.
Gray then hopped over and found Eckes in victory lane with team members from both sides, security and photographers surrounding the area.
“You don’t fucking ship (Rhodes) into the fucking fence. You race him like I fucking did,” Gray said as he confronted Eckes face-to-face. “I fucking barely got you off the bottom with tires! You know how many chances I had to ship you into the fucking fence?”
Following Gray’s remarks, Eckes said little to respond as Gray walked away from the storm, but not before shoving him.
“Maybe you should have, I guess,” Eckes responded.
“Okay. I’ll remember for next week,” said Gray.
When the dust settled, one man is fighting for a championship while the other is aware that he’ll have to put up with possible shenanigans in the Xfinity Series next season.
After Phoenix, Gray will be driving for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 squad while Eckes will pilot the No. 16 machine for Kaulig Racing. But before they move up, there’s a race left to unfold and Gray assured the beef could carry on past Martinsville.
“I got shipped to the fence whenever I raced him perfectly clean in (turns) one and two. What comes around, goes around,” Gray said of Eckes’ race-winning tactic. “I have to race him next year, all year long. I guess he’s got that coming for him.”
Mincing words, Gray told Busick about his intentions for the 150-lap finale.
“Clean racing,” Gray commented.
Further comments from Gray included how Eckes has raced him poorly all year and felt the bump was unjustified because Gray has never gave him the receipt. Moreover with everything leading up to the restart where he barely touched Eckes as a late-race caution for a multi-truck incident meant fewer laps were going to remain barring overtime.
“I drove underneath him, and the caution came out. So clean for Martinsville, especially for the tire advantage. I could have drove into (turn) one and shipped him completely out of the way and not be worried about it. I raced him clean.
“I didn’t want to be that guy at Martinsville. We go on the restart, and raced him clean through (turns) one and two. Clear him off of (turn) two, and he goes into (turn) three and completely ships me to the fence.
“Now granted, it is Martinsville, I was expecting to get moved – I wasn’t expecting to get moved to the fence. Especially, with how I raced him, and he is locked into the final four, so I don’t know,” Gray continued.
“The only thing he did was put a target on his back, and unfortunately, and this day and age I can’t go to Phoenix and do anything about to him, because I’m going to go get a $20,000 fine, so he gets away with that crap and doesn’t get any repercussion.”
Additionally, Gray told Bob Pockrass that the option of choosing the inside line was open, but again he wanted to race him outright for the win rather than shipping Eckes.
“We see it time after time when we come to Martinsville, it becomes a joke. I do not want to be the reason Martinsville turns into a joke,” Gray told Pockrass. “I chose the outside to race him clean. We got through one and two fine. I didn’t have a problem with that. I cleared him off of two and he drives through me.”
Regarding what Eckes told Gray during the confrontation according to Gray:
“It’s Martinsville.”
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