Christian Eckes led every lap of Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway to score his third win on the season and make an early statement that he will be one to contend with in the upcoming NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs.
“This is a badass truck, man,” Eckes said after the race. “I can’t say enough about these (McAnally-Hilgemann Racing) guys. I feel like we should’ve won at Gateway and we came up short there. We were really motivated to get this one.”
Eckes started the race in third place and quickly moved past pole winner Stewart Friesen and second-place starter Grant Enfinger as he exited turn two of the 1.33-mile oval. He led the opening lap in his No. 19 Chevy and never looked back.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done that in any race period,” Eckes said about leading every lap. “To do that is pretty awesome and to have a dominant truck like that is cool and I’m so proud of the effort that the guys on this team are making.”
In the process of winning, Eckes also pocketed the $50,000 bonus for winning the final leg of the three designated events in the lucrative Triple Truck Challenge. Eckes, who also won a blue custom Gibson guitar to commemorate the victory, says the money and custom trophy are very cool, but winning for him is the main thing.
“I’m more excited about the win,” Eckes said. “This was our worse racetrack last year so that made this win extra special. It shows everything about our owner and the team.”
Eckes-teammate Dye was pumped about his second-place finish in his No. 43 Chevy and title-contender Corey Heim was third in his 11 TRICON Garage truck.
“It’s great to see Daniel running so well,” Eckes said. “He gave me a little run for the money there. The 11 seemed to have the most pace for us overall, and he pushed us hard through the night.”
Heim was dejected after a tough night.
“I don’t know that we were better than the 19, but it was hard to tell when we got in dirty air,” Heim said. “This is by far the worst I’ve felt in dirty air in a while in a truck race. I feel like the 43 was kind of in the way and we were a lot better. We just couldn’t pass; the groove never widened out. If you put the 19 back a spot or two I think we could have raced for it, but at the end of the day, we finished third and that’s that.”
Dye was thrilled with his career-best effort.
“Confidence is so important when you are driving a race car,” Dye said. “Christian drove away, but at the end I feel like we were running similar speeds. Our team made good changes and worked really well together. What a crazy feeling. Just how cool it is that my name is on the jumbotron for qualifying. I’m close to crying, but I didn’t win. I have to save the tears for when I win.”
FOX television personality and retired Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer started 11th but finished 17th after getting caught up in a fender-bender during Stage 1 of the race in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevy.
“We fought loose the whole time. It’s that same old story, we would fix something and it would hurt something else,” Bowyer said. “They all checked up and I crashed. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know what happened, but I will be back. There is no way in hell I’m ending on that note.”
Frankie Muniz, star of various popular television shows including “Malcolm in the Middle” made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in the race and completed 130 of the 150-lap race at the controls of his No. 22 Ford Performance Ford to finish 31st in the final order.
“It’s been a frustrating year for me, but this is the first time this year I feel like I had a lot of fun in the truck, even though we did have an issue,” Muniz said. “Some people went through the grass and I had a ton of stuff on my grill. My water temp was 300, so we came in. It took forever to get it cooled down. We went down a bunch of laps. I found myself in that position, ‘how hard do you push?’ We’re 19 laps down and they’re kind of saying ‘push,’ but I didn’t want to wreck it or ruin somebody else’s race when we were kind of out of it. This was a lot of fun. That’s what it was about. Sure, on paper it probably doesn’t look like it was great. I don’t even know where I finished. It doesn’t matter. It’s what I needed, to kind of run with people. I was battling people most of the race. That felt good, just to feel like I still could run with other guys.”
Rajah Caruth finished fourth and was followed by Tyler Ankrum, Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia in the top 10.
Saturday’s schedule includes qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400, and the Tennessee Lottery 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race is scheduled to take the green flag at 4 p.m. CT. On Sunday, the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race will begin at 2:30 p.m. CT.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race - Rackley Roofing 200
Nashville Superspeedway
Nashville, Tennessee
Friday, June 28
- (3) Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 150.
- (9) Daniel Dye, Chevrolet, 150.
- (7) Corey Heim, Toyota, 150.
- (5) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 150.
- (14) Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 150.
- (2) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 150.
- (26) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 150.
- (36) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 150.
- (4) Ty Majeski, Ford, 150.
- (17) Jake Garcia, Ford, 150.
- (1) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 150.
- (21) Conner Jones, Ford, 150.
- (33) Nick Sanchez, Chevrolet, 150.
- (34) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 150.
- (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 150.
- (15) Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 150.
- (11) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 150.
- (16) Dawson Sutton, Chevrolet, 150.
- (12) Brenden Queen, Toyota, 150.
- (24) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 150.
- (10) Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 149.
- (23) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 149.
- (19) Matt Crafton, Ford, 148.
- (22) Lawless Alan, Ford, 148.
- (6) Layne Riggs #, Ford, 148.
- (13) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 148.
- (25) Timmy Hill, Toyota, 147.
- (29) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 146.
- (20) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 146.
- (31) Akinori Ogata, Chevrolet, 144.
- (32) Frankie Muniz, Ford, 130.
- (27) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, Brakes, 94.
- (8) Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 84.
- (18) Taylor Gray, Toyota, Accident, 53.
- (28) Mason Maggio, Ford, Mechanical, 40.
- (30) Bret Holmes, Chevrolet, Accident, 10.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 101.829 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 57 Mins, 33 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.028 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 42 laps.
Lead Changes: 1 among 1 drivers.
Lap Leaders: S. Friesen 0;C. Eckes 1-150.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christian Eckes 1 time for 150 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,38,11,9,43,71,52,98,7,18
Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,11,71,43,9,99,52,88,18,98
-- NashvilleSuperspeedway.com --
Race Schedule and Tickets
Saturday, June 29
Tennessee Lottery 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race
4 p.m. CT, USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Sunday, June 30
Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race
2:30 p.m. CT, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Sunday, Sept. 15
NTT IndyCar Series Big Machine Music City Grand Prix
2 p.m. CT, NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Live, SiriusXM
Call 866.RACE.TIX to discuss your options with an account representative, or visit NashvilleSuperspeedway.com. Tickets for children ages 12 and younger (with a paying adult) are free for the NASCAR races on Friday and Saturday and are only $10 for Sunday.
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About Nashville Superspeedway
Nashville Superspeedway, Middle Tennessee’s racing jewel, is a year-round family-friendly destination in one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. The 1.33-mile D-shaped track with 14 degrees of banking has hosted three NASCAR Cup Series races, 24 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, 17 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events and eight INDYCAR SERIES contests. The largest concrete-only track in NASCAR, Nashville Superspeedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports.
