June 28, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Christian Eckes dominates at Nashville Superspeedway

LEBANON, Tenn. — Christian Eckes absolutely dominated Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, the 23-year old leading all 150 laps – the first time a driver has led every race lap in 12 years.

Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet raced forward from a third place starting position to take the lead from pole winner Stewart Friesen by Turn 2 of the opening lap at the 1.333-mile oval and essentially never looked back. He led by more than three-seconds in the closing laps and ultimately crossed the finish line 2.028-seconds ahead of his teammate Daniel Dye – the runner-up showing a career best effort for the 20-year-old Floridian.

It is the third win of the season for Eckes and extends his championship lead to 40 points over TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, who finished third after passing Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth on the final lap. McAnally-Hilgermann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum was fifth.

“Can’t say enough about these guys,’’ said Eckes, who has three wins on the season and now eight in his seven seasons in the series. It’s the second time this season (also at Martinsville, Va.) that he has swept both stage wins and claimed the winner’s trophy.

“We were really motivated to get this truck out there. Nice job for the day,’’ added Eckes who says he can’t ever remember leading every lap in any race he’s competed in.

The win also earned Eckes a $50,000 bonus check for claiming the final leg of the series’ Triple Truck Challenge – Nick Sanchez and Heim are the other winners in the incentive program.

“I saw the 11 (Heim) has four of them [wins] so got a little upset walking in [to Nashville Superspeedway], so now another one to go catch another one,’’ Eckes said.

Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounded out the top 10 in the finishing order. Rhodes rally was especially impressive considering how he started.

And while Eckes spent the day up front – mastering every restart on an evening that saw seven caution flags for 42 laps – there was plenty of action behind him as the caution count would indicate.

On the other hand, Sanchez, who started his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevy from the rear of the 36-car field after hitting the wall in qualifying, rallied to finish 13th and sits third in the championship 89 points behind Eckes.

NASCAR Cup Series star and current FOX Sports NASCAR broadcaster Clint Bowyer finished 17th after his No. 7 Spire truck suffered damage when the field stacked up on the Stage 1 restart. In his typically colorful manner, Bowyer was frank about his night – the first NASCAR national series race he’s competed in since retiring from fulltime competition in 2020.

“We fought loose-in the whole time from the word go, but I know from a lot of years of experience that’s hard to overcome,’’ said Bowyer, a 10-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and the 2012 championship runner-up.

“I don’t know what happened on the [Stage 1] restart, they all checked up in front of me and I crashed,’’ Bowyer said, adding, “I will be back. I promise you there’s no way I’m ending on that.”

Three races remain to set the 10-driver Playoff field. Currently Tanner Gray, who finished 14th Friday night sits in the 10th place position, 14 points ahead of Dye.

The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to competition for the CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway on July 12 (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 13
Race Results for the Rackley Roofing 200 - Friday, June 28, 2024
Nashville Superspeedway - Nashville, TN - 1.33 - Mile Concrete

Total Race Length - 150 Laps - 199.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Friday, 6/28/2024 @ 10:41 PM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 3 19 Christian Eckes Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet 150 1 1 60 Running 1 150 7
2 9 43 Daniel Dye NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet 150 5 4 48 Running  
3 7 11 Corey Heim Safelite Toyota 150 3 2 51 Running  
4 5 71 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 150 6 3 46 Running  
5 14 18 Tyler Ankrum Ullico Chevrolet 150 10 9 35 Running  
6 2 9 Grant Enfinger Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 150 4 5 44 Running  
7 26 99 Ben Rhodes Campers Inn RV Ford 150  6 35 Running  
8 36 42 Matt Mills J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet 150   29 Running  
9 4 98 Ty Majeski Curb Records 60 Years Ford 150 8 10 32 Running  
10 17 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 150   27 Running  
11 1 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Toyota 150 7 7 34 Running  
12 21 66 Conner Jones TSPORT Ford 150   25 Running  
13 33 2 Nick Sanchez Gainbridge Chevrolet 150   24 Running  
14 34 15 Tanner Gray Dead On Tools Toyota 150   23 Running  
15 35 25 Ty Dillon Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 150   22 Running  
16 15 91 Jack Wood Chevrolet 150   21 Running  
17 11 7 Clint Bowyer Rush Truck Centers Chevrolet 150 9  22 Running  
18 16 26 Dawson Sutton Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 150   19 Running  
19 12 1 Brenden Queen Best Repair Company Toyota 150   18 Running  
20 24 46 Dawson Cram Faction46 Chevrolet 150   17 Running  
21 10 77 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 149   16 Running  
22 23 76 Spencer Boyd Record Rack Chevrolet 149   15 Running  
23 19 88 Matt Crafton Zevo/Menards Ford 148  8 17 Running  
24 22 33 Lawless Alan AUTOParkit Ford 148   13 Running  
25 6 38 Layne Riggs # Love's Travel Stops Ford 148 2  21 Running  
26 13 75 Stefan Parsons Popsells.com Chevrolet 148   11 Running  
27 25 56 Timmy Hill Coble Enterprises/UNITS Toyota 147   10 Running  
28 29 5 Dean Thompson Assured Partners Toyota 146   9 Running  
29 20 41 Bayley Currey DQS Chevrolet 146   8 Running  
30 31 20 Akinori Ogata Hirotec Chevrolet 144   7 Running  
31 32 22 Frankie Muniz Ford Performance Ford 130   6 Running  
32 27 02 Mason Massey BRUNT Chevrolet 94   5 Brakes  
33 8 45 Kaden Honeycutt AutoVentive/Precision Chevrolet 84   4 Running  
34 18 17 Taylor Gray Caden Ingram Foundation Toyota 53   3 Accident  
35 28 21 Mason Maggio US Off Market Real Estate Deals Ford 40   2 Mechanical  
36 30 32 Bret Holmes Golden Eagle Chevrolet 10   1 Accident  

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 57 Mins, 33 Secs. Average Speed: 101.829 MPH Margin of Victory: 2.028 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 38, 11, 9, 43, 71, 52, 98, 7, 18
Stage 2 Top 10: 19, 11, 71, 43, 9, 99, 52, 88, 18, 98

Failed to Qualify: (3) 27 Keith McGee, 90 Justin Carroll, 28 Bryan Dauzat.

Caution Flags: 7 for 42 laps; Laps: 2-7 (Incident Turn 3 Nos. 5, 32, 02, 21, 56, 20 [None]); 10-14 (Incident Turn 2 No. 32 [None]); 47-52 (Stage 1 Conclusion [15]); 54-59 (Incident Turn 1 Nos. 17, 99 [76]); 61-65 (Incident Frontstretch No. 33, 46 [2]); 94-102 (Incident Turn 4 Nos. 38, 75 / Stage 2 Conclusion [76]); 114-118 (Incident Turn 4 Nos. 66, 91 [46]).

Lead Changes: 1 among 1 drivers; S. Friesen 0; C. Eckes 1-150.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: July 12, 2024 - Pocono Raceway

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