Christian Eckes wanted that victory so badly, it felt like he was determined to ensure no one else stood a chance. In Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Eckes led a jaw-dropping 187 of the 200 laps, sweeping the stages and at one point enjoying a staggering six-second lead. He even navigated late race chaos and a confrontation that erupted after the race, which began during a restart with just five laps to go. With this performance, the Final Four contenders for the Truck Series championship in Phoenix are officially set.
After pitting during the race’s first caution on lap 36 due to a stopped truck, Eckes and the top three behind him opted to stay out. He led every lap in the first stage, securing his 10th stage win of the season and becoming the first driver to reach 300 stage points. Meanwhile, playoff contender Raja Caruth saw his championship hopes meet an unfortunate fate when he made contact with the unforgiving Martinsville curb near the end of Stage 1, resulting in a flat tire that severely dented his Playoff hopes. Caruth fell a lap down on lap 94 and eventually retreated to the garage due to brake problems, only returning later, 20 laps down, wondering how he might improve for the next season.
Eckes was back in the lead as Stage 2 began, but Dylon Lupton, making his first truck start of 2024 from 29th, went for a solo spin in Turn 2 with three laps to go in Stage 2, solidifying Eckes’s stage sweep. How dominant was Eckes? He ran 100 laps on the same set of tires and still clocked in as the fastest truck on the track at the end of Stage 2.
The race’s first different leader emerged after the halfway point when Eckes relinquished the top spot to pit at the end of Stage 2. Ben Rhodes, choosing to stay out, was scored as the leader on lap 111. However, Rhodes’s lead was short-lived; Eckes muscled his way back to the front on lap 115, quickly stretching out a two-second advantage. By the time there were 44 laps to go, that lead had ballooned to a jaw-dropping six seconds.
Chaos ensued on lap 161 when Kaden Honeycutt lost a right front tire, creating a strategic dilemma for crew chiefs, especially those hoping to dethrone Eckes. A group of drivers, led by Rhodes and Corey Heim, pitted for new tires, while Eckes and the top nine runners chose to tough it out. Nick Sanchez, needing nothing short of a win to secure his spot in the Final Four, started second on the same tire with a clear message: he’d have to outduel Eckes for that victory.
When the green flag waved with 29 laps to go, Eckes shot to the lead by Turn 1, while Ty Majeski attempted to wrestle second from Sanchez. By the time Sanchez reclaimed his spot, Eckes was nearly two seconds ahead. Majeski and Taylor Gray, on fresher tires, fought for third, but that battle concluded with Gray taking the spot on lap 181. The then race turned chaotic when Brett Moffitt was sent into the outside wall in Turn 3 after a collision involving Taylor’s younger sibling Tanner Gray, bringing out the race’s fifth caution.
With just 18 laps to go, only those outside the top 10 dared to pit. Sanchez lined up directly behind Eckes when the restart came with 12 laps to go. Eckes shot to the lead, but the action was halted when Stewart Friesen spun out after contact from Grant Enfinger. In a last-ditch effort, Taylor Gray, sporting fresher tires, lined up on the outside of Eckes for the restart with five laps to go.
Eckes made his first mistake of the race when he spun his tires on the final restart, giving Gray an opening and briefly the lead. But Eckes wasn’t going to be denied; he shoved Gray aside, only for Rhodes to briefly capitalize. However, Eckes reclaimed the lead with just two laps remaining, winning by 1.1 seconds, with Rhodes and Chase Purdy finishing second and third, respectively.
“It was definitely our race to win,” Rhodes lamented. “Unfortunately, it was our race to lose, too. We were leading the laps. I drove in five truck lengths deeper than I had all night and thought, ‘Man, if he gets me, there was no way he was gonna make the corner,’ and, sure enough, he got to the bumper.”
Taylor Gray, who finished fourth, expressed his displeasure with Eckes post-race, bumping into the winning truck several times on the cool-down lap.
After parking Taylor Gray, now out of the Playoffs, marched down pit road surrounded by a mob of NASCAR security and media. Gray confronted Eckes in the makeshift victory lane on the front stretch. Their exchange was heated but ultimately physical confrontation was avoided, with Gray storming off angrily.
“The 19 (Christian Eckes) was the class of the field, right?” Taylor said with a hint of sarcasm. “But it’s not my fault we had better strategy than he did. We came out on tires, drove through the field, and caught up to him. I raced him clean, and he drove me into the fence. I guess the only thing I could have done is wreck him like he wrecked me.” He added that he would race Eckes clean in the final race at Phoenix.
Nick Sanchez, finishing fifth, was also out of the Final Four. “The 19 was just a class above the rest, really,” Sanchez said. “With 35 to go, I kind of convinced Bono (crew chief Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion) to stay out because I thought it was the right call, and it ended up being the wrong one. I was a little disappointed in the way it played out.”
Layne Riggs finished sixth, and Corey Heim secured seventh, enough to qualify for the Final Four.
“Our regular season bonus points really propelled us to an easy, kind of under-the-radar day here at Martinsville,” Heim said. “We had such a great regular season, and that led us to have a relaxing last round here. The ultimate goal is to win a championship next week, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Ty Majeski finished 11th, securing his place in the Final Four alongside Heim, Enfinger, and Eckes.
“It feels good,” Majeski said. “It was drama-filled, for sure. Pretty much all the scenarios were working out exactly how we didn’t need them to at the end of the race, but Ben did a great job racing those guys hard. Christian, too, obviously wanted to win the race really bad, so we needed him to win that.”
As for Eckes, he was on top of the world and feeling better than good.
“It feels great,” he said, now a favorite for the Truck Championship. “Like I told everybody, I wasn’t going to let us lose this race. The truck was too good. The 17 (Taylor Gray) was just hard racing, and I feel bad about the 99 (Ben Rhodes). I just got way too loose into the corner. Not everybody’s really happy with me, but I don’t really care. I’m proud of everybody for working hard, and you know, we’re going to Phoenix.”
With tensions high and rivalries brewing, the stage is set for what could be qn explosive showdown in Phoenix. Eckes’s dominance, coupled with the drama from Martinsville, promises to make the championship race one for the ages. Buckle up; it’s going to be a wild ride.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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