Race Weekend Central

Christian Eckes, Todd Gilliland Top Martinsville Truck Practices

Frontstretch’s Truck Series content is presented by American Trucks

Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Christian Eckes and Todd Gilliland led the pair of NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice sessions on Friday (Oct. 25) for the NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 at Martinsville Speedway.

Eckes and the No. 51 KBM team snuck to the top of the leaderboard in the closing seconds of the first practice session. The 2019 ARCA Menards Series champion was the only driver to top 95 mph, coming in at a top speed of 95.391 mph. Ross Chastain was second with a speed of 94.661 mph.

In third place was Sheldon Creed (94.477 mph), Ben Rhodes was fourth (94.449 mph) and Gilliland was fifth (94.402 mph).

Austin Hill was the slowest of the six remaining playoff drivers, placing 16th with a speed of 93.410 mph. Creed had the best 10-lap average with a speed of 93.559 mph.

MARTINSVILLE TRUCK SERIES PRACTICE 1

In the second and final practice for the Truck Series, Gilliland turned the fastest lap with a speed of 95.694 mph. Teammate Harrison Burton turned the second quickest lap at 95.247 mph.

Brett Moffitt had the third-fastest speed (95.170 mph), followed by Johnny Sauter (95.141 mph) and Sam Mayer (95.036 mph).

Matt Crafton posted the best 10-lap average at 94.054 mph. Chastain was 15th (94.181 mph) and was the slowest among the playoff drivers.

MARTINSVILLE TRUCK SERIES PRACTICE 2

There was also a 30-minute morning practice session for rookies who have never made a national series start at Martinsville before the two main practice sessions. Mayer led the five rookie drivers who participated with a speed of 93.604 mph. Tanner Gray, who is making his first career Truck Series start, was second at 92.969 mph. Codie Rohrbaugh was third (92.751 mph), fellow series debut driver Danny Bohn was fourth (92.465 mph) and Natalie Decker was fifth (90.833 mph).

MARTINSVILLE TRUCK SERIES ROOKIE PRACTICE

All three practices were incident-free.

The Truck Series will qualify tomorrow at 10:05 a.m. ET, followed by the race at 1:30 p.m. Both will be televised on Fox Sports 1.

About the author

Josh Roller is a 2019 graduate of the Sports Capital Journalism Program at IUPUI in Indianapolis. While in school, he covered the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship. He was an extern for INDYCAR in 2019 and interned with Charlotte Motor Speedway's Communications Department in 2020. Besides writing the Xfinity Breakdown for Frontstretch, he also does a weekly podcast with a friend he met at the 2018 Indy 500, Rob Peeters, called the Racing with Rob and Roller podcast.

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