Christian Eckes didn’t just retain his crown as the concrete king in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series; he made history doing so.
Eckes became just the second driver in Truck Series history to lead from green to checkered on his way to a win in the Rackley Roofing 200 on Friday (June 28) at Nashville Superspeedway.
Timothy Peters was the first to achieve the feat, leading all 204 laps on his way to victory lane at Bristol back in 2012.
After starting third, Eckes led all 150 laps in his No. 19 Chevrolet Silverado, earned a maximum 60 points to extend his series points lead. The win is Eckes’ third of the season and eighth in his career.
“This is a bad ass truck man,” Eckes told Fox Sports 1 in a post race interview. “I can’t say enough about these guys. We felt we should have won last time out at Gateway. We came up a little short, finished second and were really motivated to get this truck better.”
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing teammate Daniel Dye had a career-best finish of second, saying post race that it’s a huge performance for both his confidence and his push to make the series playoffs.
“Confidence I think is so important when you’re driving a race car,” Dye said in a Fox Sports 1 interview. “Obviously, Christian drove away, but I think late we were running at similar speeds. It feels really good…Just super excited that this happened. Like I said, the confidence thing is huge.”
Corey Heim finished third after a late battle with Rajah Caruth, who took fourth. Heim rebounded after losing seven spots during the final round of pit stops after stage two.
Tyler Ankrum, another M-HR driver, rounded out the top five. Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia made up the rest of the top 10.
Stewart Friesen won his first pole since 2019 in qualifying earlier in the day. The No. 52 Toyota never got to lead a lap and finished 11th.
Clint Bowyer, running his first NASCAR race since 2020 in the No. 7 Chevy from Spire Motorsports, sustained heavy damage on a lap 60 restart stack up and ultimately settled for 17th.
The opening lap saw Dean Thompson spin in turn three and collect Akinori Ogata, Bret Holmes, Timmy Hill and Tanner Gray.
Gray, starting in the rear after an accident in qualifying, rebounded for a 14th-place run. Holmes spun out again on lap 10 to bring out another caution before retiring to a 36th-place finish.
Eckes won the first stage. Layne Riggs, Heim, Enfinger and Dye made up the top-five finishers in the stage.
It took two restarts in stage two before a lengthy green flag run. Taylor Gray spun off the bumper of Ben Rhodes on the first restart, relegating him to a 33rd-place finish.
A stack up at the front of the field on the following restart accordioned back to Dawson Cram. Cram, running in place of Thad Moffitt, finished 20th. Bowyer’s truck was among those damaged in the wreck.
Eckes won stage two with Heim, Caruth, Dye and Enfinger rounding out the top-five point getters.
Stage two ended under caution after a back-and-forth spat between Riggs and Stefan Parsons came to an end when Riggs spun Parsons in turn three. Riggs was handed a two-lap penalty for reckless driving as a result. Riggs finished 25th, just ahead of Parsons in 26th.
Eckes continued his domination of the evening in stage three. Jack Wood spun out on lap 115 to bring out the seventh and final caution of the race. This tightened the field back up for a final restart with 32 laps remaining, but Eckes drove away and cruised to the checkered flag.
Rackley Roofing 200 Results
The Craftsman Truck Series returns on Friday, July 12 with the running of the CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway. Coverage on Fox Sports 1 begins at 5:30 p.m. ET.
About the author
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with of football, music, anime and video games.
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