After an exceptional 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing that produced four wins and a top-10 finish in 22 of the 23 races, Christan Eckes was promoted to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing for 2025.
Through 21 races, Eckes has three top fives and eight top 10s, and he currently sits 16th in the standings; all of these numbers are season highs for Kaulig’s three-car Xfinity operation.
Frontstretch interviewed Eckes on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a few hours prior to the series’ annual Pennzoil 250. Eckes talked in depth about his rookie season, learning the Xfinity car, searching for wins and a playoff berth, his upcoming two-race return to the Truck Series and more.
Stephen Stumpf, Frontstretch: Describe your rookie season up to this point and where you are right now.
Christian Eckes: It’s been a tough season, for sure. A lot of highs, a lot of lows, so I wish it was a little bit more consistent, obviously, at this point. I wish we had more speed, but we’re getting better every week and trying to improve. So that’s all you can really ask for, and we’ve been doing a really good job executing recently in taking racecars that maybe I’m not too happy with in practice and qualifying and racing well with them. Just have to keep progressing forward.
Stumpf: What progress have you felt yourself make from February to now in learning this car?
Eckes: Yeah, I think that’s just it, right? Learning the car, learning the team, learning a lot about the series and everything else.
It was kind of more of a transition than I probably expected as far as getting speed, but everybody at Kaulig Racing has been doing a great job of trying to get better and trying to improve, just like I am right now. I’ve definitely learned a lot over the last six-or-so months.
Stumpf: Since you didn’t make your first Xfinity start until February, is there maybe a little bit of a learning curve this year, since you didn’t have that prior experience in the car until now?
Eckes: Yeah, I’d say so. I mean, they’re just so much different than a truck on a lot of aspects — the aero aspect, and I guess that’s really the big one, with the mechanical grip aspect.
There are so many things that are different about the Xfinity car than a truck that have definitely taken me a little bit longer than I’d like to get a hang of, but I feel like I have a decent grasp on it now.
So yeah, I can always be better, the team can always be better, and that’s what we’re looking for right now.
Stumpf: You’re currently 71 points below the playoff cut line, a handful of races left before the playoffs begin. Do you guys feel like you’re in must-win mode, or is there still a chance on points?
Eckes: I think there’s still a chance on points, but I’m kind of in the mindset of, I feel like we need to win for us. It’s been such a tough season with a lot of DNFs, a lot of crashes, a lot of ups and downs, like I mentioned before.
So if we can go win, I feel like that kind of rights a lot of wrongs on the whole chapter. That’s kind of our number one priority now. But I think we’re still mathematically in an OK position for making it on points, but the last DNF or whatever, when we finished 35th at Sonoma [Raceway], definitely put one half nail in the coffin. So I feel like we’re in a must-win due to that.
Stumpf: Any tracks in particular you’re looking forward to? Races circled that you run well at and have the best chance?
Eckes: Yeah, I would say the speedway race in Daytona [International Speedway]. We tested Iowa [Speedway] a couple of months ago, so that should be a good one for us. And [World Wide Technology Raceway at] Gateway, I feel like, is one of my best racetracks that I’ve been to. So those three are definitely the big hitters: Daytona, Iowa and Gateway. We just have to see what happens there, but I feel good about those three.
Stumpf: I believe this is your first time racing on the Indy oval, right?
Eckes: Yeah.
Stumpf: What’s the experience of being here and being able to race for the first time?
Eckes: Yeah, it’s super special. I’ve never been to Indy before, so coming through the gate and walking the track and just seeing the atmosphere, the scenery, stuff like that, it’s super cool to be here at IMS.
Hopefully, we can get our Leaf Filter Camaro in victory lane today, but either way, just being here is definitely a cool thing. (Eckes finished 13th.)
Stumpf: Looking ahead, you have two races with MHR in the Truck Series at Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. How did that deal come about, and do you still have a close relation with that team?
Eckes: Yeah, for sure. I owe a lot to [team owner] Bill McAnally for where I am today, and I still have a good relationship, good friendship with him.
I had those two off-weekends kind of circled from the beginning of the year. I’ve been wanting to run Truck races again, and we had great support from AAA and NAPA Night Vision to be able to run those races along with the two ARCA [Menards Series] races that I ran with NAPA Auto Care.
It’s always fun to go back truck racing. I enjoy truck racing still, and it’s one of my passions. So anytime I can go back, I’ll definitely go do it.
Stumpf: Are you back at Kaulig for 2026?
Eckes: I would say that I’d be back. Yeah, I know I’ll be back for sure.
Stumpf: And with knowing that, how refreshing and relieving is it to be able to kind of have this learning year and then be back in the car and visit tracks a second time?
Eckes: There’s been so many times in my career that I’ve gone from team to team and not really been able to build. Like, it was from [Kyle Busch Motorsports] to Thorsport [Racing] and Thorsport to MHR. So to have a little bit of continuity the next two years, or this last year and this year in my contract, has been nice, for sure.
Obviously, we want to win, and we have pressure to win. And that’s on us now. But knowing that we have next year to build and learn and grow is definitely a good thing as well.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf