Last night’s Craftsman Truck Series race was a redemption story for Christian Eckes as he made amends for opportunities lost last fall in the “Last Great Coliseum”.
Leading the field to the green flag were Christian Eckes and Nicholas Sanchez in the front row. The first caution would come out on lap six as Matt Mills spun into the inside wall on the backstretch. Race would go back green on lap 13 with Eckes leading the field on the outside, Taylor Gray quickly jumps to second on the restart as Eckes starts to pull away. Eckes starts to pull a gap as he starts to lap trucks just past 10 laps into the run.
Taylor Gray was running Eckes down and was within two tenths of a second when the #22 of Keith Mcgee gets turned off the nose of Stefan Parsons to bring out the second caution of the night on lap 45. A handful of trucks pit under the caution flag, shuffling some of those out of contention for stage points. Eckes leads Kyle Busch on the inside and the reat of the field back to the green flag for the sprint before the end of stage one. Busch muscles Eckes on the restart and takes point as the field battles behind them. Eckes brings the battle back to Busch with a bumper but is not able to get around him immediately. Busch holds on for the stage win with Eckes and Sanchez rounding out the podium positions.
Another handful of trucks pit during the stage break to try a differing strategy, including the likes of Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth. Busch would take the outside for the start of stage two and clear Eckes with ease as the field sorts out behind them. The second stage is a bit calmer as Busch pulls a bit of a gap over the field. Layne Riggs, meanwhile, worked into the top-10 after starting his day outside of the top-20. Eckes then manages to pull back within a few tenths of Busch as lapped traffic starts to become a factor. The leaders are almost taken out by a few lapped trucks as Connor Jones tries to make a pass on the apron to keep from going a lap down. They manage to make it through unscathed thankfully. Busch sweeps the stages as Sanchez passes Eckes for second on the last lap of the stage.
After pit stops at the stage break, Sanchez had to pit a second time to remedy a loose wheel. Busch and Eckes would lead the field to green to start the final stage, Busch stays on point as Majeski gets loose off corner exit and spins into his teammate Ben Rhodes to bring out the fifth caution of the night. The race would go back green with 99 laps to go with Busch and Eckes leading the way yet again. Busch and Eckes would duel it out for multiple laps with Busch almost getting turned sideways when Eckes got loose off of turn four. Busch is able to save it and keeps the lead for just a few laps before Eckes blows back to the lead and quickly builds a gap on Busch as things start to settle out just a bit.
As we cross over 50 laps to go Busch has starting to make inroads to Eckes with the help of lapped traffic and pulls within a couple of tenths of the leader but Crafton closes in on the two lead cars and makes this a three-way battle for the lead. However, Sanchez is squeezed into the wall by Stewart Friesen and brings out the sixth yellow of the night with only 33 laps to go. No one in the top-five pits, which means Busch and Eckes lead the field back to the green flag yet again this time with Eckes on the outside. With 25 laps to go, Eckes clears Busch easily as Busch is able to hold off Zane Smith and keep second place. He attempts to mount a charge, but Eckes quickly pulls out to a second lead over Busch. Lapped traffic would start to come into play as we hit five laps to go. Busch would eat into Eckes lead and would get within a truck length of him, but Eckes is able to hold him off and secure his first truck win of 2024.
Photo Credit: @NASCAR_Trucks on Twitter/X
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