Christian Eckes dominated the NASCAR Truck Series’ Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., on Friday, as the 23-year-old led all 150 laps — the first time a driver has led every race lap in 12 years.
Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet, raced forward from a third-place starting position to take the lead from pole winner Stewart Friesen by Turn 2 of the opening lap at the 1.333-mile oval and essentially never looked back. He led by more than three seconds in the closing laps and ultimately crossed the finish line 2.028 seconds ahead of his teammate Daniel Dye — the runner-up showing a career-best effort for the 20-year-old Floridian.
It is the third win of the season for Eckes and extends his championship lead to 40 points over TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, who finished third after passing Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth on the final lap. McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum was fifth.
“Can’t say enough about these guys,” said Eckes, who has three wins this season and now eight in his seven seasons in the series. It’s the second time this season (also at Martinsville, Va.) that he has swept both stage wins and claimed the winner’s trophy.
“We were really motivated to get this truck out there. Nice job for the day,” added Eckes, who says he can’t remember leading every lap in any race in which he’s competed.
The win also earned Eckes a $50,000 bonus check for claiming the final leg of the series’ Triple Truck Challenge — Nick Sanchez and Heim are the other winners in the incentive program.
“I saw the 11 (Heim) has four of them (wins) so got a little upset walking in (to Nashville Superspeedway),” Eckes said.
Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounded out the top 10 in the finishing order. Rhodes’ rally was especially impressive, considering how he started.
And while Eckes spent the day up front — mastering every restart on an evening that saw seven caution flags for 42 laps — there was plenty of action behind him as the caution count would indicate.
On the other hand, Sanchez, who started his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevy from the rear of the 36-car field after hitting the wall in qualifying, rallied to finish 13th and sits third in the championship 89 points behind Eckes.
NASCAR Cup Series star Clint Bowyer finished 17th after his No. 7 Spire truck suffered damage when the field stacked up on the Stage 1 restart. In his typically colorful manner, Bowyer was frank about his night — the first NASCAR national series race he’s competed in since retiring from full-time competition in 2020.
“We fought loose-in the whole time from the word go, but I know from a lot of years of experience that’s hard to overcome,” said Bowyer, a 10-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and the 2012 championship runner-up.
“I don’t know what happened on the (Stage 1) restart, they all checked up in front of me and I crashed,” Bowyer said. “I will be back. I promise you there’s no way I’m ending on that.”
Three races remain to set the 10-driver playoff field. Tanner Gray, who finished 14th Friday night, sits 10th in the standings, 14 points ahead of Dye.
The Truck Series returns to competition for the CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway on July 12. Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race — Rackley Roofing 200
Nashville Superspeedway
1. (3) Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 150.
2. (9) Daniel Dye, Chevrolet, 150.
3. (7) Corey Heim, Toyota, 150.
4. (5) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 150.
5. (14) Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 150.
6. (2) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 150.
7. (26) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 150.
8. (36) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 150.
9. (4) Ty Majeski, Ford, 150.
10. (17) Jake Garcia, Ford, 150.
11. (1) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 150.
12. (21) Conner Jones, Ford, 150.
13. (33) Nick Sanchez, Chevrolet, 150.
14. (34) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 150.
15. (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 150.
16. (15) Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 150.
17. (11) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 150.
18. (16) Dawson Sutton, Chevrolet, 150.
19. (12) Brenden Queen, Toyota, 150.
20. (24) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 150.
21. (10) Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 149.
22. (23) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 149.
23. (19) Matt Crafton, Ford, 148.
24. (22) Lawless Alan, Ford, 148.
25. (6) Layne Riggs #, Ford, 148.
26. (13) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 148.
27. (25) Timmy Hill, Toyota, 147.
28. (29) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 146.
29. (20) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 146.
30. (31) Akinori Ogata, Chevrolet, 144.
31. (32) Frankie Muniz, Ford, 130.
32. (27) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, Brakes, 94.
33. (8) Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 84.
34. (18) Taylor Gray, Toyota, Accident, 53.
35. (28) Mason Maggio, Ford, Mechanical, 40.
36. (30) Bret Holmes, Chevrolet, Accident, 10.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 101.829 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 57 Mins, 33 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.028 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 42 laps.
Lead Changes: 1 among 1 drivers.
Lap Leaders: S. Friesen 0;C. Eckes 1-150.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christian Eckes 1 time for 150 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,38,11,9,43,71,52,98,7,18
Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,11,71,43,9,99,52,88,18,98
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media.
