Eckes Knocking on the Door at Texas
Venue: Texas Motor Speedway
Event: SpeedyCash.com 250
Date: Friday, May 1st
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Track Description: 1.5-mile quad oval
Distance: 167 laps, 200.5 miles (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM)
Knocking on the Door … Christian Eckes has been knocking on Texas Motor Speedway’s (TMS) door to victory lane and aims to break through in his sixth start this weekend. The driver of the No. 91 Columbia Bank Chevrolet Silverado RST has a pair of runner-up’s in the Lone Star State and has been heating up in recent weeks. Eckes is coming off perhaps his best outing of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway where he scored a stage victory and led a race-high 132 laps en-route to a top-five finish. The New Yorker has kicked his “Revenge Tour” into high gear with two top-five results in the last three events and looks to add a cowboy hat to his collection in “No Limits, Texas”.
Riding High in Texas … Eckes has been riding high at TMS since making his first start in 2020, although it’s one of the venues that has narrowly eluded him. He came agonizingly close to victory in 2022 on a green-white-checkered finish, which accounted for one of his two second-place results. In both of his two previous Texas outings with MHR, Eckes was a frontrunner in 2023 and 2024, leading 33 combined laps. Since 2020, Eckes has been a mainstay at the front of the field in Texas. He has led laps in four of his five NCTS starts at TMS and has notched three top-five finishes.
Season to Date … Through six of 18 regular season events, Eckes has begun to find his consistent stride with two top-five finishes in the last three races and cracked the top five in the NCTS standings at Bristol. He currently sits fifth in the NCTS championship standings, only 17 markers out of the lead. Eckes has accumulated three top-five finishes and led 140 laps through six races, second-most of all drivers thus far in 2026. The Columbia Bank paint scheme that Eckes is showcasing this weekend has been a good luck charm, finishing in the top-five in both of its appearances.
Tune In … Friday has a full slate of on-track activity at TMS, beginning with practice and qualifying on FOX Sports 2 at 2:30 p.m. ET. The green flag is scheduled to drop at 8:00 p.m. ET Friday evening on FOX Sports 1. Stay connected with the No. 91 Columbia Bank team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmr_nascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On returning to action at Texas:
“Texas is one I have circled on the calendar, for sure. I’ve had a couple get away from me there and certainly don’t want to let that happen again. I feel like our team has begun to find our stride over the last few races. We’ve had better speed, led some laps, got a couple stage wins and been doing a decent job at banking points. I’m pretty optimistic about our Columbia Bank Chevrolet this week. We’ve been close on speed and balance at Texas in the past, just think we’ve needed a slight bit more. Hopefully we’ll have that this week and can keep track position through the night.”