Eckes Reunites with BMR for Road Course Tune-Up in Sonoma
Venue: Sonoma Raceway
Events: General Tire 200
Date: Friday, July 11
Location: Sonoma, CA
Track Description: 1.99-mile road course
Distance: 64 laps, 127.36 miles (6:30 p.m. ET – FloRacing / NASCAR Channel on Tubi)
Back Together … Christian Eckes returns to the No. 19 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet with Bill McAnally Racing on Friday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway. Eckes reunites with team owner Bill McAnally for the first time since his two-year tenure in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series (NCTS) where he won eight races and finished in the top-five in points in 2023-2024 driving the No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet. Friday’s race in Wine County serves as a road course tune up for Eckes, who is competing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing.
Loaded Up For 101 … Prior to his NCTS success with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Eckes recorded seven victories in the ARCA Menards Series national tour and the 2019 championship. However, Friday’s 200-kilometer event at Sonoma marks Eckes’ first appearance in the ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) division. He looks to notch the second victory of 2025 for the No. 19 team and score the elusive home track win for BMR. McAnally and the organization have yet to conquer the 1.99-mile road course, which is a short 84-mile drive from the BMR race shop and NAPA Auto Care locations in Roseville, Calif. Eckes and the NAPA Nightvision team are loaded up for a run at the team’s 101st AMSW win to start on “the next 100”.
Sonoma History … Of the 100 AMSW wins in BMR’s history, the organization has come up just shy in wine county but hope to change that on Friday. Eckes has made one prior start at Sonoma Raceway, which came in the NCTS’ return to the track in 2022. BMR has one road course victory in team history which came in 2020 at Utah Motorsports Campus where Jesse Love led 23 of 31 laps.
Tune In … For the first time, the AMSW race from Sonoma can be seen live on the NASCAR Channel on Tubi and streamed on FloRacing (www.floracing.com) at 6:30 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 19 NAPA Nightvision team by following @BMR_NASCAR on X, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On reuniting with Bill McAnally at Sonoma:
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. We had two great seasons on the truck side, and it’s cool to be able to drive the NAPA Chevrolet again. These two races at Sonoma and Portland with extra track time should help us on the Xfinity side at Kaulig Racing, so hopefully this will get the weekend started on the right foot. I only ran the one truck race there a few years ago, so being able to run these West races was really important to do, for sure. It’d be nice to come back and get another win for Bill and everyone at BMR. They got the 100th win for the company recently, and it’d be nice to add to that on Friday.”