Eckes Carries Points Lead and Sweet Tune to Music City
Venue: Nashville Superspeedway
Event: Rackley Roofing 200
Date: Friday, June 28
Location: Lebanon, TN
Track Description: 1.33-mile tri oval
Distance: 150 laps, 199.5 miles (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 2, Motor Racing Network)
Carrying a Sweet Tune … Christian Eckes has carried a sweet tune through the first half of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series (NCTS) season and is in control of the championship standings entering Nashville Superspeedway (NSS). The driver of the No. 19 Adaptive One Chevrolet Silverado RST looks to hit all the right notes in “Music City” on Friday night and return to victory lane. Eckes has been electrifying this season with a staggering level of consistency and has five finishes of fourth or better in the last seven races. He’s hoping to translate his recent performance into his third win of the year and collect the $50,000 bonus as part of the Triple Truck Challenge.
Out Front … No other NCTS competitor has been out front as much as Eckes this season. He’s been a fixture at the front of the field and has led at least one lap in all 12 races. The 464 laps he’s led thus far shattered his previous career-high of 351 set last season and is the most of all NCTS drivers. In the last 10 races since an early retirement at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Eckes has been on a tear. He’s collected two victories and six top-five finishes during that span and has led the NCTS point standings on two separate occasions. In two prior outings at NSS, Eckes has tallied a best finish of sixth and looks to out-do that mark by continuing to pace the field on Friday.
Season to Date … Eckes has led the NCTS drivers’ championship standings for five weeks and brings a 31-point advantage into “Music City”. His advantage can be attributed to relentless consistency with an average finish of 7.3 and 123 stage points, the second-most of all drivers in the series. The New York native has collected six top-five’s and 11 top-10 results with a pair of victories at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
Tune In … All coverage on Friday from NSS will be carried live on FOX Sports 2. The action begins with practice and qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET followed by the green flag at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 19 Adaptive One Calipers team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On restarting the season at Nashville:
“The last few weeks were a nice reset for everyone, and we put the down time to good use. Our guys put a lot of effort into our Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet. We need to get back to victory lane and that’s what we want to try to do on Friday. We didn’t run the way we wanted to at Nashville last year, but hopefully we’ve made some gains that will pay off this week. Nashville can be a challenging place with the concrete surface and being a little smaller than a typical intermediate. Hopefully we can dial ourselves in throughout the race and execute the way we need to finish the night in victory lane.”