Eckes’ Resilient Run Through Dover Field Results in Top-10

Venue: Dover Motor Speedway

FINISH: 7th

Start: 27th

Laps Led: 0

NCTS Point Standings Position: 6th

Christian Eckes executed a gritty top-10 finish against “Miles the Monster” at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday evening. The driver of the No. 91 Cloyes, Rotomaster Chevrolet Silverado RST came from deep on the starting grid to record a seventh-place finish, a career-best at “The Monster Mile”. His fifth top-10 result of the year resulted in 30 points on the day, fifth-most among all drivers in the field and has him sixth in the championship standings.

The quality result at day’s end required a healthy dollop of resilience after Eckes’ qualifying lap only placed him 27th on the starting grid. Crew chief Dave Elenz and the No. 91 team implemented positive adjustments for the green flag and enabled Eckes to move forward from the outset. The race’s first caution flew on lap 40 as he ran in 21st position and offered an opportunity to pit under the yellow for four tires and fuel. He lined up 19th for a one-lap dash to end the stage and advanced to 17th at the first green-checkered flag on lap 45.

Eckes continued his methodical march forward in the second segment, beginning with a restart on lap 54. He immediately cracked the top-15 and ran as high as 13th. He maintained that position until the end of Stage 2 at lap 90 and came to the attention of the Cloyes, Rotomaster team during the stage caution period.

The No. 91 pit crew gained Eckes a position on the second four-tire stop of the day, and another net gain on pit road. After lining up 12th on lap 98 restart, a race-altering caution flew soon after on lap 118. Elenz called Eckes to pit road for the final stop of the afternoon, despite being seven laps outside their fuel window. He restarted 14th on lap 125 but was bottled up on the outside lane. Despite briefly dropping to 16th, Eckes flexed his long run muscle and advanced to 12th by lap 159. Elenz admonished him throughout the run to be cognizant of the necessary fuel savings. As the run wore on, Eckes entered the top-10 by lap 178, all while preserving fuel. Over the last 15 circuits, Eckes moved to seventh to capture his best finish at the one-mile concrete monster for his third top-10 in the last four races.

Christian Eckes Quote:

“Really proud of Dave [Elenz] and our whole team for not giving up and staying focused after practice. We weren’t anywhere close to where we wanted to be, but we got our Cloyes, Rotomaster Chevy balanced a lot better during the race. We made sure to be on the conservative side on the last run, saving fuel pretty aggressively. This place can have a lot of green flag runs and we knew we’d have to save some to get to the end. Happy to be in the top-10 after practice but we’ve got some work to do at the same time.”