Red Hot Eckes is on a Tear Entering Texas Motor Speedway
Venue: Texas Motor Speedway
Event: SpeedyCash.com 250
Date: Friday, April 12th
Location: Forth Worth, TX
Track Description: 1.5-mile quad oval
Distance: 167 laps, 250.2 miles (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, Motor Racing Network)
Red Hot … Christian Eckes is red hot and has been on a tear as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) enters Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). The driver of the No. 19 Chevrolet Silverado RST is debuting a new red and white paint scheme for Gates Hydraulics in their 27th season with MHR. Eckes is fresh off a dominant victory at Martinsville Speedway last Friday night where he led 133 of the 200 laps and swept both stages on the way to his second victory of the season. He became the first NCTS repeat winner this season and hopes to make it a (cowboy) hat trick with his first TMS victory on Friday night.
There’s No Limits … Based on Eckes’ performance in recent weeks, the sky is the limit for him and the No. 19. Eckes has emerged as the dominant driver in the series with two wins in the last three races and has led 306 laps. In the past three events, Eckes has led 278 laps en route to his two victories and has come agonizingly close to victory on multiple occasions in “No Limits, Texas”. His debut in 2020 at TMS resulted in a second-place finish and followed that with another runner-up result in 2022. Last season, Eckes was in the thick of a four-truck battle for the race win but was collected in an incident on the final lap. He looks to parlay his recent string of dominance and previous stout showings at TMS into another trip to victory lane.
Season to Date … After his triumph at Martinsville, Eckes leaped two positions to fourth in the NCTS standings and is now only 11 markers out of the lead. He has two victories and five top-10 finishes through six races. Eckes is the only competitor to have led laps in every race and owns an average finish of 9.7. He’s begun the first quarter of the season performing at an elite level as evidenced by running 119 of the fastest laps during race conditions (most among NCTS drivers) and owns the second-highest driver rating (105.7).
Tune In … FOX Sports 1 has all the action from TMS on Friday beginning with practice and qualifying at 4:00 p.m. ET. Coverage continues with a feature on Eckes during the NASCAR Raceday prerace show at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by the green flag at 8:30 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 19 Gates Hydraulics team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On returning to Texas:
“It’s nice to have two wins in the bank so early, but it’s a new week and our Gates Hydraulics team is focused on Texas. I’ve been really close there in the past, including last year and led on the overtime restart in 2022. It definitely makes me hungry for one there, that’s for sure. Our whole team has done a great job these last few weeks of qualifying well, getting stage points and that’s allowed us to be in position to race for the win at the end of these races. We just need to keep executing like that and we’ll have a good shot at it again this week.”