Christian Eckes Wins Truck Race at Bristol

The last time the Craftsman Truck Series ran at Bristol was during the playoffs last year, and during that race, Christian Eckes lost the lead to Corey Heim with six laps to go and would lose out on a major win. This time, this was certainly more bittersweet for Eckes, as he picked up his first win of 2024 in Saturday Night’s Weather Guard Truck Race. Eckes faced a tough task, as he had to hold off a charging Kyle Busch in the closing laps.

“Oh, man, it’s so sweet,” said Eckes, who earned his sixth career win. “There’s just so much behind this win from last year, missing out on the Championship 4 and losing the race with six to go.”

“To come back and redeem ourselves was our number one goal, and not only that but the first three races (of this season), how terribly they’ve gone. We had a lot of issues, and to come back and run really good just shows the resilience of the team.”

Eckes passed Busch with 92 laps to go and wouldn’t look back despite Busch making a charge late in the race. Eckes’ win also puts Chevrolet undefeated in 2024, winning the first four races of the season. Busch felt like he had a second or third-place truck during the final caution on Lap 227. 

“The crazy part about it is, we fought loose all through practice, all through qualifying, all through the beginning part of the race on older date codes,” Busch said. “Then we put on the newer date codes of tires and were instantly tight. So, just not being able to prepare and practice on what you expect to race on hurt us.”

“We tightened up all day, and obviously I don’t think we were as tight as the 19 (Christian Eckes) at the end but, you know, just track position. I let him go early in that run to just go burn his stuff off and track position at the end, just aero effects. Didn’t have enough rubber on the road to outduel him.”

Following the race, Daytona winner Nick Sanchez and Stewart Friesen got into a heated confrontation on pit road after they both got together coming off turn four and brought out the caution late in the race. The two had an argument that turned into Friesen shoving Sanchez and creating a scuffle before crews from both teams split them up. Sanchez finished 17th, while Friesen finished 22nd.

2022 Champion and Cup rookie Zane Smith finished in third, while three-time champion Matt Crafton was fourth. Tyler Ankrum, who has been having a fantastic start to the season, finished fifth, with Corey Heim finishing sixth, and Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger, and Layne Riggs rounding out the top ten. 

The Craftsman Truck Series will head next to Austin, Texas at the Circuit of the Americas on March 23^rd at 1:30 pm EST.