Eckes Dominates Early, Comes From Behind Late in Martinsville Win

Christian Eckes celebrates his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

RIDGEWAY, Va. — Christian Eckes asserted his dominance early, and while things looked dicey midway, he got the cautions that mattered.

Eckes led 133 laps as he won Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville Speedway, outdueling Ty Majeski throughout several late-race restarts.

“If the cautions didn’t come out, we don’t win the race,” Eckes said in his winner’s press conference. “I’ve always wanted a grandfather clock. I got close in 2019 in the fall race, and that was probably the closest I’ve been in five years. It feels good to come here and finally get one … I’m just really happy where we’re at as far as a race team.”

While Eckes qualified second, he took the lead from Majeski on the opening lap and sailed off. He cruised to victories in the opening two segments by staying out and not pitting until following the Stage 2 break at Lap 100.

Meanwhile, Majeski and his No. 98 Thorsport Racing team took an alternate strategy. His team pitted after the Lap 50 stage break and elected to run the entirety of the race on the same set of tires.

That strategy would’ve worked to perfection on a green-flag run. But instead, cautions plagued the final stage, and Eckes, who got bogged up in traffic, managed to climb his way back into it. After restarting 18th, he quickly climbed back to sixth and got up to fourth with 58 to go.

On a Lap 173 restart, the two lined up side-by-side and went to war. It took two laps for Eckes to finally clear Majeski and he tried to pull away, but more cautions continued to jumble up the field.

With 10 laps to go, Grant Enfinger got tagged exiting Turn 2 and spun, setting up a restart with three laps remaining. The battle for the win remained clean — Eckes maintained his advantage over Majeski and rolled to his second win in three races by 0.644 seconds.

Christian Eckes during Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

“We kind of needed the cautions to get us closer,” Eckes said. “It’s hard to pass at Martinsville, even with as good of a truck as we had — we were really the only one that could pass on the outside and make moves as efficiently as we did.

“I felt like really coming in from practice, us and the 98 were the two best trucks, and that kind of proved itself in the race for sure. But I think this is probably the best truck I’ve ever driven in my life.”

While the strategy ultimately didn’t pan out for Majeski, he doesn’t regret it.

“Looking back at it, I don’t know if I would have done anything different,” Majeski said after the race. “The 7 won that with [William] Byron I think two years ago on a similar strategy to us, but it went green. If it goes green after [Eckes] pits, he never gets to us. The race just went his way tonight with his strategy. I don’t think we did anything wrong, but overall, I think the best truck won tonight.”

Nick Sanchez finished fourth, breaking a streak of three finishes outside the top 10 after winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

“I think we walked out of here at Martinsville with a decent finish,” Sanchez said. “These last couple of weeks, it’s been like anything and everything that could take us out of a decent finish or a win happened, and some being my fault. Just happy to finish where we should’ve.”

Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1. Christian Eckes
2. Ty Majeski
3. Layne Riggs
4. Corey Heim
5. Nick Sanchez
6. Ben Rhodes
7. Tyler Ankrum
8. Jake Garcia
9. Kaden Honeycutt
10. Chase Purdy

Stage 2 Top 10 Results

1. Christian Eckes
2. Tyler Ankrum
3. Chase Purdy
4. Ty Majeski
5. Kaden Honeycutt
6. Jake Garcia
7. Dean Thompson
8. Bayley Currey
9. Taylor Gray
10. William Sawalich

Long John Silver’s 200 Results