NEWTON, Iowa – Christian Eckes rallied back from an early spin to post a top-10 finish in his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut Saturday evening at Iowa Speedway.
Eckes was caught in the middle of a four-wide scramble for 10th on a lap 31 restart when he was clipped by the No. 2 of Cody Coughlin and went spinning at the entrance to turn three. Luckily, Eckes was able to continue with no major issues, pitted for four fresh tires and drove his way back into the top 10 by the end of the opening stage.
From there, Eckes’ earlier pit stop allowed him to stay out under the first stage break and lead four laps under caution. He ceded the point to Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson on the restart to begin stage two and faded to as low as 17th, but remained calm and stayed out at the second stage break to restart eighth with 73 laps left.
The outside lane allowed Eckes to begin charging, as he moved up to sixth when the green flag waved and began stalking a position inside the top five. Eckes’ patience was rewarded on lap 133, when he moved into fifth just three laps before the final caution flag of the night flew for a multi-truck incident that collected the likes of Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek and Stewart Friesen.
A 56-lap run to the finish ensued when racing resumed for the final time, with Eckes restarting in the non-preferred bottom lane and sliding back to seventh at the 50 to go point.
Though he lost one more position in the end, Eckes was pleased with his eighth-place finish and the fact that his No. 46 Mobil 1 Toyota made it all the way to the checkered flag in one piece.
“Our day started out a little rough, but this team never gave up and we rallied back, man,” said Eckes. “I’m not really sure what happened on the backstretch there … but we got in a wreck and had to fight from behind all day long. Everybody on this 46 Mobil 1 team did a great job today getting me where I needed to be. This wasn’t the finish that I really wanted at the end, but a top-10 run in my debut is definitely a positive against all the talented guys in this field.”
Saturday’s race was a learning experience for the 17-year-old from Middletown, N.Y., whose only prior experience at the seven-eighths-mile Iowa coliseum came in the form of two ARCA Racing Series starts over the past two years.
Though Eckes qualified second for his Iowa debut in 2016 and finished eighth in the ARCA race there last July, he noted that the action in the Truck Series there is even more intense.
“I’m telling you, the racing at Iowa is the real deal and you can’t let up, even for a moment,” said Eckes. “You have to drive these trucks super hard and leave it all on the table if you want to be successful here. It’s almost like a cross between a speedway and a short track and it’s something I’m not really used to from the short tracks I grew up on, but I learned a lot and I feel like I’m in a lot better place going into next week’s race at Gateway than I was before the weekend.”
Eckes will return to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Gateway Motorsports Park on June 23 for the Villa Lighting Delivers the Eaton 200 at the 1.25-mile oval.
The Gateway event will mark just his second speedway race in a stock car, following his ARCA appearance at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway earlier in the month, but Eckes isn’t worried about his lack of big-track experience compared to the rest of the field.
“I just want to race,” he noted. “This is a dream come true for me, to be driving a truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports. I’m pumped that it’s here and I’m ready to get to the next one.”
