Eckes Gains Position in Standings with Resilient St. Pete Effort

Christian Eckes displayed a perfect example of resilience by posting a 15th-place finish in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series inaugural outing on the Streets of St. Petersburg Saturday afternoon. The driver of the No. 91 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet Silverado RST rallied from two incidents and being caught a lap down to deliver a blue-collar result. Eckes collected 22 points on the day and advanced to ninth in the series standings.

A rain shower on Friday afternoon washed out qualifying and placed Eckes 31st on the grid as the rulebook set the starting lineup. The first 20-lap stage played out relatively uneventful and saw the NAPA Auto Care Chevy methodically advance into the top-15. Eckes sliced his way to 13th by the end of Stage 1 on lap 20 while nursing a lack of forward drive on the tight city thoroughfares.

After crew chief Dave Elenz and the NAPA crew gave Eckes four tires, fuel, and adjustments during the three-minute stage break, Eckes restarted 13th and continued his march forward. However, Eckes was squeezed into the Turn 8 concrete barrier when the No. 5 machine chopped across his nose on lap 26. The contact caused significant damage to the nose of Eckes’ Silverado RST, but the MHR squad made ample repairs to clearance the splitter and fenders despite losing a lap.

Eckes eventually regained his lap with a fortuitous caution on lap 52 and earned the Lucky Dog award. After he received additional repairs, Eckes’ balance remained reasonable and he restarted his climb through the field. More contact from the No. 42 entering Turn 4 on lap 65 sent him for a loop and briefly lost track position outside the top-20. Nevertheless, Eckes righted his No. 91 and regained positions without the aid of a caution. He advanced to 15th at the checkered flag to gain one position in the standings.

“We had some speed in our NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet today,” Eckes said of the top-15 effort. “We had that damage from when the No. 5 got into us, hurt the nose and the splitter and lost all our track position. That really put us behind and down a lap, but the guys made a lot of progress fixing the damage. We had pretty good pace after that, got turned again, it stayed green and still managed to get back to 15th. Like I said, we had some really good pace before all that, just glad we were able to minimize the damage and gain some points.”

Start / Finish: 31 / 15
Points Standing / Total: 9th / 69 pts. (-83)

Next Race: Friday, March 20, Darlington Raceway
How to Watch or Listen: 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 or SiriusXM

NAPA: @NAPARacing
Christian Eckes: @christianeckes
Bill McAnally Racing: @BMR_NASCAR