• Wednesday, June 5th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service -

Regular Season Title Watch: Eckes controls point standings with four to go

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes continues to have a breakout year as he holds onto the driver points lead in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series with four races left in the regular season. The 23-year-old is currently 31 points up on Corey Heim in second as the series takes three weeks off before returning at Nashville Superspeedway for the Rackley Roofing 200 on Friday, June 28 at 8 p.m. ET on FS2, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

If Eckes can hold on and win the Regular Season Championship, he will get an additional 15 Playoff points to take with him into the postseason and will become the eighth different driver to win the regular season title; joining Christopher Bell (2017), Johnny Sauter (2018), Grant Enfinger (2019), Austin Hill (2020), John H. Nemechek (2021), Zane Smith (2022) and Corey Heim (2023).

Eckes’ points lead began after a strong showing at Darlington – earning himself a total of 50 points to jump over Heim. The Middletown, New York Native has accumulated two wins, six top-five, and 11 top-10 finishes this season. He also leads the series in laps led this season with 464.

The driver of the No. 19 Chevrolet cannot yet clinch the Regular Season Championship since there are still four wins available.

Right in Eckes’ review mirror is last season’s Regular Season champion and TRICON Garage driver Corey Heim, who is coming off an impressive win last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. The 21-year-old driver of the No. 11 Toyota has collected four wins (the most of any driver this season), eight top fives, 10 top 10s, and has led 408 laps on the season.

Heim is hoping to catch Eckes within the next four races and become the first driver to win multiple Regular Season Championships in the series.

Repeat winners allow six spots still up for grabs in the Playoffs

Through 12 races this season, four drivers have earned their spot in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs by virtue of their wins – Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth – leaving six spots in the 10-driver Playoff field still available heading into Nashville Superspeedway on June 28.

With only four races in the regular season remaining, the battle for the final postseason transfer spot is heating up and time is running out.

Following World Wide Technology Raceway, Stewart Friesen is ranked 11th in the Playoff outlook, 26 points back from Grant Enfinger in the 10th and final postseason transfer spot on points. Just behind Friesen is Daniel Dye in 12th, -37 points back from the postseason cutoff, and three-time Truck Series champion Matt Crafton is 13th, -46 points back from Enfinger. Since the introduction of the Playoffs in the series in 2016, Matt Crafton has not missed the Playoffs, and he leads the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in postseason appearances with eight consecutive (2016-2023).

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will end ‘The Trip’ in Music City

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will have three weeks off to regroup before heading to Nashville Superspeedway for the Rackley Roofing 200, the final race of the 2024 Triple Truck Challenge (Friday, June 28, at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS2, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 16 previous CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races at the 1.33-mile track have produced 13 different race winners and 12 different pole winners. Seven of the Truck Series races have been won from the pole or first starting position, most recently by Ryan Preece in 2022.

Johnny Benson Jr., Kyle Busch, and Ryan Preece lead all drivers with two victories at the 1.33-mile track and Toyota leads the pack with the most wins in Nashville, coming in at six victories.

Ford and Chevrolet follow with four trips to Victory Lane each and Dodge has two wins.

The Rackley Roofing 200 will be broken up into three stages. The first stage will be 45 laps, followed by 50 in the second stage, and the final stage will be 55 laps for a race total of 150 laps (199.5 miles). 

Practice will begin Friday, June 28 at 4:30 p.m. ET followed by Cometic Gasket Pole Qualifying at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Brenden “Butterbean” Queen scores two more NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts –CARS Tour late model stock car standout Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will once again be joining forces with TRICON Garage to pilot the No. 1 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra at Nashville Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway.

The Chesapeake, Virginia driver had a breakout campaign in 2023 earning four victories, 13 top fives and 15 top 10s in CARS Tour competition enroute to a second-place finish in the series points standings.

In his CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut at North Wilkesboro this season, the 26-year-old finished fourth.

“This will be my true test of aero racing and stuff like that,” said Queen. “For me, I want to go run well and perform, but like Wilkesboro I want to learn as much as I can and complete all the laps. I feel like if I can do that, that will put us in a good position to finish as well as we can. The whole time will be a learning curve with how the aero works, but it’s something that in this part of my career I need to go do. To have this opportunity this year is very valuable.”

• Drivers Entered: 39 (3 drivers will not make the race)
• Laps Scheduled: 150
• Margin of Victory: 02.028 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 57 Minutes 33 Seconds
• Average Speed: 101.829
• Cautions: 7 for 42 laps
• Lead Changes: 1
• Green Flag Passes: 836 (7.7 passes per green flag lap)