Eckes knocks Gray out of Championship 4 to get Martinsville win
RIDGEWAY, Va. — It took two bump-and-run-like moves for Christian Eckes to close out a dominating win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway.
Christian Eckes knocked Taylor Gray out of the way in turn three on a restart with five laps to go. Then, Eckes knocked Ben Rhodes out of the way two laps later and drove away from him by 1.191 seconds to go to victory lane.
Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger (two wins), Corey Heim (+53 points to the cutline) and Ty Majeski (+28) will comprise the Championship 4 field.
Taylor Gray was the first driver below the cutline and needed to win to get into the Championship 4. Like Rhodes, Gray pitted for fresh tires on lap 165 and had 62-lap-fresher tires than Eckes. Gray even took the lead on the restart before the contact happened in turn three.
After the race, Gray took a long power walk to Eckes, who stopped to celebrate in the makeshift victory lane on the frontstretch. As Gray walked up to Eckes, members of Eckes’ team tried to confront Gray but NASCAR security officials hustled them away and brought Gray to Eckes.
Gray expressed his frustration, rhetorically asking Eckes, “You know how many times I could’ve shipped you up the track but didn’t?” before Eckes gave him a response he didn’t like that prompted Gray to shove him before walking away.
“We go on the restart, and raced him clean through (turns) one and two. Clear him off of (turn) two, and he goes into (turn) three and completely ships me to the fence. Now granted, it is Martinsville, I was expecting to get moved – I wasn’t expecting to get moved to the fence. Especially, with how I raced him, and he is locked into the final four, so I don’t know. The only thing he did was put a target on his back,” Gray said.
He stopped short of promising any retaliation in the championship race.
“Unfortunately, in this day and age, I can’t go to Phoenix and do anything about to him, because I’m going to go get a $20,000 fine, so he gets away with that crap and doesn’t get any repercussion,” Gray said.
Christian Eckes said he had too good of a truck to let the win slip away.
Eckes led 187 of 200 laps, including 183 of the first 194 laps and sweeping the first two stages before claiming his fourth win of the 2024 season and ninth in his NCTS career. He became just the fifth driver to win more than 1,000 laps in a single NCTS season.
Nick Sanchez (-39), Tyler Ankrum (-54) and Rajah Caruth (-60) also missed the Championship 4.
Phoenix Raceway is the site of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race. Catch the green flag Nov. 8 just after 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com