Following The Trucks: Christian Eckes Leads ThorSport Racing 1-2-3-4 Finish At Las Vegas
In a Nutshell: Christian Eckes scored his first profession NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in a turbulent Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday night (Sept. 24).
In his 10th beginning this season, the low maintenance driver of the No. 98 Toyota exploited a late-race restart to take the best position and the triumph over partner Ben Rhodes as the alert flew on the white banner lap. Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter and Todd Gilliland balanced the best five.
While it was John Hunter Nemechek who drove the initial 33 laps and scored the stage one win, Todd Gilliland obviously had the truck to beat, however he battled from the get-go restarts. Completing second and first in quite a while one and two, the Front Row Motorsports driver reliably posted numerous quickest laps and seemed, by all accounts, to be ready to put the No. 38 Ford anyplace he needed on the track. Yet, in the wake of driving a race-high 66 circuits, the late race restart that gave Eckes the success likewise ruined the possible triumph for Gilliland. His fifth-place finish denoted his fourth top five in the last six races.
The turbulent late-race restart that saw Eckes catch his first profession win additionally featured a 1-2-3-4 completion for ThorSport Racing. It was the initial time in Truck Series history that any group has cleared the best four positions.