McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes survived multiple late-race restarts to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway Friday evening.
The No. 19 Chevrolet led 133 of 200 laps in the Long John Silver’s 200, holding off ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, who led 66 laps after starting the race from pole position.
“I think we had a good strategy. If it goes green one of those first two yellows we probably win the race,” Majeski said. “I just couldn’t launch on restarts all night. We think we know what it was. We can fix it. I need to be better too at figuring out what to do differently there. I tried switching up gears and speeds and couldn’t get anything to work.
“Overall, I think the 19 was a little better than us and he had better tires at the end. If we could have kept the lead there I don’t know that he would have been able to get by us.”
Chase Purdy, Nick Sanchez and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five.
Taylor Gray was the top Toyota driver in sixth, while Rajah Caruth, Sammy Smith, Kaden Honeycutt and Corey Heim completed the top 10.
Australian Supercars regular Cam Waters’ Truck Series debut ended after 176 laps due to a late-race incident that caused terminal damage to the front end of his No. 66 ThorSport Racing Ford.
“I had so much fun tonight and all day today. It is totally different racing from what I usually do and I just wanted to learn. I learned so much. There at the end I just had nowhere to go and knocked the radiator out of it. It is a shame but I was having fun and learning and had some awesome battles too,” Waters said.
Waters finished 30th.