NASCAR Trucks Nashville: Eckes leads every lap in dominant win

Eckes started third but had grabbed the lead by the exit of Turn 2 on the opening lap. He cruised to the Stage 1 win, earned the Stage 2 win thanks to a late caution and was never seriously challenged in the final 32 green-flag dash to the finish.

Eckes easily held off Daniel Dye by 2.028 seconds to earn his third win of the 2024 season and eighth of his career.

 

It’s just the sixth time in the series a driver has led every lap with the most recent being Ron Hornaday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in 1997.

“It was just a badass truck, man,” Eckes said after the race. “I felt like we should have won last time at Gateway (he finished second) but it got me really motivated to get this truck a lot better.”

With his victory, Eckes also picked up a $50,000 bonus as part of the Triple Truck Challenge, which includes races at Charlotte, Gateway and Nashville.

Corey Heim – who leads the series with four wins – ended up third, Rajah Caruth was fourth and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia.

Former Cup driver-turned-Fox Sports TV analyst finished 17th driving the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports. It was Bowyer’s first NASCAR start since the 2020 season and first Truck race since 2016.

Bowyer suffered some damage in an incident on the frontstretch on lap 60 when Chase Purdy missed a shift and failed to power up, which triggered an accordion effect as trucks moved wildly to get out of his way.

Stage 1

Eckes grabbed the lead at the start and led every lap on his way to a 1.921-second Stage 1 win over Riggs. Heim was third, Enfinger fourth and Dye rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Eckes claimed the Stage 2 win under caution after Riggs spun Stefan Parson with two laps remaining. The two drivers had been racing hard for several laps prior to the incident.

Heim was second, Caruth third, Dye fourth and Enfinger ended up fifth. Riggs was penalized two laps for reckless driving.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead lap trucks all pit with Eckes the first off pit road. He led Dye and Rhodes when the race resumed with 48 laps remaining.

Jack Wood and Connor Jones made contact on lap 113 which sent Wood spinning wildly down pit road to bring out a caution. Eckes remained in the lead over Dye on the restart with 32 laps to go.

With 15 laps remaining, Eckes had built an almost 2.7-second lead over Dye as Caruth moved into third, about 2.9 seconds behind the leader.

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