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Eckes holds off Busch to win NASCAR Truck race at Bristol

Busch and Eckes dominated the race, leading a combined 249 of the 250 laps, but Eckes got a good jump on the field on a restart with 24 laps remaining.

While Eckes built his lead to more than a second, Busch was able to significantly close the gap on the final lap and close to the left rear of Eckes’ No. 19 Chevrolet exiting Turn 4.

Eckes held on for the 0.141-second win at the checkered flag over Busch, who is the all-time series wins leader.

The victory is the first of the 2024 season for Eckes, who enjoyed a breakout year in Trucks last year, winning four times and finishing fifth in the series standings. He dominated the Truck race here last fall before losing the lead in the race.

“It’s so sweet. There’s just so much behind this win, you know, from last year missing out on making the Championship 4 and losing the race with five to go,” Eckes said. “To come back and redeem ourselves was our No. 1 goal.

“Not only that, but with the first three races (of the year) and how terribly they’ve gone, to come back and run really good is big for the team.”

Zane Smith finished third, Matt Crafton was fourth and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Corey Heim, Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger and Layne Riggs.

Stage 1

Busch took control of the race early and easily held off Eckes to take the Stage 1 win. Nick Sanchez was third, Ty Majeski was fourth and Smith rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Busch completed a sweep of the stages by holding off Sanchez by 1.219 seconds to win Stage 2. Eckes was third, Majeski fourth and Smith was fifth.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, Busch continued to lead the way.

Majeski, who had been in contention for the win most of the race, was forced to take his No. 98 truck behind the wall after 170 laps due to engine issues.

On Lap 159, Eckes got around Busch to take the lead after the two briefly made contact.

With 50 laps remaining, Eckes maintained about a half-second lead over Busch as Crafton moved into third.

With 35 laps to go, Crafton closed the gap and for several laps made it a three-wide battle for the lead.

Stewart Friesen spun down the frontstretch after contact with Sanchez to bring out the sixth caution of the race on lap 219.

Although Busch flirted with pitting for tires, the lead-lap trucks remained on the track and Eckes led Busch when the race returned to green on lap 227.

With 10 laps remaining, Eckes had built a more than 1-second lead over Busch as Smith ran third.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 C. EckesMCANALLY HILGEMANN RACING 19 Chevrolet 250

1:39'55.172

  3 57
2 K. BuschSPIRE MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 250

+0.141

1:39'55.313

0.141 4  
3
Z. SmithMCANALLY HILGEMANN RACING
91 Chevrolet 250

+2.221

1:39'57.393

2.080 4  
4 M. CraftonTHORSPORT RACING 88 Ford 250

+2.480

1:39'57.652

0.259 4 36
5 T. AnkrumMCANALLY HILGEMANN RACING 18 Chevrolet 250

+4.235

1:39'59.407

1.755 4 41
6
C. HeimTRICON GARAGE
11 Toyota 250

+4.721

1:39'59.893

0.486 5 31
7
T. GrayTRICON GARAGE
17 Toyota 250

+5.053

1:40'00.225

0.332 5 35
8
R. CaruthSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
71 Chevrolet 250

+5.470

1:40'00.642

0.417 5 29
9 G. EnfingerCR7 MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 250

+7.300

1:40'02.472

1.830 4 29
10
L. RiggsFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS
38 Ford 250

+7.989

1:40'03.161

0.689 5 28
11 B. CurreyNIECE MOTORSPORTS 41 Chevrolet 250

+8.584

1:40'03.756

0.595 5 26
12
K. HoneycuttNIECE MOTORSPORTS
45 Chevrolet 250

+8.855

1:40'04.027

0.271 6 27
13
D. DyeMCANALLY HILGEMANN RACING
43 Chevrolet 250

+9.381

1:40'04.553

0.526 4 24
14
J. GarciaTHORSPORT RACING
13 Ford 250

+10.085

1:40'05.257

0.704 6 23
15 T. GrayTRICON GARAGE 15 Toyota 250

+11.557

1:40'06.729

1.472 6 22
16 B. RhodesTHORSPORT RACING 99 Ford 250

+12.107

1:40'07.279

0.550 8 26
17
N. SanchezREV RACING
2 Chevrolet 250

+12.502

1:40'07.674

0.395 7 37
18
S. ParsonsHENDERSON MOTORSPORTS
75 Chevrolet 249

+1 Lap

1:40'04.161

1 Lap 7 19
19
C. JonesTHORSPORT RACING
66 Ford 249

+1 Lap

1:40'06.457

2.296 6 18
20 T. DillonRACKLEY W.A.R. 25 Chevrolet 249

+1 Lap

1:40'08.064

1.607 8 17
21
W. SawalichTRICON GARAGE
1 Toyota 248

+2 Laps

1:39'55.287

1 Lap 7 16
22 S. FriesenHALMAR FRIESEN RACING 52 Toyota 248

+2 Laps

1:40'01.127

5.840 5 19
23
D. ThompsonTRICON GARAGE
5 Toyota 247

+3 Laps

1:40'07.383

1 Lap 6 14
24 T. HillHILL MOTORSPORTS 56 Toyota 247

+3 Laps

1:40'07.474

0.091 7 13
25 M. MillsNIECE MOTORSPORTS 42 Chevrolet 247

+3 Laps

1:40'09.229

1.755 6 12
26 T. MoffittFACTION MOTORSPORTS 46 Chevrolet 246

+4 Laps

1:40'09.895

1 Lap 4 11
27
A. LawlessREAUME BROTHERS RACING
33 Ford 246

+4 Laps

1:40'11.479

1.584 5 10
28
M. MasseyYOUNG'S MOTORSPORTS
02 Chevrolet 245

+5 Laps

1:40'10.775

1 Lap 8 9
29
M. MaggioFLORIDIAN MOTORSPORTS
21 Ford 244

+6 Laps

1:39'57.195

1 Lap 6 8
30 S. BoydFREEDOM RACING ENTERPRISES 76 Chevrolet 242

+8 Laps

1:39'58.390

2 Laps 9 7
31
B. HolmesBRET HOLMES RACING
32 Chevrolet 242

+8 Laps

1:39'58.392

0.002 7 6
32
K. McGeeREAUME BROTHERS RACING
22 Ford 238

+12 Laps

1:40'12.136

4 Laps 7 5
33 C. PurdySPIRE MOTORSPORTS 77 Chevrolet 228

+22 Laps

1:40'06.075

10 Laps 6 4
34 T. MajeskiTHORSPORT RACING 98 Ford 170

+80 Laps

1:14'40.286

58 Laps 5 17
35
T. HutchensTREY HUTCHENS RACING
14 Chevrolet 113

+137 Laps

48'11.434

57 Laps 4 2
36
J. STERRY CARROLL MOTORSPORTS
90 Toyota 57

+193 Laps

40'25.993

56 Laps 7 1
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