DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: ThorSport Racing’s Christian Eckes had a relatively quiet night in Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, but when the chaos settled, Eckes started off his new full-time tenure with a runner-up finish.
Eckes qualified his No. 98 AHI Facility Toyota Tundra Pro 14th and methodically kept his race truck out of harms way and somehow escaped a 19-truck pileup coming to the white flag when front-running trucks and fellow Toyota teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Ankrum tangled.
Eckes held the lead on the green-white-checkered restart with teammate Ben Rhodes tucked behind, but the two ThorSport Racing trucks were unable to fend off the two trucks of Zane Smith and Parker Kligerman who blew past the Toyotas with a powerful run on the outside lane.
The momentum eventually broke between Smith and Kligerman entering Turns 3 and 4 but Smith swiped the lead away from Eckes coming to the white flag.
Knowing he may have another shot to take the lead away from Smith on the last lap, behind them drivers Kris Wright and Jason White tangled for the second time triggering a yellow flag and abruptly ending the race on the last lap with approximately two miles left to go.
Eckes was initially scored in second, but upon review by NASCAR, Eckes’ teammate Ben Rhodes was credited with second – and Eckes was dropped to third. At the time of caution, the two ThorSport Racing teammates were battling side-by-side for the runner-up spot.
After video review, Rhodes was ahead by one-one thousandths of a second.
Eckes earned his 13th top-five finish of his Truck Series career and third top-five with ThorSport Racing. Eckes’ powerful win at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway propelled him to a full-time opportunity this season after Grant Enfinger left.
After the race, Eckes said he needed one or a few more laps to score his second career Truck Series victory.
“Just a couple more laps,” Eckes said. “Yeah, I felt like we were in a good position there. I felt like I was kind of a sitting duck in the leader, and of course it didn’t turn out that way.
“At the end of the day, really proud of these AHI Toyota Tundra guys. Obviously wish we could have won, but good way to start off the year.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
