Christian Eckes is at Taylor Gray’s mercy next week.
That seems to be the consensus after the penultimate NASCAR Truck Series race of the season on Friday night at Martinsville, one that decided the final four to race for a championship next week at Martinsville, albeit in controversial fashion.
Christian Eckes had dominated the race, and more or less had virtually locked himself into the championship but would not be denied by Taylor Gray, who needed nothing short of a victory to advance and held a tire advantage on the final restart.
Gray, who was also seeking his first career win, chose the outside on the final restart but got washed up the track in Turn 3. That allowed Ben Rhodes to briefly capitalize and take the lead but Eckes used the bumper and washed up into him too all en route to the win.
As Eckes celebrated in Victory Lane on the frontstretch, Gray marched across the entirety of pit road, flanked by Tricon Garage crew members and a NASCAR security official reminding him, ‘just a conversation,’ instead of a physical altercation.
Gray was allowed through the crowd and got to Eckes, where they had the following exchange:
Gray: “What the fuck was that?”
Eckes: “It’s Martinsville.”
Gray: “You don’t ship (Rhodes) into the fence! You race him like I fucking did with you! I fucking barely got you off the bottom with tires! You know how many chances I had to ship you into the fucking fence?”
Eckes: “Maybe you should have, I guess.”
Gray: “Okay. I’ll remember for next week.”
And that was the key part of that exchange because Eckes was going to race for a championship regardless of who between them was first or second. Gray was roughed up and lost his championship opportunity so now Eckes will have to wonder all week if there will be any consequences for that decision.
“You can look at it that way but at the same time, Bill McAnally hired me to win races and that’s what we’re here to do, and championships,” Eckes said. “It’s definitely a risk to race that way but at the same time, I felt like our truck was good enough and my guys deserved to win this week.”
For his part, like he said in Victory Lane, Gray doesn’t understand on multiple levels why he was raced that way.
“We had way fresher tires, raced him super clean and he ships me into the fence in Turn 3,” Gray said. “He races everyone that way and he has done it all year long, races Corey like that, everyone like that but no one cares because he’s won four races now. It’s dumb.
“Yeah, it’s a product of Martinsville, and we’re going to move each other out of the way but don’t ship me into 3 … and also … like, you have so much more to lose than I did. I’m racing to lock in and he’s already locked in. He won both stages. It’s just whatever.”
So what happens next week?
“What do you mean, what happens next week, because if I do anything, I’m going to get fined or I’m going to get penalized,” Gray said. “That’s the way NASCAR works. They can wreck you all day long but if you try to get them back, you get penalized so I have to race him clean.”
So nothing he can do?
“What do you mean, nothing I can do? If I do something, I’m going to look like an idiot, and I don’t want to look like like,” Gray said. “I have done plenty of mistakes throughout my career. I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’ve tried to clean it up the past couple of years. I raced him so clean down here and he ships me off into 3.”
In a vacuum, Rhodes saw all of it as just what racing at Martinsville has become, but also didn’t understand why Eckes risked the retribution from Gray next week. Again, Eckes didn’t have to win this week and this risks the race he likely does have to win next week.
“The championship mindset you have to have is playing the big picture,” said Rhodes, a two-time series champion. “What could have happened tonight is that I could have lost my head and dumped Christian and I don’t know if he still would have been locked in or not. I’m not like that but the point I’m trying to make is that when you’re running for a championship, you have to do that big picture racing.
“We saw it last year when Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar got into each other and ruined each other’s chances for a championship. So when you’re locked in, but you’re making enemies like Taylor Gray, that’s a really big deal because he’s not going to Phoenix now and Christian would have still made it in on points and now he’s at Taylor’s mercy next week.”
In true NASCAR Playoff format fashion, there were a lot of different threads playing themselves out in the closing laps.
Nick Sanchez, who also faced a must-win playoff scenario, ran second to Eckes for most of the race but just wasn’t as strong. A caution came out with 33 to go and there was a choice to be made — give up track position for tires or stay even with the leader.
Crew chief Bono Manion went back-and-forth before deciding to keep Sanchez out on older tires alongside Eckes.
“Tires did not win the race,” Manion said. “But, I thought our best shot was to stay on offense and come in to pit, you know? Inevitably, as I talked to Nick a little bit more and with how many laps we had left … but also, I’m no conspiracy theorist but if the Tricon truck didn’t run through the Tricon truck to help the other Tricon truck, then they might not have gotten there.
“But yeah, tires, if we want to Monday morning quarterback it, was probably a better call for our long run truck.”
That’s another thing too as the final caution was triggered by Tricon teammates Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray, who also collected Brett Moffitt. The two Tricon drivers then seemingly fought each other after the race.
No conspiracy there.
Regardless, tires didn’t win the race but Gray, on fresher tires, did get there and probably should have won the race. If Sanchez takes tires, he probably gets out ahead of Gray and …
“That could have been me right?”
Manion made the call but Sanchez stands by his crew chief knowing that he could have easily objected and asked for tires.
“I think at the end of the day, it is his call,” Sanchez said. “I wanted to make sure we weren’t going to be buried in 10th to 15th and that obviously wouldn’t have been the case so I take responsibility for that as a driver.”
If either Gray or Sanchez won the race, that would have eliminated Ty Majeski who was in on points but wouldn’t be with a new winner outside of the cutline. Rhodes winning the race would have also saved Majeski.
Things were largely out of control for Majeski. As long as he finished on the lead lap, and Gray or Sanchez didn’t win, Majeski was in.
“I saw (Eckes) out front and I knew I just had to accept being the ball and not being the pin at that point,” Majeski said. “So yeah, I was just letting people go, got put three-wide, and chose ot lift for it. I didn’t want to cause a caution because (Eckes) would be at a tire deficit.
“It just worked out tonight but for a second, it looked like it was all going to unravel.”
Ultimately, Eckes won his way in and will chase a championship against Majeski, Corey Heim and Grant Enfinger, whom won the first two races of this round.
Of those four, the highest finishing driver next week at Phoenix wins the championship. All four are chasing their first NASCAR national championship.
Gray’s team owner, veteran NASCAR winner David Gilliland, didn’t mince words about the stakes Eckes may have raised for his own championship ambitions.
“He would have had nothing to lose to do that,” Gilliland told NASCAR.com after the race. “Now he’s got everything to lose. So wasn’t very smart on his end but guess we’ll see what happens.”