Martinsville Chaos Can’t Stop Christian Eckes’ Short Track Dominance

In a Nutshell

If it weren’t for the fact that he needed to make a pit stop to make it the entire distance on fuel, Christian Eckes could have very likely led from wire to wire in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway on April 5.

Eckes won his second race of the season at Martinsville, with his first coming on another short track in Bristol Motor Speedway. Eckes took the lead from polesitter Ty Majeski on lap 1, sweeping the stages and leading the most laps en route to the win.

Majeski finished second after leading 66 laps. Chase Purdy had one of the best runs of his career, finishing third. Nick Sanchez and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top five. Sanchez led one lap, the only other driver besides Eckes and Majeski to do so.

The Top Truckers at Martinsville Speedway

Winner, Stage Sweep, Most Laps Led (133 of 200 laps): Christian Eckes
Polesitter: Ty Majeski
Rookie of the Race: Sammy Smith

Top Storylines of the Race

• Blake Lothian found issues before the green flag even flew. A problem under the hood of his No. 20, a second Young’s Motorsports truck, caused NASCAR to extend the pace laps to check for reported fluid from Lothian’s truck. Lothian started the race, but found himself behind the wall early on en route to a last-place finish.
• Repco Supercars Championship driver Cam Waters made his NASCAR debut in this race, driving ThorSport’s fifth part-time No. 66 truck, shared by Conner Jones and, eventually, Luke Fenhaus. It was originally thought to be a one-off start. However, FOX Sports 1 revealed during its race broadcast that Waters will also drive the No. 66 at Kansas Speedway on May 4 (Jones is contesting the fall race on Sept. 27). Waters finished 30th at Martinsville after getting caught up in a late race crash.
• A good night turned sour early for rookie Layne Riggs. He started a career-best third, and finished there as well in stage one. However, a slow pit stop and potential issue with the jack put him back in the pack to start stage two. Riggs was then spun twice over the course of stage two, continuously setting him back. He was then spun a third time with only a handful of laps to go. To finish 15th is honestly nothing short of a miracle for the No. 38 team.
• Kaden Honeycutt and his crew chief, Phil Gould, were called to the NASCAR hauler following the race. Honeycutt had been running in the top 10 for most of the evening before a late spin. He then brought out another…