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Christian Eckes, Cole Custer Not Focused on Potential Retaliation

Taylor Gray, driver of the #17 JBL Toyota, (L) confronts Christian Eckes, driver of the #19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet, after Eckes won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway on November 01, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christian Eckes and Cole Custer both qualified for the Championship 4 in their respective series, but they didn’t make any new friends along the way.

Last Saturday’s (Nov. 2) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway wasn’t the first time that Custer and Chandler Smith were at odds with each other — they also traded words after a fierce, late-race battle for the lead saw Custer hit the wall at Kansas Speedway — but Martinsville only served to escalate the feud.

Smith — in a must-win situation — moved Custer out of the way after a hard-fought battle for second in the final stage, but a caution set the stage for a restart where Smith lined up on the outside. Custer proceeded to line up on the outside as well, with the sole intent of sending Smith way out of the groove in the first turn.

Smith finished third and was eliminated from the playoffs, and he took issue with Custer’s move. He threw a punch on pit road before the two got separated post-race, and he was later fined $10,000.

Notably, Smith doesn’t have a ride next year. He’s been on record saying that he might be out of a ride entirely next year, so he has less to lose if he decides to race Custer aggressively or enact revenge.

When asked on Thursday’s (Nov. 7) Championship 4 Media Day if he feared retaliation from Smith this weekend, he replied, “I don’t know.”

Even if he’s thinking it, he’s not saying it.

“I am not really thinking about it that way,” Custer said. “At the end of the day, I am going to go run my race and see where we end up and try to maximize the day. You race how you get raced, and you go from there. At the end of the day, I am just going to focus on our weekend.”

For Eckes, he took his fourth win of the Craftsman Truck Series season on Friday (Nov. 1) in dominating fashion by leading 187 of the 200 laps at Martinsville.

But the win wasn’t accomplished with squeaky-clean racing, as he had to run Taylor Gray (who was on fresher tires) way up into the marbles of turn 1 on the final restart. Eckes also moved second-place Ben Rhodes out of the way — who had pulled up to the No. 19 truck after the contact with Gray — in order to preserve the victory.

Notably, Eckes was not in a must-win situation. He was clear to…

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