By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
Short track tempers flared in Friday night’s Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway after Christian Eckes moved Taylor Gray out of the way to punch his ticket into the Championship 4 at Phoenix next Friday.
The particular move left Gray raging in heartbreak as a race win was his only guaranteed option to fight for a championship.
Coming to a restart with five laps remaining, race leader Eckes chose the bottom while Gray chose the outside line to be alongside him.
Once the green flag came out, the race had just begun as no driver was giving an inch to each other, especially when Gray had the jump he needed to best Eckes and muscled his way to the lead.
Fenders were rubbed entering Turn 3 with Eckes using the front bumper to move Gray out of the groove and regained the top spot he held nearly all night.
Meanwhile, the bump knocked Gray out of contention as Ben Rhodes, Chase Purdy, and fellow Playoff contender Nick Sanchez passed him for position.
As Eckes took the checkered flag, Gray would pass Sanchez to settle for a painful fourth-place result. Therefore, there will be no championship fight for the 19-year-old racer, but Gray insisted of getting to the bottom of things during post-race.
A frustrated Gray made it known to Eckes after the race that his actions weren’t appreciated before bringing his No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota to pit road, but the madness was far from over.
After Eckes celebrated with a burnout, he commented that his aggressive move on Gray was hard racing, but indifferent of how he or anyone else felt. Especially, when the 23-year-old is gunning for a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship at the venue he won a year ago.
“I wasn’t gonna let us lose this race. This truck was too good. The 17 (Gray) was just hard racing,” said Eckes, who lead 187 of 200 laps. “I felt bad about the 99 (Rhodes), I just got way too late into the corner. Everybody’s really happy, but I really don’t care. We’ll go onto Phoenix.”
Far from being done of voicing his disapproval, Gray stormed out of his truck and went on a voyage to confront Eckes in victory lane.
Various pleas from a NASCAR security to calm down were had, but Gray was fuming and shoved the FOX Sports microphone away from his face after Amanda Busick wanted a remark from him.
Gray then hopped over and found Eckes in victory lane with team members from both sides, security and…
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