Christian Eckes gr8 l8 in Fr8 208 d8

Atlanta Motor Speedway‘s conversion into a superspeedway-like track may have been too extreme for the youngsters of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as crashes resulted in eleven yellow flags, the most for the division there, including a last-lap wreck to end Saturday’s Fr8 208 under caution. Said accident came just moments after another caution to set up overtime, which Christian Eckes capitalised upon to score his seond career victory and first in just his third start for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and Chevrolet.

Eckes had received a speeding penalty after leading every lap in Stage #1 and spent much of the race trying to regain ground. The cautions worked in his favour as they bunched up the field for ensuing restarts multiple times: he sat outside the top ten as the lap counter crossed triple digits, but found himself in second by overtime. After clearing Nick Sanchez for the lead on the final lap, a three-truck wreck involving Tyler Ankrum, Stewart Friesen, and Zane Smith ended the race.

The win is also MHR’s first in the Truck Series. Eckes has scored top tens in all three of his races for the team so far.

John Hunter Nemechek led a race-high fifty-three laps but fell back after an attempted draft with Jack Wood resulted in contact.

“I was trying to push him away from everybody else so that we could get clear and just race, but that’s part of speedway racing and that’s what they turned Atlanta into,” Nemechek commented.

Bayley Currey scored his maiden top five in any NASCAR series when he finished fourth, and Timmy Hill enjoyed his first top ten since 2021 with an eighth-place run. Ryan Vargas was fourteenth in his Truck Series début, while Akinori Ogata secured G2G Racing‘s best-ever finish in seventeenth.

Besides crashes that resulted in green-flag runs only lasting about seven laps on average, mechanical issues haunted the field. Eckes’ team-mate Jake Garcia went three laps down to a shock problem but fought to place in the top twenty. Carson Hocevar blew a right-front tyre twice while Kaden Honeycutt led his first career lap after cycling into the top spot but a small piece of metal got into his truck and relegated him to thirty-third. Rajah Caruth slipped to twenty-fifth when a tyre went down, prompting him to ask, “Can I buy some luck or something?”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
2	20	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
3	24	17	John Hunter Nemechek*	TRICON Garage	Toyota	137	Running
4	30	41	Bayley Currey*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	137	Running
5	3	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	137	Running
6	10	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	137	Running
7	9	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	137	Running
8	18	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	137	Running
9	8	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	137	Running
10	17	51	Jack Wood	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	137	Running
11	2	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	137	Running
12	32	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	137	Running
13	33	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
14	35	30	Ryan Vargas	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	137	Running
15	25	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	137	Running
16	19	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
17	34	46	Akinori Ogata	G2G Racing	Toyota	137	Running
18	12	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
19	7	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
20	1	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	137	Running
21	27	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	137	Running
22	14	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	137	Running
23	28	22	Josh Reaume	AM Racing	Ford	137	Running
24	11	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	137	Running
25	22	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	137	Running
26	13	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	136	Running
27	15	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Track Bar
28	23	1	Layne Riggs	TRICON Garage	Toyota	134	Running
29	26	33	Mason Massey	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	134	Running
30	16	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	131	Running
31	5	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	127	Accident
32	21	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	126	Accident
33	29	04	Kaden Honeycutt	Roper Racing	Ford	123	Running
34	6	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	83	Accident
35	31	20	Mason Maggio	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	52	Accident
36	36	34	Keith McGee*	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	7	Transmission

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points