Back So Soon … Christian Eckes makes his return to the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series (NCTS) on Friday evening at Richmond Raceway, rejoining MHR for his first of two scheduled starts this season. Eckes, who graduated to the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) with Kaulig Racing, is back with MHR after 46 starts over two seasons and looks to avenge unfinished business in RVA as he finished second in this event last season. He will pilot the No. 16 AAA Premium Battery Chevrolet Silverado RST with Darren Fraley on top of the pit box as the duo look to notch MHR’s first victory at the three-quarter mile venue.
Short Track Dominator … During his two years as a full-time NCTS competitor for MHR, Eckes reached a level of domination on short tracks and aims to continue that on Friday evening. His final short track start last October at Martinsville Speedway resulted in a victory and a sweep of “The Paperclip” in 2024. In total, Eckes had a spectacular track record of three wins, six top-five’s and seven top-10’s in the seven short track events last season. He ended his full-time NCTS tenure at MHR with a stretch of nine-consecutive finishes of sixth or better on tracks under one mile, including seven top-two finishes. Eckes carried the flag for MHR at Richmond last season with a second-place result and looks to guide the AAA Premium Battery team to victory lane on Friday evening.
Season to Date … Richmond marks the first NCTS start of 2025 for Eckes, as his efforts have been concentrated to his NXS rookie season. The 24-year-old has recorded three top-five results and 10 top-10 finishes through 23 NXS races. He is battling for a playoff berth in his first full-time season and has a season-best finish of third at Pocono Raceway.
Tune In … FOX Sports 2 begins coverage from Richmond at 2:00 p.m. ET Friday afternoon with practice and qualifying, followed by the green flag at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Stay connected with the No. 16 AAA Premium Battery team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmr_nascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Christian Eckes Quote:
On returning to NCTS competition:
“It’ll be great to get back in a truck and have some fun with everybody at MHR. There are quite a few people there from the group we had the last two years, so I’ve been looking forward to it. Our short track program was always strong, so hopefully we can continue that with the AAA Premium Battery Chevy this week. We came up a little short last year and ran second, so it’d be nice to get the job done this week and continue what we built over the last two years.”
MHR PR