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Atlanta NASCAR Truck Series results: Christian Eckes wins caution-filled race in OT

It took a while, but Christian Eckes considered it worth the wait.

The driver of the No. 19 earned his first win of the 2023 NASCAR Truck Series on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, prevailing through a record 11 cautions, a late-race restart and an overtime finish.

Not only was the race long on its own — in laps run and time elapsed and pretty much every other metric — but official word that Eckes had won didn’t come from NASCAR until a few minutes after he’d crossed the start-finish line: A caution flag flew after the white flag was waved, and NASCAR needed to confirm that Eckes was in the lead when the race was called.

And Eckes was.

“I’d be lying if it wasn’t a little emotional, just kind of going through everything that happened over the offseason,” Eckes told reporters in the Atlanta Motor Speedway media center after the race Saturday.

Eckes signed with McAnally Hilgemann Racing in December after a relatively uncertain winter leading up to that.

“That’s kind of been the moral of my career, is getting to the offseason and not really knowing what’s next,” he said. “I’ve really put my foot down and cleaned up everything on my end to be successful and to prove that I can eventually move up and do the same in a higher series.”

Nick Sanchez finished second. John Hunter Nemechek finished third.

The race ended up with 17 lead changes, nine leaders and 11 cautions for 58 laps. The previous record for most amount of cautions for a NASCAR Truck Series race at AMS was nine.

Eckes has now notched three Top 10 finishes in as many races this season. He also currently leads the points standings by five over Matt Crafton.

Two moments defined the win for Eckes on Saturday: The first was when Eckes avoided Jack Wood of the 51 who went sideways from the lead late in the race.

“I jerked the wheel,” Eckes said of eluding Wood. “I had the driver eye camera, I don’t know if they showed it or not, but I jerked the wheel as hard as I could to the left, and basically just prayed. So yeah, that was pretty big.”

And then it ultimately came down to the final four laps, with Eckes running on the top line, which had been the preferred line all day, and with Sanchez on the bottom. Here’s how it all went down, in Eckes’ words.

“To be honest with you I don’t really remember,” Eckes said. “I knew that the 99 was trying to get on top of 3. I saw him after the race, he said he got loose. That’s all I heard from there. I was just focused on my job, and was focused on the 2 (Sanchez) more than anything to get by him.”

Unofficial results from Atlanta Motor Speedway

Pos.

Car

Driver

Time behind

Last lap

Best speed

1

19

Christian Eckes

--

31.275

182.141

2

2

Nick Sanchez #

0.078

31.241

183.388

3

17

John Hunter Nemechek(i)

0.206

31.251

181.753

4

41

Bayley Currey(i)

0.435

31.4

181.932

5

25

Ben Rhodes

--

32.07

180.946

6

25

Matt DiBenedetto

--

31.604

182.825

7

4

Chase Purdy

--

32.164

180.875

8

56

Timmy Hill

--

31.809

179.342

9

88

Matt Crafton

1.415

31.745

181.159

10

51

Jack Wood

1.416

31.64

180.445

11

98

Ty Majeski

2.474

33.17

182.129

12

13

Hailie Deegan

2.543

32.444

179.099

13

32

Bret Holmes #

2.935

32.608

179.621

14

30

Ryan Vargas

3.092

32.591

179.052

15

2

Kris Wright

3.309

32.693

180.539

16

43

Daniel Dye #

3.438

33.349

179.761

17

46

Akinori Ogata

3.439

32.518

179.006

18

35

Jake Garcia #

3.649

32.693

181.117

19

23

Grant Enfinger

3.826

32.464

183.552

20

38

Zane Smith

--

35.769

182.946

21

12

Spencer Boyd

--

34.084

174.028

22

52

Stewart Friesen

7.514

38.4

183.019

23

22

Josh Reaume

7.609

36.22

177.806

24

15

Tanner Gray

16.465

44.678

183.133

25

24

Rajah Caruth #

27.794

52.959

182.982

26

16

Tyler Ankrum

0.196

33.542

182.177

27

9

Colby Howard

-3

147.754

182.507

28

1

Layne Riggs

-3

35.393

181.77

29

33

Mason Massey

-3

40.053

177.664

30

5

Dean Thompson

-6

46.098

181.058

31

42

Carson Hocevar

-10

33.491

182.105

32

45

Lawless Alan

-11

84.998

183.194

33

4

Kaden Honeycutt

-14

42.396

180.557

34

11

Corey Heim

-54

90.148

181.663

35

20

Mason Maggio

-85

184.461

176.006

36

34

Keith McGee(i)

-130

226.604

169.158