Christian Eckes Back in ARCA Menards Series Title Fight after Nashville Win

After the second race of the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season, it would have been easy to assume Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) was going to run away with the series championship. He had collected a pair of top five finishes in the first two races of the season, and after practice and qualifying for the third race of the year at Salem it looked like he was on pace for another top-five run the next day.

But the night before the Salem race, the wheels came off Eckes’ early season streak.

A bout if food poisoning led to an esophageal tear, forcing the Middletown, New York native to be hospitalized. With him unable to race at Salem, Harrison Burton substituted for him and took his car to an eighth-place finish to keep him in the owner’s points championship battle.

Eckes was down but not quite out headed into Talladega. He had fallen from the lead in the championship standings to fifth, eighty points out of the lead. With a solid run at Daytona already under his belt, Eckes came into the race confident he could rack up another top five and get back into the thick of the championship fight.

It wasn’t meant to be. He was caught up in a crash coming to pit road near the race’s midway point and finished dead last in the 26-car field. As a result, Eckes dropped to seventh in the series championship standings, but was now 180 points out of the lead.

With his season on the precipice, Eckes needed a clutch performance at Nashville to save his title chances.

Eckes delivered in a big way, leading the final 120 laps of the General Tire Music City 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions to earn his first win of the season, and the fourth of his career, and jumping two positions in the standings back to fifth. Combined with his teammate Michael Self’s (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) accident in lap 73 and an eighth-place finish by new championship leader Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford), Eckes now sits 120 points out of the lead.

Eckes will look to further chew into Braden’s advantage in the next race on the schedule, another short track clash in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway on May 19. Although he was dominant at Nashville, Eckes and crew chief Kevin Reed learned some things that should help them at Toledo.

“We were good, but we could have been a little better,” he said. “Kevin and I are working really good together right now and we learned some things that should help us at Toledo. That track has been really hard on us over the years. We want to go up there and get it turned around.”

Practice for the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway is scheduled for 12:30 pm ET on Saturday, May 18, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 4 pm ET. A 35-lap late model sportsman feature event will close Saturday night’s activities at the track. The Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 will go green shortly after 2 m ET on Sunday, May 19. The race will be televised live on MAVTV. ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live user chat throughout all on-track sessions at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.