Christian Eckes Five With The Five: “I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot where I’m at. That could change that in any second, so …”

Christian: Hello.

Andrea: Hey! How’s it going?

Christian: Good. How are you?

Andrea: Good. Good. I just realized the last time we had one of these was like moments before Eldora. It’s been ages.

Christian: Yeah. I know. Every couple weeks there we were doing them, then a little break.

Andrea: Right. Right. Well, hopefully, now we have lots of talk about.

Christian: Yeah. That’s right.

Andrea: I mean,points-wise, that’s changed quite a bit since we’ve last talked. It’s really up for grabs, and I appreciate you and Michael both giving me great content for the banquet videos. It’s going to be fantastic! Between both of you at Salem this year, I have great content, so thank you.Haha!

Christian: Perfect! Yeah.

Andrea: I’m sure that’s exactly what was going through both of your minds during that time.

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

Andrea: What have you been up to?.

Christian: Really just hanging out. Went out on my buddy’s boat yesterday. Today, just kind of hanging out . We test Lucas Oil here and a day or two. Starting to get ready for this last little stretch.

Andrea: What’s the mood and energy kind of like at the Venturini shop right now? Between the combination of excitement because you guys, as a team, have all had such a great season, but like the pressure to keep it up the next two races and the two of you are both going for the championship. That’s a whole lot of emotion going on, I imagine.

Christian: Yeah. Our team has stayed pretty levelheaded, honestly. We realized that we’ve done all this work to kind of make up the gap, and the biggest thing now is just continue doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve been on a huge roll here to end the season, and we just got continue that. And I feel like that momentum, if we can continue it up, will lead us to a championship. Honestly, I feel like we have the advantage of going to Lucas Oil, but I feel like it honestly almost flips around when he goes to Kansas.

Andrea: Fair enough.

Christian: Michael’s won there, and he’s run really well there in the past and always good in the mile-and-a-half places. Definitely it’ll take a little bit of work on my end to just kind of improve and prepare for that. But I feel like our team’s strong enough to bring a fast race car and still be out there contending.

Andrea: What’s the plan between now and Indy for you? Just kind of go into the shop, working out, your typical Christian Eckes day?

Christian: Yeah. I mean, it’ll be a typical week other than when we test on Wednesday. Test Lucas Oil. That’ll kind of take up the whole week, just going over that and debrief and stuff like that, so I’m looking forward to it, though. Lucas Oil’s probably my favorite race track in the country, so just kind of looking forward to getting there.

Andrea: Going to lead every lap again, definitely?

Christian: I hope so, right? We’ll see, but …

Andrea: Is it getting close enough to the end of the season where you’re kind of making plans for next year? Or are you kind of waiting to see how the championship thing works out before you sign anything? Or what’s that looking like?

Christian: Yeah. It’s just hard to tell. I mean, it’s still early. I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot where I’m at. That could change that in any second, so …

Andrea: Right.

Christian: It’s always in the back of your head, because you know want to race. You really never know what you’re going to do the next year, but right now I’m just kind of focused on the championship and seeing where that leads us.

Andrea: Sure. It definitely makes sense. Your mind is trying to be in the present. Sure.

Christian: Yeah.

Andrea: Well, that’s been about five minutes, so I will let you get back to your day.

Christian: Sounds good.

Andrea: Appreciate it.

Christian: Going take a nap here, so it’s perfect.

Andrea: Oh, nice. Having an exciting oil change? It just wore you out?

Christian: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Had to get a car wash, too.

Andrea: Oh, nice. Did they do both?

Christian: Got a chip in my windshield I’m pretty pissed about, honestly, because never had that before.

Andrea: Oh, dang.

Christian: Yeah. I got to call Safelite.

Andrea: There you go. I feel like you know someone there. Good buddies with someone who knows Safelite people.

Christian: Haha yeah. I know a guy.

Andrea: All right. I’ll talk to you later, Christian.

Christian: All right. Sounds good. Thanks.

Andrea: Yeah. Bye.