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Christian Eckes Snares Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge Title with Second-Place Finish at Lucas Oil Raceway

www.arcaracing.com October 7, 2019

After one of the most challenging short track seasons in recent memory, Christian Eckes locked up the ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge with a runner-up finish in the Herr’s Potato Chips 200 at Lucas Oil Raceway on Saturday night.

Eckes, at age 19, becomes the youngest winner of the coveted Sioux Chief trophy since 18-year-old Kyle Weatherman won the inaugural Short Track Challenge in 2015. The championship-within-a-championship on tracks one mile in length and under allows drivers not yet eligible to compete on superspeedways due to their age to still compete for a title. Using race points only with no bonus points, a driver’s ten best finishes out of the eleven short track races are counted towards the title.

With a third-place finish in the season’s first short track race at Five Flags Speedway, Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) got his season off on the right foot. But the next race at Salem Speedway cast doubt not only on Eckes’ run for the Short Track Challenge title but the overall series championship as well. After an overnight bout of food poisoning, Eckes missed the Salem race. Pensacola winner and Venturini Motorsports teammate Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), who also won at Five Flags, won at Salem and opened up a seemingly dominant lead in the standings.

Eckes recovered from missing Salem with a win in the next short track round at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. Paired with an accident-induced 15th-place finish by Self, Eckes started to close the gap.

Self finished second at Toledo Speedway with Eckes right behind, and a late-race spin by Eckes at Madison International Speedway resulted in a seventh-place finish while Self again finished second to Venturini Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota).

Self continued to build his lead at Elko Speedway when he and Eckes came together on the last lap. Eckes spun out of the fourth position and finished eleventh, again allowing Self to build his advantage.

But Eckes started to turn things around at Iowa Speedway in July. He finished second behind Smith, with Self behind in third. Self earned his first dirt win at Springfield but Eckes was right behind in second at the finish. Eckes returned the favor the next time out with his second career dirt win at DuQuoin with Self in fourth. A runner-up finish at Salem behind Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota) combined with a 14th-place finish for Self allowed Eckes to close the points gap dramatically.

But in reality, it put Eckes in the driver’s seat going into the season’s final short track clash at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Remember, only a driver’s ten best finished count towards the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge title. Eckes missed the race at Salem, meaning all of his finishes counted. Self had a worst finish of 15th, meaning any finish above 15th would only increase his final points total by the points difference.

Entering the finale at Lucas Oil Raceway, Self had the lead with 2060 points and Eckes sat fourth with 1930 points.

Eckes finished second, adding 220 points to his total, ending with 2150. Self finished sixth, which is worth 200 points but When factored with his worst finish, 15th at Nashville worth 155 points, Self only added 45 points to his total to end with 2105 points.

“We fought hard today,” Eckes said after the Herr’s Potato Chips 200 on Saturday. “We had a pit road penalty and we able to climb back through. I feel like we were one step away. The car was pretty good but as the run went on it got tighter and tighter. It’s a little rough but we’ll take it.

“We had to turn it around. It’s another top-two finish. The last three seasons the short track challenge champion has gone on to win the overall championship so we’re going to go to Kansas and hope to get another big trophy.”

Eckes becomes the fifth driver to win the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge in the five years of its existence. Weatherman won driving the No. 22 entry for Cunningham Motorsports, while Chase Briscoe won it the following year on his way to the overall series title driving Cunningham’s No. 77 car. Austin Theriault won driving for Ken Schrader Racing in 2017 and Sheldon Creed won in 2018 driving for MDM Motorsports.

The ARCA Kansas 150 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway will close the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season on Friday, October 18. Practice opens the day at 1 pm ET/12 n CT followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 6 pm ET/5 pm CT. The 100-lap/150-mile feature event will go green at 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT and will be shown live on FS2 with an immediate replay on FS1. ARCA for Me members can follow live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates throughout all on-track sessions free at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.