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

This story was originally published March 18, 2023 at 4:55 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription