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After a week off, the anxious truckers of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series take to the Last Great Coliseum, Bristol Motor Speedway for their 4th race of the 2024 season. It’s Bristol, Baby, back to how it was meant to be: on concrete! Drivers to watch heading into this race were, of course, Kyle Busch in the No. 7 Chevy for Spire as well as his Spire teammate, a new winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Rajah Caruth. Other drivers to watch were Truck Series regulars in Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez, and Ty Majeski. How did the regulars stack up to one of the all-time greats at BMS, Kyle Busch? Let’s break it down: Here’s Everything That Happened In The Truck Race at Bristol!
As reported by FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, the layout for tonight’s truck was as follows:
With a scheduled start time of 8:11 PM/EST, teams were given 4 sets of tires. A fuel run was expected to be between 130-145 laps.
Mason Maggio in the No. 21 Ford was forced to start at the rear of the field due to him not turning a lap during qualifying.
Seven laps into the race, a caution flew for a spinning Matt Mills. This single-truck incident happened with Mills’ No. 42 Chevy being tagged from behind. The contact sent him spinning down the straightaway where the nose of his truck slightly kissed the inside SAFER barrier. There was minimal damage and he was able to continue.
The second caution for incident came out with 22 laps remaining in the first stage. The incident in question occurred as Keith McGee in the No. 22 Chevy was being put a third lap down by leader and first-stage dominator, Christain Eckes. McGee spun when he tangled with a fellow lapped truck, Stefan Parsons and second-place runner, Taylor Gray. None of the drivers involved suffered significant damage and all were able to continue.
Unfortunately for Parsons, though he was the first truck 1-lap down, he did not get the free pass as he was involved in the caution. He would eventually get his lap back following the caution between Stage 1 and 2.
For the first half of the race, it was all Christian Eckes all the time. His No. 19 NAPA Chevy started out front and rocketed off to the lead until being caught by the eventual Stage 1 winner after a series of cautions bunched the field back up.
It took him most of the stage to get there but crossing the line first come the end of Stage 1 was none other than the winningest driver in Truck Series history, Kyle “Rowdy” Busch. It was a statement victory for Busch as in the last race he ran in Las Vegas, he hardly even sniffed the front of the field. But, with the return of concrete Bristol in the spring, Kyle Busch was determined to show everybody that BMS was the coliseum that Rowdy built.
Following the end of the first stage, the driver of the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevy Rajah Caruth slid through his pit box. Because an unauthorized crew member pushed Caruth back into his stall, Caruth was forced to start the second stage at the tail-end of the longest line. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for him to make up his ground as by the end of the stage, he was solidly in the top 20 and continuing his march forward.
The second stage of the race went off without a hitch as there were no cautions for incident (although, there were a couple of hair situations back in the lap traffic). Kyle Busch led all 65 laps of the second stage en route to the Stage 2 win. This win marked the 4th year in a row where a driver won both stages. In years past, none of the other drivers would go on to win the race. Edging out Christain Eckes for second was Nick Sanchez. Ty Majeski and Cup Series rookie and former Truck Series Champion, Zane Smith wrapped up the top-5 in his No. 91 Chevy.
While racing hard inside the top-5, Ty Majeski got loose beneath Tyler Ankrum as the rear end of his No. 98 truck stepped out under him as he made slight contact with Ankrum’s No. 18 Chevy. In an effort to correct, Majeski spun down the track as other trucks swerved to avoid him. As he approached the inside wall, he collected the defending Truck Series Champion and his ThorSport teammate, Ben Rhodes in the No. 99 Ford. There was a decent amount of damage on both trucks but nothing to warrant going to the garage. They both restarted the race in 22nd and 23rd at the tail-end of the lead lap.
Inside 100 laps to go, Christian Eckes regained the lead he lost to Kyle Busch in the first stage. With an aggressive move that nearly sent both trucks spinning into the outside SAFER barrier, Eckes took the lead and immediately started to pull away from Busch’s No. 7 Spire Chevy. You can watch this insane battle in the clip below:
Following his spin with ThorSport teammate, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski pulled his No. 98 Ford down pit road and into the garage after reporting an apparent engine issue. Majeski was the third truck to retire from the race and would end up being credited with a 31st-place finish.
As the laps ticked down within 30 to go, Stewart Friesen and Nick Sanchez got together, triggering yet another caution. This incident occurred when Sanchez’s No. 2 Chevy got a run to the outside of Friesen coming out of turn-4. Friesen moved up to shut the door but Sanchez was already there. This turned the No. 52 into the outside SAFER barrier causing a lot of damage to the 2 and 52 trucks respectively. You want rewatch this racing incident in the video below.
In the thrilling closing laps which saw Christian Eckes run into lap traffic with a hard-charging Kyle Busch nipping at his heels, Eckes was able to hold off one of the all-time Bristol greats to capture the flag in the Last Great Coliseum. This win makes the Truck Series vet a virtual lock for the 2024 Playoffs later this fall which will feature another pass at Bristol. This win also continues the 2024 dominance of Chevrolet in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
The win is largely a redemption after he lost at the track with 5-to-go in the fall of 2023. We here at the Daily Downforce would like to congratulate race winner, Christian Eckes on this massive victory.
Following Keith McGee’s spin, Bob Pockrass posted this interview on X (formerly Twitter). In the interview, they talked about McGee’s long commute to the race from his home in Alaska.
Well Daily Downforce readers, the fourth race of the 2024 season for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is officially in the books! After a rocky start to the year, the last couple of races have been relatively clean affairs. I think all of us as race fans should be proud of that. What did you think of tonight’s race? Are you glad to see concrete Bristol return in lieu of the dirt track surface? What did you think of Eckes’ and Busch’s performances and battles tonight? What about the multi-groove racing? Be sure to let us know on all of our social media sites (X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.)
Be sure to check back here at DailyDownforce.com for tomorrow’s coverage of the throwback Food City 500 at The Last Great Coliseum. It’s Bristol, Baby!
