Eckes Scores Another Podium Finish in Strong Run at Concord
GREENVILLE, NY — Christian Eckes has been nothing but consistent so far in 2017 as he scored another second-place finish Saturday at Concord Speedway (NC) in the Circle Track Warehouse 200. The strong run ties the 16 year-old driver’s career best CARS Racing Tour finish.
“I definitely think we had one of the best cars on the long run,” said Eckes, “But we just could not fire off well. We struggled a little bit in the beginning and a little at the end. Overall I’m really happy.”
The Greenville, NY driver qualified his No. 15 Fury Race Car in the fifth position in a new CARS Tour qualifying format. In its debut, the knockout qualifying format provided a lot of excitement. Eckes qualified fifth in round one, allowing him to move into the final round of qualifying. The young driver backed up his lap with another fifth-place qualifying effort to start from that position in the 100-lap race.
“I thought knockout qualifying was interesting honestly. It gave a new set of challenges for all teams to conquer,” said Eckes.
Eckes raced around that fifth position for the opening 35 laps, when he moved into the top-three for the first time of the afternoon. After falling back to fourth with 40 laps to go, Eckes rallied and worked his way into second on lap 82.
A late race restart put him side by side with leader Harrison Burton, but Burton was able to pull away and Eckes held steady in the runner-up position until the checkers flew.
“I wasn’t sure if we had anything to be honest,” said Eckes. “Harrison was extremely fast. We were faster on longer runs, but unfortunately we ran out of time at the end for the longer runs to fall into place.”
Burton is a Fury teammate of Eckes, so despite falling one position short Saturday, the New York driver likes what he sees from the Fury Race Shop.
“Congrats to Harrison,” said Eckes. “I think it’s really good what they’re accomplishing and I’m proud of Fury Race Cars and what we’re accomplishing at the shop.”
For more on Christian Eckes, visit www.christianeckesracing.com, and be sure to follow him on Twitter, @ChristianEckes.
Sources:Â 51 Sports/Christian Eckes Racing PR