Christian Eckes Impresses at Nashville with Career Best Third-Place Finish
April 10, 2017 (Concord, North Carolina) – It was a career night for Christian Eckes in Saturday’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Music City 200 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. Making just his fifth series start the 16-year old Eckes finished a career-best third driving his Venturini Motorsports (VMS) prepared New York Bus Sales Toyota Camry in ARCA’s first short track event of the season.
Eckes, who qualified on the outside front row, was a factor the entire night leading 28-laps en route to his best series finish.
Riding in second and seemingly in good position to place a bid for top spot, Eckes’ chances were hampered on lap 109 after a miscue on pit road sent the talented teen back to the 16th spot for the race restart.Eckes, unfazed by the pit road penalty, went back to work using the outside lane to pick-off spots one-by-one driving his Toyota back into contention by lap-150. However, a series of late race cautions slowed Eckes’ momentum leaving the Middletown, New York native with no choice but to settle for his hard-fought podium finish.
“My team brought a hot rod tonight and it showed,” said Eckes. “I felt we definitely had a race winning car and as good as chance as anyone to win. It was a lot of fun out there tonight. Unfortunately, we had that error on pit road and it cost us some track position. We were strong though and drove our Toyota back up through the field and finish third. Tonight gives me a lot of confidence going into my next race at Salem.”
Running a limited ARCA schedule with VMS, Eckes will get his next shot on April 30th when the ARCA Racing Series returns to historic Salem Speedway in Southern Indiana. Eckes’ third-place finish replaces last season’s career-best top-10 which came during his series debut also on the same Nashville track.
ABOUT VENTURINI MOTORSPORTS:
Venturini Motorsports (VMS), fielding cars for over 30-years in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, is one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the country. Multiple team championships and consistent on-track success, VMS has evolved into one of the most recognizable names in motorsports. Since 2007, VMS has assisted in the career development of notable NASCAR drivers such as Joey Logano, Erik Jones, William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Alex Bowman, Brian Scott, Ryan Blaney, Brennan Poole, Daniel Suarez, and Brandon Jones. Over the years the Venturini name has become synonymous with modern-day racing in America. In 2012, the Venturini family was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (www.NIASHF.org) and now find themselves enshrined with such sports icons as Joe DiMaggio, Mario Andretti, Vince Lombardi, Tommy Lasorda and Rocky Marciano.
Official: www.VenturiniMotorsports.com | Twitter: @VenturiniMotor | Facebook: Venturini Motorsports
Sources: Venturini Motorsports PR