Eckes on a Roll Heads to Michigan’s Irish Hills
Coming off a third-place finish last week at a Pocono, the third top-3 in last four races, Christian Eckes (No.15 JBL Audio Toyota) looks to continue his streak in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series VizCom 200 at Michigan International Speedway(MIS).
This will be Eckes’ first career start on Michigan’s 2-mile monster D-Shaped layout. Of his 34 career ARCA starts, six have come on tracks larger than 1-mile in length. His best overall superspeedway performance came at Daytona International Speedway when the 18-year old Toyota Racing Development started on the pole and finished fourth.
“I’ve done a lot to prepare for Michigan this week,” said Eckes. “I’m excited to make my first laps on track. I’ve spent time on the sim at TRD and just basic stuff like film and notes. I feel extremely prepared to go have another great run this weekend.”
Eckes with a 3.5 finishing average over the last month of the season has started closing the points gap after missing the third race of the season at Salem Speedway due to illness. Since winning Nashville in early May he has pulled within 80-points (4th place) of the series’ points leader Michael Self.
“We’ve done a good job executing early on in the season, but we still have some to go. I’m very happy that we’ve finished as well as we’ve had with some of the circumstances we’ve had to fight off. I feel like this team is capable of way more than what we’ve been achieving the last few races. We’re ready to go do our jobs at Michigan and hopefully bring home another win.
Eckes will join VMS teammates’ Michael Self Myatt Snider in search of finding victory lane at Michigan. All three drivers will appear at the tracks’ General Tire Fan Walk display on Friday (4:15PM-4:45PM) to sign autographs.
VMS has recorded three victories at Michigan since 2010 – Mikey Kile (’10), Brennan Poole (’13) and Austin Theriault (’14). Team co-owner, Bill Venturini, made his first of seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Michigan in 1989.
Practice at Michigan International Speedway is slated for 8AM ET on Friday, June 7, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 12PM, with the 100-lap, 200-mile race going green at 6PM. The race will be televised LIVE on FOX SPORTS 1.
Sources: Venturini Motorsports