Christian Eckes celebrates after winning Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Pocono Raceway. Photo: Venturini Motorsports/Twitter
Christian Eckes made a statement that he will be a threat for the ARCA Menards Series championship with a dominant victory in Friday’s race at Pocono Raceway.
Eckes took control on lap 35 when the dominant driver in the early stages of the race, General Tire Pole Award winner Todd Gilliland, was penalized for a blend line violation after his only pit stop of the afternoon.
Eckes led the final 26 laps of the caution free race to score his second win of the season and fifth overall.
Once Eckes was alerted by his crew that he would be the leader after Gilliland’s penalty, he kept his head in the game to minimize mistakes.
“Once they told me what happened to the 18 it was all about keeping our heads down and not making any mistakes,” Eckes said. “We knew there was a long way to go and we needed to be perfect to close it out.”
Gilliland, who led the first 31 laps in a substitute role for Joe Gibbs Racing while the team’s regular driver Riley Herbst is racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Iowa Speedway, was disappointed with his second-place run.
“The blend line rule is different in Trucks and ARCA,” he said. “In the truck, we can go above the line with the right side tires as long as we keep the left side tires below it. In ARCA they want you to keep all four tires below it until you’re between turns one and two. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me at all to keep them below the line. I should have known it but I didn’t.”
With his second win of the season, Eckes closes the gap on his Venturini Motorsports teammate and championship leader Michael Self, who finished third. Eckes knows with just five races remaining every point matters.
“We need to be perfect from here on out,” Eckes said. “Without missing the race at Salem, we’d be 150 points ahead. Without the last lap at Elko we’d be within 50 points or so. We were perfect here today and we need to be perfect every week from here on out. I’ve won at three of the five tracks and my crew chief Kevin Reed has won at all five of them so I am confident we can make a run at it.”
Self finished third in what was an uneventful race for the points leader.
“We had a right rear tire go down and we had to pit early,” Self said. “Once the field cycled through and we didn’t get a caution it evened out for us. We weren’t close to second place and we were way ahead of fourth so we were just trying to make sure we didn’t do anything to give it away at the end.”
There were four lead changes among five drivers. Gilliland lead the first 31 laps from the pole, and Chandler Smith, Austin Wayne Self, and Bret Holmes each led a lap while the field cycled through green flag pit stops. Eckes took the lead at lap 35 and led the rest of the way to the finish.
Without a caution to slow the pace, Eckes averaged a series track record 164.534 miles per hour. Eckes’ margin of victory was 13.027 seconds.
Self continues to lead the series championship standings with an unofficial 90-point advantage over Eckes who has now moved into second. Holmes is now third, 110 points back and ninth-place finisher Travis Braden is fourth 150 points behind.
As sildenafil generic uk the jelly works quicker than the pills and is easy to consume, it has helped many married couples to ignite the sexual fire that had died down to Erectile Dysfunction (ED) or impotence. The tube lasts approximately click here to find out more discount viagra four months when used as enhancements. Depending on the type of violation of erectile function, you probably are thinking of taking an erectile viagra online sample dysfunction drug. Not many people are aware of the fact, but these medicines are made using the same core ingredients as cialis online and other expensive anti ED medicines.
The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Saturday, August 18.
ARCA Menards Series
Pocono Raceway – Long Pond PA
FORTS USA 150 – July 26, 2019
1. Christian Eckes
2. Todd Gilliland
3. Michael Self
4. Corey Heim
5. Raphael Lessard
6. Austin Wayne Self
7. Bret Holmes
8. Chandler Smith
9. Travis Braden
10. Joe Graf, Jr.
11. Thad Moffitt
12. Bobby Gerhart
13. Ed Pompa
14. Willie Mullins
15. Tim Richmond
16. Brad Smith
17. Tommy Vigh, Jr.
18. Dick Doheny
19. Mike Basham
20. Don Thompson
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.