Hail Mary For Tires Falls Flat For Eckes & Enfinger

Christian Eckes pitted for tires late in Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship race, but couldn't turn it into a series title. (HHP/David Graham photo)

AVONDALE, Ariz. – In a vain attempt to try and revive their NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title dreams, Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger attempted to use fresh tires as a ‘Hail Mary’ call during Friday night’s Phoenix Raceway season finale.

Though the move got both drivers back inside the top five at race’s end, it wasn’t enough for either of them to dethrone Ty Majeski from capturing the Truck Series championship.

The race’s fifth caution – after Conner Jones spun in turn two – allowed Enfinger and Eckes to pit on lap 113 for four new Goodyear Eagles apiece, which were 19 laps fresher than leader Majeski was on at that point.

They restarted 15th and 16th, respectively, and charged through to top-five finishes, but Majeski was just too strong and had opened up an insurmountable gap by that point.

“We just didn’t have enough. Ty Majeski and Corey Heim were just stronger than us,” said Eckes. “We threw a Hail Mary with the tires, and I thought for a second I would be able to catch them … and just didn’t have enough.”

Eckes finished third, both in the race and the championship, while Enfinger’s fifth-place result ranked him fourth in the final standings.

Grant Enfinger in action during Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

“I feel like we came here with the right mindset, the right game plan, and honestly pretty much the right execution for the stuff in our control,” noted Enfinger. “We just flat out didn't have the speed they [Majeski and Heim] did.”

“[Crew chief] Jeff Stankiewicz was trying everything he could on pit stops. We tried a little strategy there. Probably didn’t help us any just because they only had five [green-flag] laps on our tires. But I commend them for making the call. We had to do something different.”

Both Eckes and Enfinger stayed mistake free throughout the night, and rarely were running outside the top 10 under full-race conditions. It was just the speed from Majeski that set him apart from the rest of the Championship 4.

It was nothing that Eckes or Enfinger’s teams did wrong – they were just beaten heads up.

While Majeski was on pole and led 88 percent of the laps, Eckes and Enfinger were third and fifth in stage one, then ran fifth and seventh in stage two. They found themselves in the same positions at the end of the race that they were in during stage one, however.

That wasn’t anything to be mad about given Majeski’s dominance; a driver just doesn’t want to leave Phoenix feeling like they needed to do more.

“No regrets,” affirmed Eckes after the race.

“I feel like we’ve proven to not only [the media] and our competitors, but even to ourselves, that we can do this … contend for wins and contend for championships,” Enfinger added.

The 23-year-old Eckes won’t return to the Truck Series next year, leaving McAnally-Hilgemann Racing to jump up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing in the next chapter of his young career.

That was the reason behind his bittersweet tone in reflecting on a strong season that included four wins, 15 top-five, and 22 top-10 finishes in 23 races. His average finish of 5.4 was the best in the Truck Series.

“It has been a special year,” Eckes noted. “Definitely a disappointing performance for us to end on. But overall, I’m proud of everything we did. We just flat out didn’t have the short run speed here. I think after 15 laps we were respectable, but just couldn’t go on the short run and that let the 98 [Majeski] get too far out there to chase down.

“Just want to say thank you to NAPA Auto Care, Gates Hydraulics, Instacoat, Adaptive One Caliper, and Bill [McAnally, team co-owner] for everything they’ve done for me the past two years,” Eckes added. “This has been the best two years of my life to this point. I wish we could have finished it off with a championship, but just came up a little short.”

Enfinger, meanwhile, will be back to chase both a fourth Championship 4 appearance and a maiden Truck Series title, following a debut season with Codie Rohrbaugh’s CR7 Motorsports that was nothing short of eye-opening for many in the garage.

“I’m really proud of the growth we’ve had all year [as a team], and the buy-in from everybody that we’ve had all year. But we still have a long way to go from an organization standpoint to get it to what myself and Jeff [Stankewicz, crew chief] and [GM Michael] Shelton and Codie all envision it to be,” said Enfinger. “I’m proud of how far we’ve come. I feel like we earned our spot here [in the Championship 4]. But at the end of the day, we just flat out didn’t have the same speed as the 11 [Heim] and 98 [Majeski] did.

“I think Christian could fire off better than us, but he would kind of fade a little bit. I just couldn’t go at all on a short run, I feel like. At the end of the day, proud of the effort, but bummed with the end result.”