NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES: NEXTERA ENERGY 250

February 17, 2023

Christian Eckes

Press Conference

An Interview with:

CHRISTIAN ECKES: I feel like I'm going to have to write a book one day, a thousand ways how to lose a speedway race. Last year we lost two of them on a green-white-checkered, this year we lost them due to rain. I felt like we had a really fast No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet, and yeah, that sucks. I wish we could have finished it out.

But overall just really proud of everybody at McAnally Hilgemann Racing, and we'll go to Vegas and try to win there.

Q. You and I talked yesterday, and you said this was a fresh start and you were excited for the future. I felt like that showed all night. You guys weren't afraid to push, go forward. You had speed. Other than the rain not giving you a chance to go for it at the end, was this about everything you could have asked for day one with these guys?

CHRISTIAN ECKES: Yeah, I mean, listen, the saying for the year is "brick by brick," and I felt like we let a couple of them down tonight. It was cool to win a stage and lead laps, and I had a really good points day. I don't know where we're at in the points. We might be the leader, we might not be.

It's a good start for sure, but in the same aspect, we came here wanting to win, and yeah, a thousand ways to lose a speedway race.

Q. Knowing that obviously speedway racing isn't the bulk of the schedule, you're building something here as you referenced, the brick by brick comment. What is the biggest thing you guys feel like you're going to have to work on going into some of these downforce races?

CHRISTIAN ECKES: Yeah, I don't know yet. Obviously going into a speedway race, it's something I'm comfortable with, and I've always had fast trucks in that aspect and have gotten way better at it, especially recently.

Going into the next couple races is going to be huge. I have no idea what the mile-and-a-half stuff is going to be like, the short track stuff or the road course stuff. Luckily we have two new trucks for the next three, for both of those types of races, and we'll just do the best we can, and I think as long as the new truck trend translates, because we had a new one tonight, we'll be just fine.

Q. You mentioned a thousand ways to lose a speedway race, the green-white-checkered, the rain tonight. Does the fact that you're up front constantly in the speedway races at least give you reassurance that you are running well on the speedways?

CHRISTIAN ECKES: Yes and no. Obviously I want to finish these races off. This is kind of why I'm here. I'm here to win. It's good always to be running up front and to win stages and lead laps, but yeah, we're here to win. That's what we set out to do. To finish third is disappointing for sure.

Q. Christian, typically when there's a rain delay, you know when there's rain on the radar you know it's coming and you race differently. Did you ever in your wildest dreams expect this race to end early, and did you change your strategy during the race? Is it weird for this to have ended early for you guys? Were you guys even thinking that that was a possibility based on no real rain on the radar?

CHRISTIAN ECKES: Yeah, I mean, I definitely didn't know that it was going to rain until I saw rain on the windshield all day pretty much. Yeah, that kind of changed a lot of things. Didn't really pick up the intensity anymore. I feel like I was already pretty intense this race, just wanting to lead and do what we've set out to do.

I don't really think it changed it too much, but in the same aspect we knew the rain was coming and tried to get to the front as quick as possible.