Christian Eckes may have won the battle that was the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway on Friday night, but his path to victory raised the real challenge of winning the battle that is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.

The driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado led 187 of 200 laps in Friday night’s race at Martinsville, facing a tire disadvantage against Taylor Gray as he looks to lock himself into the Championship 4. victory. Lining up alongside Eckes at the final restart of the race, Gray managed to pass Eckes for the race lead through Turns 1 and 2 and surprisingly appeared to be heading for outright victory in Championship 4.

But Eckes had other ideas.

The driver of the No. 19 Chevrolet body hit the side of Gray’s No. 17 truck, which sent Gray onto the track and out of contention for the win. Ben Rhodes then took the lead, but Rhodes would suffer a similar fate when Eckes pulled his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford off the road and came on with two laps remaining.

With the elimination of Rhodes and Gray, Eckes was able to cap off his dominant race with his fourth win of the season, crossing the finish line 1.191 seconds ahead of Rhodes; Chase Purdy, Taylor Purdy and Nick Sanchez were in the top five. finishers.

Here’s a replay of the final five laps of Friday night’s race:

While Eckes was performing his cool-down lap, Gray showed his displeasure by contacting him on the racetrack. Gray would later pull over and park on pit road as Eckes celebrated the win.

After scoring the win, the ninth of the New York native’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, Eckes downplayed contact with Gray and said he refused to lose a race he dominated as heavily as he did Friday night.

“It’s a great feeling. As I told everyone, I wasn’t going to let us lose this race, the truck was too good,” Eckes said. “17 (Taylor Gray) was a tough race but I feel bad about 99 (Ben Rhodes). I had too much slack going into the corner, everyone’s really happy with me but I don’t care. Thank you. Thank you.” “Thanks to everyone for their hard work and we’ll head to Phoenix.”

After getting out of his truck Gray then made a line towards Eckes, confronting the race winner. In the makeshift victory lane at the front of the 0.526-mile short track.

After a quick but heated speech, Gray returned to his truck and began explaining how he lost the race Friday night. Gray was particularly upset as he felt he had raced cleanly with Eckes and expected the same in return.

“19. The race (Christian Eckes) raced cleanly on the restart and on the first and second laps before that. I was on the tires. I barely even touched it,” Gray explained. “I passed under it and the warning went off. Very clean for Martinsville, especially with the tire advantage. I could get into one and blow it completely off track and not worry about it. I raced him cleanly. I didn’t want to be that guy in Martinsville.”

Gray said he expected to get a nudge from behind when he passed Eckes on the final run, but the driver of the No. 17 truck said he didn’t expect the level of contact from behind he received.

“We started on the restart and raced him cleanly through turns one and two. We got him away from turn two and he went into turn three and sent me completely into the fence. Now I admit, this is Martinsville, I was waiting for the action, especially how I raced him and ended up in the final four “Considering, I wasn’t expecting to move across the border, so I don’t know.”

With the win, Eckes joined Grant Enfinger. Who won the opening two races of Round 8 of the Playoffs?Corey Heim, who finished seventh in the championship 4 field, and Ty Majeski, who came home 11th, will compete for the championship in next Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. But as Gray points out, Eckes had won Stages 1 and 2 earlier in the race, leaving him locked in Championship 4.

Eckes won the race but now faces the possibility of retaliation next weekend in Phoenix.

Gray seethed before explaining: “All he did was put a target on his back” and unfortunately in this day and age I can’t go to Phoenix and do anything to him about it because that’s what I’m going to do. Go get a $20,000 fine so he can get away with this nonsense and not face any repercussions.

While Gray says he won’t travel to Phoenix to retaliate Friday night, Rhodes, a two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and runner-up finisher who also took a shove from Eckes in the closing laps, says Gray has reason to be angry and if Gray retaliates Whether he does or doesn’t, Eckes will be at the mercy of what Gray decides to do next.

“When you lock in and run really hard and make enemies like Taylor Gray, it’s a big deal because (Gray) isn’t going to Phoenix right now (with a title shot) and I think Christian would still go. Rhodes said, “We did it on points and next week Taylor is “So the point I’m trying to make is that when you want to win championships you really have to do big picture races. We did that in both our championships, we weren’t the most dominant car but we tried to do it.” We played the game to the best of our ability and speed and managed to bring it home.”

Can Eckes bring home the championship next week at Phoenix Raceway? Time will tell.

Friday night’s race served to end the championship hopes of Gray and three other drivers. From the outside in the Playoffs standings after Friday night’s race, Gray was joined by Nick Sanchez (finished fifth), Tyler Ankrum (eighth) and Rajah Caruth (31st). Caruth suffered a problem with his brakes early in the event, causing him to take his No. 71 Spire Motorsports truck to the garage for repairs, effectively ending his hopes of advancing to the Championship 4.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race will be held on Friday, November 8th. This race will be televised on FS1, with coverage starting at 8pm ET. Radio coverage of the event will be provided by Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.