By AMANDA VINCENT
Christian Eckes took the lead in a three-wide battle at the white flag at Kansas Speedway on Friday night to win the Kansas Lottery 200, the elimination race of the first round of the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs. It was the third race of the season for the driver who already was locked into round two.
“That was wild. I didn’t know if I was going to win it or not,” Eckes said. ‘We had, like, a sixth-place truck all day, but with that caution coming out, I knew we had a shot at it, and here we are. We haven’t won in a really long time.”
Taylor Gray was second, Matt DiBenedetto was third, Corey Heim fourth and Zane Smith fifth. Despite the top-five finish, DiBenedetto was eliminated from the playoffs. He missed advancement by five points.
Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger and Heim, like Eckes, already clinched advancement to round two of the playoffs before Friday night’s race. After the Kansas race, they officially were joined by Carson Hocevar, Smith and Nick Sanchez, who headed into the race in provisional advancing positions.
Ben Rhodes claimed the final position in the playoff round of eight, despite a 25th-place finish Friday night. Rhodes headed into Kansas provisionally on the outside looking in but supplanted ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton for playoff advancement. Crafton finished 33rd in the Kansas Lottery 200.
“We had some instability in general, and as you noticed with the truck all night long, and I’m not quite sure what happened that got us into the wall, but, we ended up having a tire issue, and I have to do some research on that,” Rhodes said. “But lucky to be into the next round. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, I guess. But thankful for all our supporters. We let them down a little bit tonight, but we’re going to rebound and be back stronger for the next round.”
The second half of the 134-lap race was a struggle for Rhodes and Crafton. Both drivers hit the wall on lap 70. Crafton, then, pitted while Rhodes stayed out for awhile, off the pace. Rhodes went a lap down on lap 88 and, finally, pitted on lap 91. Crafton hit the wall and followed with pit stops multiple times throughout the remainder of the race.
Hocevar and Heim battled back-and-forth for the lead before a cycle of green-flag pit stops began on lap 95. Hocevar was the leader before the stops began, but when the cycle completed on l07, Heim had a sizable lead.
Heim cushion was eliminated by a lap-118 caution for Mason Maggio. Another caution, the fifth of the race, on lap 127 for Tanner Gray and Rajah Caruth resulted in a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag.
“I feel like every time we got up front, there was a caution,” Heim said. “Can’t say enough about our speed tonight. Definitely an improvement from the first Kansas, and we were really fast then. Big thanks to TRICON Garage, Safelite and Toyota Racing for everything they do for me.”
Sanchez won the first of two 30-lap stages after leading the entire stage. He started on the front row and took the lead from pole sitter Chase Purdy on the opening lap.
The first stage ended under caution because of a Kaden Honeycutt spin on lap 27.
Rhodes ran second to Sanchez for a much of the opening stage, but after a lap-14 caution for Bayley Currey, Purdy took second from Rhodes. At the end of stage one Purdy still was second and Rhodes third.
Hocevar won stage two at lap 60 after passing Sanchez on lap 49. Sanchez was second at the end of the second stage.
Enfinger, after pitting during the Currey caution, stayed out after stage one and restarted with the lead for stage two. Sanchez retook the lead, though, when the race returned to green. Enfinger was at the end of the second stage.
Purdy, after finishing stage one in second, went a lap down in stage two because of an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel on lap 38.
Heim was the leader and Sanchez second for the restart after stage two after getting off pit road first and second. Hocevar lost three positions in the pits and restarted fourth.
Finishing sixth through 10th in the Kansas Lottery 200 were Hocevar, Stewart Friesen, Sanchez, Jesse Love and Tyler Ankrum.
