In this week’s preview, we rave about William Byron, get to know Christian Eckes a little better, wonder how 13-year-old racing really works… and much more! Join Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck as we dive into the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
1. We didn’t see Texas for the first time last year until the playoffs. We now go back to the start of the season. Is there anything to suggest that the track might be fresher in the drivers’ memory when it was only there 5 or 6 months ago versus a year?
Jeff: That’s somewhat fair, but more in the sense that the track is one of the newer intermediate track races in terms of layout. However, that is largely negated by the expected temperature difference this weekend compared to last September’s race, when it approached 100 degrees for the playoffs. This weekend is expected to be hot, but “only” 80 degrees for Sunday’s high, meaning track conditions should be noticeably different.
Jordan: With teams having such deep scoring depth and because Texas is a track that NASCAR has visited for decades, it doesn’t make much difference that the most recent race here was only a few months ago.
2. Before the Richmond race, you mentioned that William Byron’s team had toured Richmond and Martinsville as two of the races where they really needed to improve. He finished seventh at Richmond and won at Martinsville. (Well, I wish I had achieved all MY goals that quickly!) Are we officially facing a “William Byron era”?
Jeff: It’s certainly possible, although it will continue to be difficult when everyone is driving the same car and at relatively identical speeds. Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have combined to win seven of eight races so far (only Daniel Suarez’s photo finish at Atlanta has disrupted that streak), and that’s no coincidence. They have more engineering resources and better pit crews than most other teams, which adds up when the entire field is only separated by a few tenths of a second. Byron will therefore have more opportunities to win, but beating his own teammates and JGR drivers will continue to be a weekly challenge.
Jordan: The William Byron era is here. This is evident by the fact that since the start of last season, he has a series-best nine wins and is at or near the top in several major statistical categories like laps led, top five and top 10 finishes, etc. I think his winning ways will slow down soon considering he won at Texas, and the upcoming races at Talladega, Darlington and Kansas are all among his best tracks. What should further frighten the competition is that Byron has become a driver capable of winning any week on any type of track, with no apparent weakness.
3. Christian Eckes won last weekend’s race and is now the favorite to win the Truck Series title. If you go back to last year, he has six Top 5 finishes in his last 13 races. Does he qualify for “promising” or “maybe the next big thing” status, or is he a known quantity at this point?
Jeff: Eckes began his career at Kyle Busch Motorsports, so if there was ever a time where he was going to be “maybe the next big thing,” this would have been his path. At the time, KBM was considered the main talent pool at Toyota and drivers like William Byron and Christopher Bell successfully launched their careers from this same opportunity. But Eckes never won in his 35 races with KBM and finished eighth in the standings in his only full season there, leaving him searching for a new opportunity. He’s had to rebuild his career – which is a strange thing to say for a 23-year-old – but has truly found a perfect fit with the emerging McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team (which is only in its fifth season of competition). Full-time Truck Series). ). If Eckes can continue to win races, he will certainly have the opportunity to move up the ranks after his career seemed to stall.
Jordan: Eckes is definitely on the radar of Cup teams. In fact, last week at Martinsville, I was talking to a crew chief about the young drivers in the Xfinity and Truck Series who stood out to him, and the No. 1 name on his list was Eckes. This crew chief believes a smart team will sign Eckes and get a driver capable of winning at the Cup level. And he’s the second person in the garage to say this to me in recent weeks.
NOOB Question of the Week: We went down a Christian Eckes rabbit hole and landed on a little disagreement between him and Ben Rhodes. Has this ever impacted anything else?
Jeff: Aside from the fact that Eckes became a meme with the double birds he showed Rhodes after that incident, I’m hard-pressed to think of any further fallout from that year. However, I may be missing something.
An upheaval @christianeckes gives the salute with the double middle finger to @benrhodes has @TXMotorSpeedway #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/YYlD5gVDeK
– Jerry Jordan (@JerryJordan_KTT) October 25, 2020
Jordan: No, nothing really came of it. Incidents like this are not uncommon in the Xfinity and Truck Series and it’s just as common for drivers to quickly put their problems behind them and move on.
DOUBLE NOOB question: Eckes has been racing since he was 13. Have other adult drivers participating in these races expressed concerns about this? Like “why is there a 13 year old in this car?” » or do we assume that the teenager has been examined and will know what he is doing?
Jeff: Actually it depends. Age 13 is actually pretty late to start these days, as many current Cup drivers got into a car of some sort when they were 4 or 5 years old. But usually these cars (like midget quarters or beginner boxes) are courses for kids to race. against other children. For example, Kyle Busch’s 8-year-old son Brexton doesn’t race against adults. That said, a 12 year old won a Late Model race last year, so it’s not uncommon.
Jordan: You would think that some concerns could be raised, but the reality is that drivers often start their careers well before the age of 13. To my knowledge, no one has raised the alarm about whether this should be allowed.
4. Back to Texas: Who do you prefer to win this race?
Jeff: Hendrick Motorsports looked good in the first 1.5-mile track race of the season, as Kyle Larson led 181 laps en route to victory at Las Vegas. Hendrick also won the Texas race last fall. You would think it would be another Hendrick vs. JGR Battleas has been the case for the entire season thus far, but it’s certainly understandable why sportsbooks have Larson as the favorite.
Jordan: Given the way this season has gone, it appears that the winner will come from either Hendrick or JGR camps. Only once has a driver not from one of those two teams won (Daniel Suarez at Atlanta) and with the style of track that Texas is, it would be hard to think anyone else should be considered a favorite. Specifically, as to who will win, the choice is either Byron or Larson.
5. Who do you like here?
Jeff: If Longshot is considered odds beyond +2000, I don’t see anyone. Alex Bowman at +2000 is about as low as I would go, and Bubba Wallace (who led the most laps during Texas’ playoff run and had the lead until Byron restarted it with six laps to go) is tempting at +1800. The other to consider at least for a top three by far: Jimmy Johnsonthe all-time Texas wins leader, is in this race and has crazy odds of +20,000. Although it’s highly unlikely he can win (even a top 10 would be impressive for as little as Johnson raced in the Next Gen car), it might not be the worst idea to bet a few dollars on him for a top three finish at +4000 just in case.
Jordan: Both Bowman and Wallace are excellent, borderline obvious choices. Bowman because of the connection with Hendrick and Wallace because last fall here he started on the pole, led 111 laps and finished third.
6. Friday, you written about a beef over X between Denny Hamlin and Marcus Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports. Sunday’s race takes place on a Speedway-owned track that was the subject of one of Smith’s controversial reconfigurations. Is there anything new fans should know before this race – about the track itself and/or the thrills surrounding it?
Jeff: This track was once a relatively standard intermediate until 2017. For some reason the track thought it would be a good idea to make turns 1 and 2 (flat and wide) different from turns 3 and 4 (the most more standard). Unfortunately, this proved to render large sections of turns 1 and 2 almost completely unusable. The bad races led to declining attendance and cost Texas one of its annual race dates and also prompted drivers like Kyle Larson to say, “I wish they would tear this place down first, then start again from scratch. »
Note: Read Jeff’s column here -> How Texas Motor Speedway Became NASCAR’s Most Maligned Track
Jordan: Oh man. How much time do you have? The CliffsNotes story is that Texas is the most maligned piece of the program, and it’s not even close. The racing here is too often lackluster and the track itself presents problems to the point where the only complete solution to the problem is a complete reconfiguration. But such an undertaking is expensive and it is therefore questionable whether it will proceed as it should.
7. Have we had enough races this season to start seeing “most improved” drivers? Are there other trends developing beyond the major power rankings?
Jeff: There’s pretty much the same crop of contenders as last year, but you definitely have to keep looking at the second-year drivers. Ty Gibbs – who is still tied for the series lead in the top 10 and ranks fourth in the standings after eight races. Gibbs has had disappointing results the past two weeks (16th at Richmond, 19th at Martinsville) but is still on track to make the playoffs this season and should win a race at some point.
Jordan: We are at a point in the season where we can begin to accurately assess who is good and who is not. And as it stands, there aren’t many surprises, even the rise of Ty Gibbs isn’t that unexpected. After a solid rookie season, the thinking in 2024 was that he would continue to improve and win at least once, if not multiple times. Overall, everyone we expected to be strong mostly was.
Odds of winning this week via BetMGM
(Photo of William Byron kissing a clock and top photo of Christian Eckes: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images; top photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images))