April 24, 2020, St. Louis Region – Christian Eckes of Middletown, New York, started from the pole position, led almost all of the laps and survived three green-white-checkered overtimes to win World Wide Technology Raceway’s eLeague CK Power 125 presented by Raceway Gives. The iRacing event for the Elite Racing League was aired free-of-charge on Speed51.com. Eckes is a NASCAR Gander Outdoors & RV Truck Series racer, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports and Toyota Racing. The only time Eckes relinquished the lead was when he pitted. Landon Huffman finished second and Quebec’s Raphael Lessard was third for a one-two-three NASCAR finish.
“I honestly thought Landon was going to beat me there at the end,” said Eckes. “He was ‘way faster but the cautions kept coming and everything kinda aligned for me to hold him off. Overall it was a great race. I think we all but led a couple laps. It was a fun race.
“It (Truck) was definitely pretty free (into the corners). That’s kinda why I thought I was really good, later in the runs,” Eckes added. “Landon was really good on the short runs and was able to run me down every time we’d get going, but thankfully a caution (flag) would come out and kinda saved me. I’d get a good restart and eventually bring home the win. Landon definitely kept me on my toes.”
Austin Blair of Fairview Heights, Illinois, was the highest-finishing local driver. Blair, a USAC Silver Crown Series driver and FAA-certified drone pilot ran as high as fifth place during the race and eventually finished sixth.
James Davison was the highest-finishing INDYCAR driver (fifth) and NHRA’s Ron Capps was 25th across the finish line.
Scott McClendon Jr. of Florissant, Missouri was running in the top five with 10 laps remaining but suffered a netcode issue and wound up in 15th place. McClendon races at the Gateway Kartplex at WWTR.
CK Power 125 presented by Raceway Gives finish
Finish, driver, car number
1 Christian Eckes (18) NASCAR
2 Landon Huffman (75)
3 Raphael Lessard (4)
4 Victor Del Porto (07)
5 James Davison (33) INDYCAR
6 Austin Blair (98) USAC
7 Kole Raz (12)
8 Brett Moffitt (24)
9 Gerald Campbell (31)
10 Josh Weinrich (61)
11 Thomas Sherman (23)
12 Travis Braden (26)
13 Richard Hinds (87)
14 Robert Krug (55)
15 Scott McClendon (06)
16 Chad Frankenfield (15)
17 Conor Daly (20)
18 Bryant Barnhill (34)
19 Josh Bilicki (53)
20 Austin Hill (16)
21 R.C. Enerson (09)
22 Santino Ferrucci (19)
23 Josh Williams (6)
24 Spencer Boyd (27)
25 Ron Capps (28) NHRA
26 Ed Carpenter (21)
27 Jason White (9) -1 laps
28 Will Davison (28) -5 laps Australian Supercars
29 Tate Lightle (56) -14 laps
30 Chuck Sweeting (03) -33 laps
31 Scott Andrews (01) -42 laps
32 Matt Smith (77) -74 laps
33 Max McLaughlin (1) -81 laps
34 Ethyn Reasoner (86) -115 laps
35 Jon Capps (028) -115 laps
36 Daniel Dye (43) -115 laps
37 Derek Nichol (05) -115 laps
38 Michael Goodman (44) -115 laps
For additional information on World Wide Technology Raceway, please call (618) 215-8888. Follow WWTR on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
About World Wide Technology Raceway
World Wide Technology Raceway is the home of INDYCAR, NASCAR and NHRA racing in the St. Louis region. Located just five minutes from downtown St. Louis and covering more than 600 acres, WWTR is the largest outdoor entertainment facility in the area. WWTR’s facilities include a 1/4-mile drag strip, 1.25-mile superspeedway, recently-expanded 2.0-mile road course, a state-of-the-art karting facility and a 14-acre, multi-purpose dirt off-road venue. WWTR acquired Gateway National Golf Links, adjacent to the speedway property, in 2019. WWTR was the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Facility of the Year Award from the Race Track Business Conference and the 2017 Spirit of St. Louis Award from the St. Louis Attractions Association. In 2018, owner and CEO Curtis Francois received the Innovator Award from the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission in recognition of his work for restoring World Wide Technology Raceway (known then as Gateway Motorsports Park) to prominence.
