The half-mile short oval of the Martinsville Speedway witnessed an eventful week of NASCAR racing. Drama, fender-bending action, late race controversies—you name it, and the track delivered. Thanks to the format, drivers are left with no choice but to throw everything they have in a crucial elimination race. Although we’ve been talking about the race manipulation saga from the Cup race, the craziness started right from the Truck race.

Like most of the playoff drivers, Taylor Gray was in a must-win situation at Martinsville. And he was trading blows with Christian Eckes for the lead for the latter half of the race. However, Eckes didn’t mind getting his hands dirty as he put his bumper in the back of the #17 truck. This certainly cost Gray a spot in the final 4, and he certainly didn’t like the treatment after he’d raced Eckes fairly throughout the race.

Although the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver received a lot of flak from the fans on social media, he still doesn’t feel any different about the way he raced the last few laps. He even accepted his wrongdoing for shipping the #99 truck, but he wanted to win the race at all costs.

Christian Eckes isn’t losing sleep over his racing antics at Martinsville

Gray was on the fresher rubber late in the race and got the jump he needed on the #19 truck. The two drivers were side by side for the first corner, and just when it looked like Gray would go clear of Eckes, he was bumped out of the way. In trying to not hit the outside wall, Gray had to lift his foot off the gas and correct his course. But this incident was the final nail in the coffin for his championship hopes, and he wanted Christian Eckes to know how he felt after the race.

The Tricon Garage racer angrily confronted Eckes; although he didn’t throw any punches, Gray warned him of a potential payback. “I got sent to the fence when I raced him perfectly clean in (Turns) 1 and 2. “What goes around comes around.” Gray said after the race. But despite the heated confrontations and backlash on social media, Eckes still doesn’t have second thoughts about how he raced the race’s final few laps. Although his qualification to final 4 was secured, he wouldn’t allow his past mistakes to creep in at Martinsville Speedway.

“I mean, I don’t know if I’d necessarily do anything differently because, like I said earlier, I’ve lost my job twice by being a guy that doesn’t do what it takes. You know wins a win, nothing’s guaranteed this week. So I felt like my best thing to do was to go and win the race; it was maybe a little egregious as far as the contact back.” Christian Eckes said this to Bob Pockrass.

Not only Taylor Gray, but even Ben Rhodes driving the #99 truck received a similar treatment by Eckes. Knowing all bets were off, Rhodes used his bumper to clear the #17. But Eckes retaliated back and ran him out of track in Turn 1 with 3 laps to go. And this is where he feels he could’ve avoided roughing Rhodes up.

“I don’t really regret anything; I wish I didn’t get the 99 the second time. I felt bad about that, but it’s what we’ve become accustomed to seeing at Martinsville; you saw it in the Cup and Xfinity races too, and it’s just unfortunate and how it is,” he added. Hopefully, the payback by Gray isn’t due for this weekend, as Eckes is eager to clinch his first NASCAR championship.

Eyes on the prize this weekend at Phoenix

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Interestingly, Christian Eckes won last year’s championship race at the half-mile low-banked oval track in Phoenix. The only drawback was that he wasn’t a part of the championship 4. He did start the Round of 8 on a good note and almost grabbed a win at Bristol. He finished 2nd at the short track, but he just wasn’t able to repeat this run at Talladega and Homestead. And this ultimately cost him a shot to race for the championship.

Now that he’s in a position to clinch the title, he reflects on how frustrating it was for him to win in the final race. “Those four points could’ve come from anywhere; it could’ve come from the 18 plus we gave away at Talladega, those stage points at Talladega, giving away the win at Bristol, making two mistakes at Homestead. Like everything had to happen for us perfectly for us to not advance, so it just wasn’t meant to be, but at the same time in the victory lane it was not fun at all,” Eckes explained further.

Given how dramatically the Martinsville race ended, the expectation for the championship race has certainly notched up. It certainly will be interesting to see how Taylor Gray and Christian Eckes race each other.