Christian Eckes holds off the heat, perseveres for North Wilkesboro top five

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Steam rose from every under-hood escape route possible after Christian Eckes' No. 91 Chevrolet came to a halt on North Wilkesboro Speedway's sweltering pit road. Eckes was similarly cooked after making his exit, baking after his cool-suit system failed early on one of the worst possible days for such a malfunction. The conditions made the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver's second consecutive top-five result in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series all the more remarkable, fighting through oppressive heat for fourth place in Saturday's FaithFest 250. Eckes had radioed his crew that he was in trouble with overheating after the checkered flag. Though he waved off safety workers there to attend to him post-race, he willingly accepted every other cooling aid that his crew provided -- ice packs, cascading water bottles and a cold towel. RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro The result and the improvement it took to get there helped sustain him. "It was a good showing, for sure," Eckes said after a brief post-race recovery period. "It was hot in there. My cool shirt failed, I think, rolling off the road, so that didn't help anything. Yeah, it was hot out there and slick, and it was fun because we finally got our truck driving OK." The No. 91 team's betterment came in less than a 24-hour span from Friday's preliminaries to Saturday's feature. Eckes was just 20th on the practice sheet, then qualified 18th in the 36-truck field. His upward surge from Saturday's midpack berth resulted in a points payoff at both stage breaks, then a steady presence among the top five for the duration of the final stage, which went green all the way. "I mean that was just the icing on top of all the effort he put in, because our truck wasn't very good yesterday and we did a lot of work to it, but I mean he just drove it hard the whole day," No. 91 crew chief Dave Elenz told NASCAR.com. "Unfortunately, the cool suit failed, and I mean, it's hot even on top of the pit box, so in there it's more miserable. Had a heat shield issue on top of that, so he had a lot of things he was facing. I think if we had a shorter run to the end, we would have been right there. But just amazing that he's able to do it and work that hard. He's got a lot of talent to be able to be in that much pain and still be as fast as he is." [caption id="attachment_519347" align="aligncenter" width="640"]Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media[/caption] Further complicating matters was an injury he suffered nearly a month ago in San Diego, where a severe sprain to his left foot from a misstep on a jagged Naval Base Coronado surface hobbled him. He battled through the rigors of last weekend's road-course meet at Lime Rock Park to a fifth-place run. Saturday, Eckes said the foot was still taped up with help from physicians at Atrium Health and that he managed this weekend at North Wilkesboro needing only ibuprofen to combat the pain. "He's not had an easy go of it driving," Elenz said, "so hopefully we get him back to full health, get all the stuff working for him, and he can really show what he has." Eckes has registered top-10 finishes in six of the last seven races, a level of consistency that's slotted him fourth in the Craftsman Truck Series standings. It's been a solid return to trucks for the 25-year-old driver, who spent last season in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series before returning to the circuit and the team where he's enjoyed some of his career's biggest successes. MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings The fellow drivers he's chasing on the Truck Series' current pecking order have enjoyed stretches of dominance and trips to Victory Lane. Front Row Motorsports' Layne Riggs has gone on a midseason tear atop the standings, teammate Chandler Smith added to his win tally in Saturday's 250-lapper and Kaden Honeycutt has capably steered the No. 11 Tricon Garage entry that Corey Heim took to the title last year. Three races -- all at tracks measuring roughly a mile or shorter -- remain in the Craftsman Truck Series regular season, and Eckes & Co. aim to make strides in tracking down the trio ahead of them. "We're definitely building," Elenz said. "We're not where we need to be. There's a lot of things that we need to work on, but him and I are building together and understanding each other more. We hadn't really been to the short tracks other than Bristol, so this is a good showing for us, makes us excited about the next three here. So it's been a challenging season, but I think we're pointed in the right direction." Said Eckes: "Yeah, I definitely wanted some more, but you know, after some of these weeks, fourth place isn't bad. So we've just got to keep moving forward and try to get better."