Get to Know Christian Eckes

Introducing the 2020 driver of the No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra... Christian Eckes! We're excited to have Christian and team on board and looking forward to a great season. To get to know Christian better, we sat down with him to get the scoop.

How did you get started into racing and how old were you?
I started racing in 2010. I always wanted to race go karts and quads at my parent's  house in New York. My dads friend raced at a local track and we went there and they had mini race cars called Bandoleros. We rented one and I loved it so we continued to do it. I started racing late model stock cars in 2015 got into ARCA in 2016 and made my Trucks debut in 2018 at Iowa Speedway.

What’s your favorite part about racing?
The opportunity to get better. The competition side and pushing yourself to get better. Being apart of that is really fun.

Have you had any scary moments or wrecks?
I don't think so. *Knocks on wood* 

If you weren’t a NASCAR driver, what would your profession be?
I’d want to be an astronaut. I’ve always loved space, so I’d for sure want to try and be an astronaut.

Favorite race track?
Gateway in St. Louis. It’s really flat and I’ve always ran really well there but never could finish.

How do you prepare for a race?
I’ll start usually by debriefing from the race before and figuring out what I can do better. From there I’ll watch film and take notes to determine what I need to do in the next race.  

What’s your favorite moment as a driver so far?
Probably my first ARCA racing series win because I had a year long drought. The second one was last year after I got really sick at Salem and then wrecked at Talladega and then came back the next series I won at Nashville.

What does it mean to you to have Safelite as a sponsor?
It means a lot to me to have such a huge brand supporting me and backing me. They are always so supportive and have a great fanbase.

What does your day to day look like?
It’s actually really boring. I wake up at 6 or 7AM everyday and go to the gym. I’ll run errands and go to the shop for awhile and then come home and play Xbox.

Any superstitions?
I used to. Then I realized it doesn’t help. So now I just go with the flow.

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