Eckert Wins in His First TNR Start of 2023

The TNR Grand National Series sponsored by Schue Lawn Service returned from its off week for the I Wanna Go Fast 150 at Dover sponsored by Fatal Concepts. The race presented close battles throughout the race a very exciting blend of tire strategies that led to an exciting race to the finish line. In the end, Johnny Eckert won the race in his first start of the 2023 season.

The race began with a wreck in the restart zone that saw one of the favorites Jason Gracias retire without completing a lap. After that a green-flag run ensued all the way to the stage break. Tom Bourne, the pole sitter, ran bumper to bumper with Eckert through most all of the first stage. Bourne seemed to have a slight edge early on and was able to stay in front of the 90 car to win the stage. After the race was restarted, Bourne and Eckert raced had side by side and contact was made that led to Bourne's number 16 car scraping the wall out of turn two. Though the damage didn't appear significant at first, Bourne had an extended pitstop and was unable to recover finishing 15th.

Once getting to the race lead, Eckert showed lights out pace, quickly driving away from the rest of his competition to a comfortable race lead. The race was not smooth sailing for the number 90 car from this point, however. Following a single car incident with Robert Tripp spinning out of turn four, there would be two different tire strategies with some cars pitting and others, like Eckert staying out. It appeared that Mike Tellier might pick up his third win of the season from staying out, but with just a handful of laps remaining Tellier had to come down the pit lane. This turned the race lead over to Philip Scott, but with two laps to go Eckert worked his way around the 99 car to bring home the win.

Philip Scott pulled out a second place finish off the strategy and Jake Bustos finished in third also on the contrarion tire strategy. The race also featured a strong run from DJ Weeks, teammate of Eckert and Bustos, placing in the top five in his first TNR start of the season. The next stop for the TNR Grand National Series sponsored by Schue Lawn Service is the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This historic and unique road course will be the only time these TNR drivers will turn right and left all season. You can expect to see some road course ringers and other drivers with fast cars duking it out the front for the win. The TNR Grand National Series sponsored by Schue Lawn Service is sponsored by Schue Lawn is live on WRN every Monday night at 8:05 PM (EST).