Christian Eckes hopes to break through with a win during NASCAR Weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. (Courtesy photo)

LOUDON — Christian Eckes is ready to go on a run as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series (NCTS) closes the regular season on Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS).

The driver of the No. 91 CRC Brakleen Chevrolet has done everything this season except drive into victory lane, a story that could reverse course this weekend in the Granite State. Eckes, a northeast native, was in contention for victory last Saturday at Richmond Raceway and is hoping the end of the regular season is the beginning of a hot streak for the No. 91 team. He has historically excelled on flat and short tracks on the schedule and looks to add a New England lobster to his trophy case this weekend.

“We have a great opportunity this weekend,” Eckes said. “Our No. 91 team did a great job last week at Richmond and everyone is hungry to get our CRC Brakleen, NAPA Chevy up front. We’re close to getting back where we need to be, but we need to execute and keep improving on the other areas too.”

Only the “Magic Mile” stands ahead of the seven-race Chase for the NCTS championship, and Eckes is heating up at the right time. His third podium finish of the year underscored the CRC Brakleen team’s capability and consistency to be a threat on a weekly basis. The New York native has returned to his expected form with three top-five finishes over the last four races.

Dating back to Dover Motor Speedway in May, Eckes has notched seven top-10 results over the last nine NCTS events. Following the regular season finale at NHMS on Saturday, three of the first four tracks on the Chase slate are venues where Eckes has previously won. He and crew chief Dave Elenz hope the trip to victory lane doesn’t wait until the Chase and look to conquer NHMS to get an early jump on the title fight.

Eckes enters the regular season finale fourth in the NCTS standings with six top-five’s and 11 top-10 finishes in 17 races. He has tallied three stage victories, led 173 laps and has a pass different of +279, by far the most in the series.

“Our pit crew did a great job last week,” he said.”We went forward all day, but we need to qualify better this weekend. New Hampshire has always been a tough place to pass. It takes a lot of time to complete passes and qualifying in the top two or three rows is really critical.

“I think we’ve done a good job at improving our balance and speed from qualifying to the race and we’ll put ourselves in a good position if we can continue doing that this weekend.”