Had the opening race of the 2024 NASCAR Truck Series not ended in the chaos that ensued, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing might have taken the victory at the Daytona International Speedway. Christian Eckes and Tyler Ankrum found themselves near the front of the pack on a lot of occasions, especially the latter. But perhaps part-time racer Jack Wood had the best chance of winning the event, as he was in third place when the last-lap crash ensued and ruined his evening.

Going into the second race of the season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, there will be a lot of confidence among the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing ranks. All 3 of their drivers ran well at Daytona, and they all have a good record in the Peach State. So maybe this is the race where things go their way and one of them punches an early ticket into the playoffs.

Tyler Ankrum and Jack Wood are aiming for redemption after missing the Daytona win

Jack Wood, who is driving the #91 truck for the team on a part-time basis, will be running the second of his 14 planned starts at Atlanta, and he will be going into the race feeling pretty good. His run at Daytona this past week was fantastic last year, he achieved a commendable P10 finish at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He has been pretty consistent on the track, as he came home in the 2022 season with a P13 finish.

“I’m really excited for Atlanta this weekend. We proved to ourselves at Daytona that we can run up front and draft our way up there to be in contention, so I’m really optimistic about our Klotz, Cometic Chevrolet. I think we worked well with our teammates last week and we’ll need to do that again to manage the race and get ourselves in a position towards the end to have a chance at it. It’d be great to put MHR in victory lane back-to-back at Atlanta, so that’s what we’re going to try to do,” he said as per a McAnally-Hilgemann Racing media release.

As far as Tyler Ankrum is concerned, he just needs to do what he has been doing on superspeedways for a while now. The driver of the #18 truck is currently the points leader in the Truck Series, and he will be looking to defend his position on the table. Ankrum has been impressive at superspeedways for a while now, and it was evident in his Daytona performance. The 22-year-old has a 1.5-mile track win under his belt, and his best finish in the Peach State was P11 in 2022.

“I know it’s hard to defend a points lead in the series. The NCTS is full of unknowns and every week has it’s own challenges. Being the leader makes you have a target on your back, and it only makes me work harder to be able to keep that lead. I feel confident in my No. 18 LiUNA Chevrolet and feel that we can be a real contender throughout the season. I hope we can finish the weekend even stronger and keep this lead going,” he said ahead of the race.

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While both of the aforementioned drivers have good reason to be considered contenders for the race wins on Friday, most of the focus will be on Christian Eckes, who has one of the best records of anyone in the competition at Atlanta.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing star is all set to defend his Atlanta crown

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In the last 3 times, he has run at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the driver of the #19 truck has finished in the top 3 twice. He finished P3 in 2020, and last year, the 23-year-old drove a fantastic race to hand McAnally-Hilgemann Racing their first win in the Truck Series. Out of the team’s 3 drivers, he has the best record, and he will be looking to defend his crown at the historic drafting track.

“We’d love to repeat what we did last year at Atlanta. That was a special day for me, MHR as a whole, and everyone at NAPA too with it being their home track. We got through Daytona with some good points, but we want to have a much cleaner day this week. Our whole NAPA Auto Care team has been putting in so much effort and we’ve had strong trucks at all these drafting races, so I’m looking forward to this weekend.”

“It’s similar to Daytona and Talladega in the fact that you have to make the right decisions and get help at the right time, but there’s certainly less real estate to work with. It’ll be a challenge on Saturday, but our entire group is looking forward to it, so hopefully we can put NAPA back in victory lane again in their backyard,” the 23-year-old explained.

One can only hope that the second Truck Series race of the season does not end like the first. It would be incredible for the team to have either one of their drivers take the checkered flag and really lay down a marker for things to come in the rest of the 2024 season. Who do you think will finish the highest of the 3? Let us know your thoughts.

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