The 2023 Fr8 208 was the 3rd stock car race of the

2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series The 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was the 29th season of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR in the United States. The season started with the NextEra Energy 250 on February 17 at Daytona ...

, and the 15th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, March 18, 2023, in

Hampton, Georgia Hampton is a city in southwestern Henry County, Georgia, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 8,368. It is a southeastern suburb in the Atlanta metropolitan area. History The city was once known as "Bear Creek" or "Bear Cre ...

, at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (currently known as EchoPark Speedway for sponsorship reasons, formerly known as the Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Hampton, Georg ...

, a permanent tri-oval shaped superspeedway. The race was increased from 135 laps to 137 laps, due to a NASCAR overtime finish. Christian Eckes, driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, would take the win after making a pass on Nick Sanchez for the lead on the final lap. This was Eckes' second career

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock car racing, s ...

win, and his first of the season. This was also the first win for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing in the truck series. To fill out the podium, Sanchez, driving for

Rev Racing Rev Racing, short for Revolution Racing, is an auto racing team competing at the regional level of NASCAR. Owned by former Dale Earnhardt, Inc. president Max Siegel, the team primarily fields participants in the Drive for Diversity, an initiat ...

, and

John Hunter Nemechek John Hunter Nemechek (born June 11, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 42 Toyota Camry (XV80), Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club. He is the son of NASCAR ...

, driving for Tricon Garage, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Background

is a 1.54-mile race track in

, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. It has annually hosted

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

stock car races since its inauguration in 1960. The venue was bought by

Speedway Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has its headquarters ...

in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of where before it was . The project made the track one of the fastest on the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

circuit. In July 2021

announced that the track would be reprofiled for the 2022 season to have 28 degrees of banking and would be narrowed from 55 to 40 feet which the track claims will turn racing at the track similar to restrictor plate superspeedways. Despite the reprofiling being criticized by drivers, construction began in August 2021 and wrapped up in December 2021. The track has

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 71,000 to 125,000 people depending on the tracks configuration.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver. * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Starting lineup

Qualifying was scheduled to be held on Friday, March 17, at 3:00 PM EST, but was cancelled due to constant rain showers. The starting lineup was determined by a performance-based metric system. As a result, Zane Smith, driving for

Front Row Motorsports Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team began running part-time in 2004 as Means-Jenkins Motorsports under a part ...

, earned the pole.

Race results

Stage 1 ''Laps: 45'' Stage 2 ''Laps: 45'' Stage 3 ''Laps: 47''

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References

{{2023 NASCAR Truck Series NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Fr8 208 Stock car racing events in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series have been held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, during numerous seasons and times of year since 2004. Current Race The Fr8 208 is a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race h ...