Kaz Grala, Justin Haley cars fail NASCAR inspection twice, lose crew member and pit stall selection for Martinsville

Two cars have failed the pre-race NASCAR inspection at Martinsville prior to the CookOut 400, leading to penalties for the crews of the No. 15 Kaz Grala and the No. 51 Justin Haley.

According to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, only the Grala and Haley cars failed inspection twice.

Both have lost pit stall selection for Martinsville, while a crew member was ejected from each team as a result of the failed inspection.

Haley and Grala have both gotten off to a slow start to the Cup season, with neither posting a Top 10 finish. The two are actually currently sitting back-to-back in the overall standings, with Haley at No. 32 with 78 points and Grala at No. 33 with 71 points.

Neither has led a lap this season on the circuit, nor has either claimed a stage victory.

The two also finished back-to-back in their NASCAR latest race, last weekend at the Toyota Owners 400 in Richmond. Grala finished in 31st place, while Haley finished 32nd.

Christian Eckes wins Long John Silver’s 200

In one of the first events at Martinsville this weekend, Christian Eckes took the win in the Long John Silver’s 200 in the NASCAR Truck Series on Friday night.

Eckes was dominant from start to finish.

Outside of a P32 DNF finish at Atlanta, Eckes has finished every race inside of the top-10 this season. He has the win at Bristol and now the win at Martinsville. He was P10 at Daytona, P6 at Las Vegas, and P8 at COTA. So far, his consistency has been much better.

Ty Majeski, who finished in second, drives the 98 truck, the truck Eckes drove when he was at ThorSport from 2021-2022. Last season, Eckes had trouble finishing races. He also had issues with speed at times. Right now he looks like the veteran that he is.

At 23 years old on the NASCAR circuit, Eckes is still developing. However, it feels like this might be his breakout season. Two wins at this point and he shows no sign of letting up going into Texas. There is a real chance we could see Eckes win next week or at Kansas after that, a track he has race very well at in the past.

Eckes was really solid on Friday night and he came away with a win. Chase Purdy finished P3, Nick Sanchez, Tyler Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Sammy Smith, Kaden Honeycutt, and Corey Heim were the rest of the top-10.

On3’s Jonathan Howard also contributed to this report.