Recap:
Ben Rhodes, driver of the No. 27 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, made his second career start at Kentucky Speedway in Thursday night’s rain delayed NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Buckle Up In Your Truck 225. Starting fifth, when qualifying was cancelled due to weather, and the field was set based on the rule book – 2017 owner points – the Safelite driver looked strong in Stage 1, leading five laps, and ultimately earning his first stage win of the 2017 season. Unfortunately, following the restart for Stage 2, the Louisville, KY native was involved in a five-truck accident in Turn 3, ultimately ending his night early, and relegating the Safelite driver to a 27th-place finish in the 150-lap event.
Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Quote:
After leading Stage 1, walk us through what happened following the Stage 2 restart.
“I saw an opening on the bottom. This place is pretty much a superspeedway, at a mile-and-a-half. A lot of drafting, a lot of really hard, crazy racing, tonight. I saw them go four-wide in front of me and they were making it work at that time, and everybody else was doing the same thing on the restarts ahead, so I decided to go three-wide and side draft them down into the corner. We had good position on them, but I saw everybody start to come down on me, so I tried checking up as much as I could. We just ran out of room. Miscalculation on my part. I should’ve known that everybody was going to get together like that. Just unfortunate that it was us in that position. I’m sure other people would’ve done the same thing. Just needed to be more patient at the beginning of the race, and survive. That seems to be the story right now. It’s unfortunate because that was one of our better trucks that we’ve had good success with this year. I know how bad that can bite us for the rest of the season, so we’re going to have to reevaluate, fix my mistakes, and get us a faster truck built for the next races, to get us into the playoffs. I feel bad for all my ThorSport guys, all the guys back at the shop, Safelite, Alpha Energy Solutions, Toyota – thank you for all the hard work.”
Team Information:
Started: 5th
Finished: 27th
Laps: 41/150
Laps Led: 5
Status: Accident
Driver Points: 5th
Owner Points: 6th
Notes:
- The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) had two practice sessions on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for Thursday night’s Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway. Ben Rhodes was fifth, and 14th, respectively in each session.
- Qualifying for the 20th annual event was cancelled on Thursday evening due to weather. The 32-truck field was set based on the rule book – 2017 owner points – and Rhodes rolled off from the fifth position for the 150-lap event.
- Making his second start at Kentucky Speedway in the NCWTS, Rhodes started fifth, led the field once for five laps, and finished 27th, due to an early accident on lap 41 of 150.
- The Safelite AutoGlass driver earned his first Stage win of 2017, winning Stage 1.
- In two starts at the 1.5-mile track, Rhodes has one top-15 finish.
- After 10 starts in 2017, the ThorSport Racing driver has led 121 laps en route to three top-five, and five top-10 finishes.
- In 37 career starts, Rhodes has one pole (Martinsville-1, 2016), and has led 176 laps en route to six top-five, and 13 top-10 finishes.
- Rhodes’ ThorSport Racing teammates finished eighth (Crafton), 15th (Coughlin), and 28th (Enfinger).
- Up Next: The Aspen Dental 150 at Eldora Speedway on Wednesday, July 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
