Ben Rhodes – 2017 Texas_1 Recap

Recap:

Ben Rhodes, driver of the No. 27 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, made his third career start at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) WinStarGamingOnline.com 400. Starting a track-best seventh, Rhodes was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 14, for a flat right rear tire, relegating the Safelite driver to a 19th-place finish in Stage 1, and an 11th-place finish in Stage 2. Restarting sixth for the final Stage, Rhodes was able to maintain a top-10 position through the final 81 laps to finish a track-best fifth, under caution, behind race winner, Christopher Bell.

The top-five result was Rhodes second consecutive top-five finish, and his third top-five in seven NCWTS starts this season.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Quote:

“We had a fast Toyota Tundra tonight, it’s just a shame we weren’t able to take it to victory lane. Unfortunately, we had a tire go down at the the beginning of the race, which put us all the way in the back to begin with. So, bad luck just plagued us from the very start. Again, the results didn’t show our performance. We had the best truck on the race track, hands down. We kept having to restart on the outside line, which didn’t have a groove, or if we could go on the outside line, the line in front of us would just check up, and we would be a sitting duck. It’s just a shame I couldn’t put this Safelite Tundra in victory lane for all these hard working ThorSport guys.”

Team Information:
Started: 7th
Finished: 5th
Laps: 167/167
Laps Led: 0
Status: Running
Driver Points: 5th
Owner Points: 6th

Notes:

• The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) had three practice sessions on Thursday in preparation for Friday night’s com 400. Ben Rhodes was third, 14th and third, respectively, in each session.
• Making his third start at TMS, Rhodes started a track-best seventh, ran as high as fourth and finished a track-best fifth in the 167-lap event. The top-five result was the Safelite AutoGlass drivers second consecutive top-five finish.
• In three starts at TMS, Rhodes has one top-five finish (2017).
• After seven starts in 2017, the ThorSport Racing driver has led 116 laps en route to three top-five, and four top-10 finishes.
• In 34 career starts, Rhodes has one pole (Martinsville-1, 2016), and has led 171 laps en route to six top-five, and 12 top-10 finishes.
• Rhodes’ ThorSport Racing teammates finished third (Enfinger), ninth (Crafton), and 18th (Coughlin).
• Up Next: The Drivin’ for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis at 8:30pm ET on Saturday, June 13.