ThorSport Racing – 2018 Daytona International Speedway Recap

BEN RHODES PUSHES HARD AT RACE END WITH TEAMMATE TO FINISH STRONG FOURTH  
 
“The No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions Ford F-150 was not the best leading or having single-car speed today, but it was certainly a pusher. It definitely showed I could get a huge suck-up to somebody’s rear bumper in the draft. I could try and do something with it, but every time I’d pull out of line, it felt like a parachute was pulled. Despite that, e’re happy it’s in one piece and we’re going to go home and going to work on it – get this thing streamlined. I had a huge push from my awesome teammate, Grant Enfinger, and had the truck been a little more streamlined, I feel Grant and I could’ve finished 1-2 tonight. Unfortunate how it played out with the characteristics of this truck, but we now have a good baseline. We’re doing exactly what we need to do, which is finish races, finish in the top-five and take care of our trucks. That’s all you can ask for at Daytona.”
 
2018 Stats:
Starts: 1 
Laps Completed: 100 of 100 
Laps Led: 0 
Wins: 0
Top-five Finishes: 0 
Top-10 Finishes: 1
 

Daytona Race Information:
Started: 7th
Finished: 6th 
Laps: 100/100
Laps Led: 2
Status: Running 
Driver Points: 3rd 
Owner Points: 3rd 
 
GRANT ENFINGER POWERS THROUGH ADVERSITY TO SCORE A TRACK-BEST SIXTH-PLACE FINISH AT DAYTONA
 
“Overall a solid effort by everyone on this No. 98 Champion Power Equipment team. With the switch to Ford in the off-season, it was a team effort just to get to the race track this weekend. I’m proud of that, and proud of the effort this team put in tonight. Unfortunately, things just didn’t go the way we needed them to. Something went in the right rear there, when I spun out, and I got knocked in the right rear pretty hard, and the guys worked really hard to salvage what we had. After that it still had a little bit of speed. I could still push a little bit, it just didn’t have any handling after that. Overall, proud of the effort, and I feel like if we can maintain this all year, we’ll be the team to reckon with.”
 
2018 Stats:
Starts: 1 
Laps Completed: 100 of 100 
Laps Led: 0 
Wins: 0
Top-five Finishes: 0 
Top-10 Finishes: 1
 

Daytona Race Information:
Started: 6th
Finished: 19th
Laps: 97/100
Laps Led: 0
Status: Running
Driver Points: 12th
Owner Points: 13th
 
TOUGH NIGHT FOR MATT CRAFTON YIELDS A 19TH-PLACE FINISH IN SEASON- OPENER AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
 
Tonight just wasn’t our night. We had the pit road issue early, and then we had an issue with something under the hood – never could quite figure that out. Then, there at the end, we got turned and had to make multiple trips down pit road to repair the damage on the rear. Overall though, this Menards Ford F-150 was good. Even after the pit road penalty, I knew we could make our way back to the front whenever we wanted, we just had to play it smart. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get to make that move. We will regroup and head to Atlanta next week – hands down one of my favorite tracks.” 
 
2018 Stats:
Starts: 1 
Laps Completed: 97 of 100 
Laps Led: 0 
Wins: 0
Top-five Finishes: 0 
Top-10 Finishes: 0 

Daytona Race Information:
Started: 24th 
Finished: 24th
Laps: 73/100
Laps Led: 0 
Status: Crash
Driver Points: 23rd 
Owner Points: 25th 
 
CRASH DAMAGE ENDS SNIDER’S STRONG DAYTONA RUN EARLY 
 
“I almost got through the wreck, but John (Hunter Nemechek) ended up coming down the track and we made contact. Then, I was in the grass and dug the splitter in and tore the nose off. We had a really good truck – the guys at ThorSport brought me a really good Liberty Tax Ford F-150, and I’m really proud of the work they’ve all done, especially for how quick we had to get things turned around before the season started. It’s a great group of guys, I just hate that all of their hard work ended up getting torn up like that.”
 
2018 Stats:
Starts: 1
Laps Completed: 73 of 100 
Laps Led: 0 
Wins: 0 
Top-five Finishes: 0 
Top-10 Finishes: 0 
Thorsport PR