SPARTA, Ky.— For Ben Rhodes, his “Old Kentucky Home” at Kentucky Speedway was not what he had hoped for.
Rhodes started the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 in the fourth position after qualifying was rained out. Rhodes was able to run in the front for all of stage 2. After leaders made pit stops during the caution period for a spin by Matt Mills, Rhodes cycled to the race lead.
Rhodes was able to hold off chariest from behind to score his first stage victory of the season. During the first stage break, Rhodes hit pit road for four tires and fuel. Rhodes started the second stage in the 13th position.
Shortly after the second stage began, Rhodes was involved in an accident involving Grant Enfinger, Matt Crafton, Christopher Bell, and TJ Bell.
Rhodes explained what caused the accident:
“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, said the Kentucky native. “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.
With the playoffs quickly approaching, Rhodes and his ThorSport Racing team will reevaluate.
“It’s unfortunate cause 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,” Rhodes stated.
Rhodes will be assessed with a 27th position. Rhodes was accredited for leading five laps. After the race, Rhodes sits fifth in the points just 134 points back from leader, Johnny Sauter.
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