LOUISVILLE, KY :: The Friday and Saturday, March 22nd and 23rd, weekend of racing action for Louisville, Kentucky native Ben Rhodes in the Carolinas was one of success and heartbreak. On Friday, the 16-year-old racer enacted veteran race strategy to put him in contention to win in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “Myrtle Beach 400” Late Model Stock event at Myrtle Beach Speedway (SC), and did the same thing on Saturday in the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock 150-lap race at Hickory Motor Speedway (NC). It was a mixed end result though for the No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions / Hawk-McCall Motorsports team as a controversial official’s call striped the victory away from him Friday while he rebounded Saturday to finish third.
Starting eighth of 31 cars Friday night in the 250-lap make-up event from November, 2012, at Myrtle Beach Speedway, Rhodes dropped back through the field to around 16th midway through the first half of the race by design, saving his tires until about 40 laps to go to the halfway break. He was able to race his way back to fourth before a caution flag flew, shortly before the lap 125 mark. After his crew bolted on four new tires at the halfway break, Rhodes deployed the same race strategy, allowing the rest of the competition to battle ahead of him two and three wide.
Surviving a brush with the wall trying to avoid a multi-car incident, Rhodes was 15th with 50 laps to go when his crew chief Lee McCall made the call that it was “go time” for the No. 41 ride. Rhodes worked his way around traffic to third when a late caution flag set up a restart with under 10 laps to go. He worked his way to second with two laps to go, and coming off turn four to get the white flag, the leader slipped, allowing Rhodes to make his move.
“We came off turn four and the leader looked like he spun his tires,” said Rhodes. “He got sideways and went up the track, so I turned my car low and held the low line down the front stretch and into turn one. I had the line and he I guess decided he was going to block me. He chopped across the nose of my car and spun out.”
Rhodes came around to take the caution flag as the leader, but a lap later under yellow, the flagman gave the checkered flag to the driver behind him.
“I do not understand that call,” said a confused Rhodes after the race. “If I went in there and ran over the leader I could understand it, but that isn’t what happened. He lost control of his car coming off turn four and gave up the inside line. I had the inside line and angle down the whole front stretch and going into the corner, and I didn’t change my line going in. I stayed low and he cut down from the upper groove to the lower without being clear. I had no time to check up and I am not sure exactly what I did wrong there. If I had time to react maybe I could have just backed out and let him win the race, but why would anyone do that? I don’t know any racers that would just move over and say “here you go, have my line and the victory” on the last lap. That doesn’t make sense.”
Rhodes was penalized to the tail end of the lead lap cars, finishing 16th.
“That was very disappointing, but they (the officials) made their call and I have to live with it. I would have rather raced hard side by side for the win. If I was him I would have crowded down a bit in turn one or set up a cross-over move, but not just turn hard left and cause a wreck. We both should have been first and second and we ended up 16th and 17th. Neither one of our teams deserved that for all their hard work to get us in the position to win.”
Shaking off the events of Friday night, Rhodes traveled overnight to Hickory, North Carolina, to race in the UARA-STARS 150-lap race Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway. Missing the all-day practice session Friday to race in South Carolina, Rhodes and the Hawk-McCall Motorsports team had to dial the car in quickly over the two practice sessions.
Rhodes qualified seventh, and when the green flag dropped, the same strategy to save tires he used at Myrtle Beach Speedway was used at Hickory Motor Speedway. With less than 50 laps to go, he worked he worked his way from 10th to fourth, and after a restart with just two laps to go, Rhodes was able to battle hard on the outside line to squeeze out a third-place finish.
“We had a great car right off the hauler, and that showed with our practice times on old tires and our mock qualifying run,” explained Rhodes. “We missed it a little in qualifying but we knew our car was good for the race.
“It was a bit harder to save tires in this race because we were around a lot of two-wide racing. I didn’t want to drop back to far and at the same time I didn’t want to get run over trying to save my stuff. We made the charge once again at the end of the race but my car got pretty tight. The good thing is it felt better on the high side so I was able to get that third-place position at the line up there. Lee told me right after the race he knows what he is going to do to fix that tightness for our next race there so I am looking forward to coming back and going for the win.”
Despite the up and down weekend, Rhodes was able to smile Saturday night, reflecting on the entire weekend.
“I really wanted to get the victory Friday for my team and my sponsors, but there will be other races. Saturday was a great moral rebound for everyone and in UARA that gives me two third-place finishes in the first two races this year. I am very fortunate to drive for two great teams (Hawk-McCall Motorsports and Turner Scott Motorsports) this year, and I could not be more excited about our whole season in the No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions car.”
The No. 41 machine is also sponsored by Alliance Comfort Systems, Kentucky National Guard, Refrigerant Rescue, and Park Community Federal Credit Union.
Next up for Rhodes is the third stop on the UARA-STARS tour at Rockingham Speedway (NC) on Saturday, April 13th, the same weekend the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will make their first stop at “The Rock.”
For more information on Ben Rhodes, including media availability, contact Jason “Stix” Buckley of STIX FX Entertainment at (704) 519-5528 or [email protected], and make sure to keep up to date on his racing career at www.benrhodesinc.com, like him on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/benrhodesinc, and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/benrhodesinc.
