SPARTA, Ky. — Coming to Kentucky Speedway is a homecoming of sorts for Louisville, Kentucky native Ben Rhodes. It’s so much of one that there will be a big contingent of supporters — the size of say, one’s high school — for the young driver in the stands.
“I know we will have a lot of people in the stands coming out,” Rhodes said during a media availability ahead of Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I actually have my old high school coming, friends, family.”
In total, Rhodes estimated he will have roughly a 6,000-fan strong support section.
Rhodes graduated from Holy Cross High School in May, although he missed that ceremony to make his XFINITY Series debut at Iowa Speedway. That finish, a seventh-place result, is his best this season.
And while he hasn’t yet run a NASCAR event at Kentucky, he did race in the ARCA Racing Series event last year and he hopes to pull from that previous experience at the 1.5-mile oval.
The year as a whole has been quite the learning experience for Rhodes, who is piloting the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet this weekend. The 18-year-old has been soaking up information like a sponge from everyone around him. He has spent time on spotters’ stands watching races and also picked the brain of JRM co-owner and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Rhodes described meeting Dale Jr. as “very surreal at first because I’ve watched this guy on TV. I think everybody has if you are a fan of racing.
“When I got to first meet him, it was overwhelming, but then I got to sit down and talk to him. I remember the first race I was at with Dale. We were just talking and we had about an hour talk, just kind of welcoming me into the family, the team. That was really cool for me because I have never associated or been around anyone in the Sprint Cup ranks before. So that was really neat. He has been very open with his knowledge, sharing everything and making sure I am picking everything up correctly.”
And driving the JRM No. 88 “All-Star” car as Earnhardt has described it in the past, can be a daunting task when the drivers include NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne.
“I feel the pressure when I am in it because of the other performances they’ve had,” Rhodes said.
The Kentucky race will mark his eighth start of the 2015 XFINITY Series season. Rhodes is also slated to be in the field next weekend at Dover International Speedway and in the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. With each time out, Rhodes is looking to make strides.
“The goal for the whole season has just been consistent top 10 finishes. We haven’t got those consistently. We have some top-10 finishes, but not consistent. A top-10 finish would be great, but man, I’d love to get a win for the hometown crowd. That’d be great. I told Mr. Mark Simendinger (Kentucky Speedway‘s general manager) we might want to get the fire extinguishers ready. The crowd might go crazy.”
Competing in a NASCAR event here is a dream come true for Rhodes and a victory would potentially render the driver speechless.
“I rode past this place when I was seven, eight years old going to go-kart races and didn’t quite understand what it was about at the time but I dreamed about racing here. I did it last year in the ARCA race, but to do it in NASCAR, with a huge crowd, would be awesome. I don’t know if there’s words to describe it.”