JOLIET, Ill. — In the waning laps of Friday’s Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, runner-up Ben Rhodes thought about the 2017 Las Vegas race, when he took the lead on the final restart for the win.
“I was thinking about trying to pull down and make a pass and take it three-wide and take the lead,” Rhodes said. “But it was a little risky — I didn’t quite get the restart that I wanted and that was due in part because of the restart zone. John Hunter (Nemechek) didn’t get going as fast. And I couldn’t pull out until the start-finish line, so I didn’t time it quite correct, so I had to end up just pushing him and we ended up pushing him all the way to the lead by Turn 1. Kind of unfortunate for me because I was trying to use that momentum to my advantage and take the lead like Vegas that worked out so well for us. … It was an interesting race.
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“Very tempting — I thought about making it really interesting, but I thought better of it. We just needed a good finish tonight.”
As leader John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 8 truck ran out of gas on the white-flag lap and Brett Moffitt scooted to the win, Rhodes held on for the runner-up finish. It marked the best result for his No. 41 ThorSport Racing Ford all year and his first top 10 since Charlotte in May.
“It’s just good to finally have a good finish because we’ve been having probably the world’s worst luck here lately. I thought I was going to get struck by lightning when thunder storms started rolling through Louisville, Kentucky,” he said with a smile. “… But now it just seems that things are finally starting to go our way a little bit and it’s very rewarding because our guys have been working so hard at ThorSport Racing. Seventy, 80 hours a week — 7 in the morning to 8/9 at night at times. I know it’s rewarding for them.”
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While he says he’s disappointed he didn’t nab the win, the runner-up finish is encouraging for both Rhodes and his team — especially with the playoffs drawing closer every race. Rhodes sat on the bubble (on the “in” side) heading into Friday’s race. This finish gives them a boost of momentum heading into the next race at Kentucky Speedway — especially considering Kentucky is Rhodes’ home track.
“It’s just so good for morale,” he said. “You’ve got to think bigger than just yourself — you’ve got to think about your team. And seeing the smiles on their faces when I got out of the truck and seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing them talk about it. That was rewarding for me — it felt like a win to see the smiles on their faces. Thinking about the big picture, the amount of hours they’re putting in, thinking about ThorSport and (team owners) Duke Thorson and Rhonda Thorson and the opportunity we have here. Everybody coming together from Ford. It helps everybody out, just boosts the morale so much.
“And I’ve my home track coming up; so, this is awesome momentum. It’s a huge story line for me going into my home track, just being able to say ‘hey, we got second place.’ “