Ben Rhodes scrapes into Truck Series Championship 4 ahead of Nick Sanchez

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- It took a mighty gamble from crew chief Rich Lushes, but Ben Rhodes is back in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4. A gutsy call to pit with 53 laps to go left Rhodes on worn tires, and the 2021 series champion did enough to finish second after a Zane Smith disqualification and advance past the Round of 8 finale via tiebreaker in Saturday afternoon's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. On the other side of the elimination line was Nick Sanchez, ousted after finishing 17th on a day he started from the pole position. Rhodes earns the nod on the tiebreaker with the better finish in the Round of 8, nabbing second-place results at both Homestead and Talladega Superspeedway. Sanchez's best run in the stanza was seventh at Talladega. RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead Lushes is Rhodes' third crew chief of the 2023 campaign but helped guide Rhodes to the championship two years ago. The No. 99 ThorSport Ford struggled Saturday around the 1.5-mile oval, but one risk has the program back in the title hunt with only the finale remaining. "Our truck was so bad all day long, we had nothing else to do," Lushes told NASCAR.com. "Like we had to do something different from everybody else so it was the only call I really had. It worked." Rhodes trusts Lushes' gut, but the poor handle of the truck left him doubtful heading into the final run. "I was so terrible the whole race, I didn't think it was going to work out," Rhodes said. "So I mean, that's just plain and honest. Right? I'm never gonna hide that. But I had faith in the call. Every time we're down, Rich does a really good job of making some call off-strategy nobody else is doing. And he pulls it out and we end up winning something. Right now, it's advancing. I'm just proud of him for the call, you know? But yeah, at the time, I was just shaking my head and I said, 'Yes, I'll give it a try. Here we go again.' "I mean, we almost won the championship last year on a call like this. So, you know, this is a big deal. That leadership is important -- the ability to make calls like that and have the confidence to let yourself be thrown to the wind if that's what happens. He does that. He doesn't care what happens. He just wants to win. Ballsy move, for sure. I'm all for it. He's got faith in me to back it up. But sometimes I say, 'Man, that's a little too ballsy for me.' " Sanchez's day went south after the green flag, with the Rev Racing rookie unable to find the feel necessary to compete for the victory at his home track Saturday afternoon. His day soured further heading to pit road with 35 laps to go. Sanchez was following Tanner Gray to pit road under green-flag conditions but Gray checked up sooner than Sanchez anticipated. Sanchez rear-ended Gray, creating significant damage to the left-front nose of Sanchez's No. 2 Chevrolet and ultimately preventing him from making the passes necessary to advance. [caption id="attachment_410962" align="aligncenter" width="640"]Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios[/caption] "I wasn't really good all day," Sanchez said. "I was kind of confused on the balance a little bit. Obviously, the 19 (Christian Eckes) didn't really have a lot of good luck so I feel like I was in that position to make it because he kind of got screwed on a couple of things. But I need to do a better job of noticing the balance of the truck and where it was going and fixing that. "And yeah, me hitting the 15 (Gray) obviously took me out of it at the end. I was racing him and he got in front of me. And I've had my marks to go pit road, and here, especially as the pace falls off, you don't know if they're running the bottom or they're going to pit lane. And it's not an excuse because I hit him. It's my fault but just gotta learn from it. The second time I've done it this year. Did it in Vegas. You can't make those mistakes and expect to make the championship race and that's on me." Joining Rhodes in the Championship 4 are Corey Heim, Homestead winner Carson Hocevar and Grant Enfinger. Also eliminated from the playoffs after the Round of 8 were Eckes, Ty Majeski and defending series champion Zane Smith.