Ben Rhodes earns first NASCAR Truck Series win of season at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Ben Rhodes might just have another championship run in him.

The driver of the 99 truck, who won the 2021 Truck Series championship and was a few laps away from the 2022 championship in November, notched his first win of the 2023 season on Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

That makes him the ninth different winner in 11 races in the series this season. It also makes him the first driver of a Ford truck to steer his way to Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

But does it set the table for another title run?

Rhodes certainly hopes so.

“I really do feel like our stats for the season do not reflect the level of competitiveness that we’ve had with the DNFs and stuff that has shown up,” Rhodes told reporters post-race in the Charlotte Motor Speedway media center, a straw hat-of-a-trophy on his head. (The driver came into Friday’s race sixth in the Truck Series points standings.) “I analyze those races and say, ‘Well, what could I have done differently? We could’ve done this on this restart. This and this-this-this.’ And you Monday morning quarterback it. But in reality, you don’t know what’s going to happen, right? It’s like trying to look into a crystal ball and predict the future.”

He added: “Right now I feel like we’re putting a stop to the bleeding that had occurred for the previous 10 races or whatever, and I hope we’re starting an upper trajectory now.”

Rhodes prevailed in an uncharacteristically clean race at the racetrack in Concord. There were no cautions-for-cause in the first two stages Friday, and there were only three in Stage 3, despite almost every restart going three-wide without fail or hesitation.

The most consequential caution came thanks to a wreck on Lap 91 of 134 — when Zane Smith got loose on a turn during a restart before knocking into Hailie Deegan despite a valiant attempt to steer clear of his car.

None of that carnage came close to impacting Rhodes, though — literally or figuratively. Instead what ultimately defined Rhodes’ race was a pesky battle with Carson Hocevar, who led 43 laps but could only salvage a fourth-place finish.

The key? Rhodes’ long-run speed. Hocevar passed the 99 on the final restart of the day with about 25 laps to go, but a long-enough green run eventually enabled Rhodes to pass him later on and then subsequently speed away from the field.

”First off, when you start leading that many laps until the end, you start getting a little nervous that the caution flag is going to come out, and every single doubt goes through your head that says something is going to happen,” Rhodes said. “I just knew that if a caution came out that we’d be in trouble, just because the Truck Series is just about savage restarts, everybody just goes so crazy. They don’t care about finishing the race; they only care about winning the race. So I was really worried about the restart. But thankfully for us, we had really good long-run speed built into the truck with the last pit stop.”

He added: “We were hoping for a really long green-flag run, and luckily we got that, the truck came to us, and we were able to pull away.”

Corey Heim, Friday’s pole-sitter, finished second and led a race-best 49 laps. Dean Thompson finished third.

Friday also saw the ARCA race earlier in the evening. That run was won by Jesse Love.

NASCAR Truck Series results from Charlotte

This story was originally published May 26, 2023 at 11:00 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription