Ben Rhodes Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Moments after taking the white flag in Saturday’s FR8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Corey Heim powered to the inside of Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith, got a push from teammate John Hunter Nemechek and held on to win his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Heim’s No. 51 Toyota crossed the finish line .173 seconds ahead of the Toyota of Ben Rhodes, as Ty Majeski came home third and Smith slipped to fourth. Daytona winner Zane Smith completedRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A 19-car incident as the field approached the white flag signaling one lap to go instead sent Friday night’s NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season-opener into overtime where 22-year old Californian Zane Smith won under caution over defending series champion Ben Rhodes. A nearly 16-minute red flag was needed to clean up all the debris from the frontstretch melee, which happened only a few feet before the start/finish line and littered much of the track’s tri-oval. HadRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It was quadruple championship weekend at Phoenix Raceway where the three NASCAR national touring divisions and ARCA West crowned its season champion. Needless to say, all four title-deciding races ended up being unforgettable. Here’s my latest “Race in Pictures” gallery featuring all four races as Kyle Larson (Cup), Daniel Hemric (Xfinity), Ben Rhodes (Trucks) and Jesse Love (ARCA West) left Arizona as champions.Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the laps were winding down in Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Ben Rhodes could see the championship slipping away and he wasn’t going to settle for second place. Setting his sights on championship rival Zane Smith, Rhodes was a man on a mission, chewing up the ground between himself and Smith to catch up to the rear bumper of Smith’s No. 21 Chevrolet. After a bump in Turn 3 with nine laps to go, Rhodes sent Smith up theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be the first title fight of the weekend to be settled, as the four remaining drivers in the Playoffs will duke it out Friday night at Phoenix Raceway for the right to hoist the championship trophy when the checkered flag falls. Eight drivers started the Playoffs with a berth in the championship race in mind, but half of them fell by the wayside, leaving Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith as theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – On a track strewn with spinning trucks and broken hearts, Zane Smith catapulted into the Championship 4 with a thrilling overtime victory in Saturday’s United Rentals 200 at Martinsville Speedway. In a no-holds-barred race that featured 14 cautions for 89 laps, Smith won under yellow after he, Stewart Friesen and Todd Gilliland raced three-wide—yes, three-wide at Martinsville—off Turn 4 on the first lap of overtime. Contact from Friesen’s Toyota sent Gilliland’s Ford spinning across the start/finish line to start the finalRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service For the second consecutive week the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crowned a first-time winner. Christian Eckes, a 20-year old New York native, took the lead on a final restart with four laps remaining to claim his first trophy and lead a historic 1-2-3-4 finish for the ThorSport Racing team. Eckes teammate Ben Rhodes finished .272-seconds back, followed by Playoff driver Matt Crafton and veteran Johnny Sauter who completed the ThorSport four-of-a-kind at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Todd Gilliland finished fifth after leading aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a stunning upset on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, rookie Chandler Smith stole a victory from reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed, clinched a spot in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs and eliminated Todd Gilliland from the postseason. The entire tenor of the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics changed in the final five laps. On a restart on Lap 196 of 200, Smith powered his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the inside of Creed’sRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Sheldon Creed dominated the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoff opener, the Toyota 200 presented by CK Power at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, sweeping both stages and leading 142 of 163 laps to take the victory Friday night in overtime. And while the evening went relatively straight-forward for the defending series champion Creed in his winning-performance, the race was full of storylines elsewhere from a nearly one-hour red flag delay when the track lost power to a multi-truck accident shortly after thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KNOXVILLE, Iowa—At the end of a remarkable race on an equally remarkable race track, Austin Hill took home the trophy in Friday night’s Corn Belt 150 at Knoxville Raceway. After a fourth attempt at overtime in the inaugural NASCAR Truck Series event at the iconic .5-mile dirt track, Hill scored his first victory of the season in a race that featured 14 cautions and a 17-car pileup in Turn 1 that could rival the biggest “Big One” at Talladega. Moments after Hill took theRead More