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Rhodes began his career in 2004 when he was seven years old, starting in Kart racing, winning several champion titles before moving to Bandoleros in 2008, and Legends cars in 2010, then moving up to late model stock cars beginning in 2011. After earning a several wins, in 2012 he signed with then-Sprint Cup Series driver Marcos Ambrose to begin racing Late Model cars in the UARA-STARS Series under the Marcos Ambrose Motorsports banner. After the 2012 season, Rhodes signed a deal with Turner Scott Motorsports to begin racing part-time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2013. Rhodes scored five top five finishes in seven starts. In June of that year, Rhodes was named to the NASCAR Next roster, composed of up-and-coming drivers expected to become the next group of stars in NASCAR competition. Rhodes would move full-time in the K&N East Series for 2014. In mid-March 2014, it

was announced Rhodes would make his Camping World Truck Series debut at Martinsville in the Kroger 250 for TSM, and drive in three additional Truck series races that season. He posted three Top 10 results. In December 2014, it was announced that Rhodes would move up to NASCAR's second-tier national series the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports for 10 races in the 2015 season. Rhodes found tougher sledding in the Xfinity series as he was only able to finish in the Top 10 on two occasions. On December 15, 2015, Rhodes joined ThorSport Racing to run full-time in the Truck Series in 2016, driving the #41 Toyota Tundra. Rhodes missed the inaugural truck series Chase and finished 14th in series points. Rhodes returned to ThorSport Racing for 2017, and came close to claiming his first win at Kansas. He pushed Kyle Busch late in the race;

but with ten laps to go his motor belched a plume of smoke and he was done for the night. In September, Rhodes held of Christopher Bell to claim his first Truck series win in the Las Vegas 350. 2018 saw Rhodes still with the ThorSport team; and it also saw him claim another win. This time at Kentucky Speedway. He would end up eighth in the season long points. Rhodes was back with ThorSport Racing in 2019 wheeling the #99 truck. A crash at Daytona got the season off on the wrong foot; but top 10 finishes in six of the next seven races was promising. He even had a second place finishes at Martinsville, Kansas and Iowa with the first ten races of the season. If he could have turned any of those second place finishes into wins; it

would have automatically locked him into the 2019 Chase. Rhodes had won at Kentucky in 2018; but a repeat win in 2019 with ThorSport was not to be, however, as the lapped truck of Brennan Poole made contact with Rhodes in the late stages of the race, causing tire problems and relegating Rhodes to a 19th-place finish. Rhodes, irate with Poole after the race, twice tried to physically confront Poole before being pulled away. Rhodes later said he was mad at Poole because he believed the lapped truck cost him a shot at a win and a birth in the NASCAR playoffs. Two weeks later at the dirt track of Eldora Speedway, Tyler Dippel forced Rhodes into the wall in the late stages of the race, again knocking Rhodes from a top ten finish. Rhodes did end up eventually missing the Chase and ended up with a ninth place finish in the 2019 points. Rhodes

remained with ThorSports Racing in 2020, and he ran competitive; but his aggressive style left him with several drivers upset with him. He posted good finishes and ran in the lead pack most races. He won the race at Darlington and locked himself into the Chase. In the Chase he was eliminated after the third round and finished seventh in the season points. He had nine Top 5 and 14 Top 10 finishes in 23 races. He was back with Thorsports Racing in 2021. Rhodes got his season off to a great start. First, he won the season opening race at Daytona; then followed that up a week later with another win on the Daytona Road Course. Through the first ten races he only

had one finish outside the Top 10. That came at Darlington when he finished 16th a lap down. It was the only lap he lacked running 100% of the laps the whole season. He had several second place finishes; but couldn’t manage to find victory lane again this season. He advanced through the various rounds of the Chase to make it to the final race for the Championship. Sheldon Creed, Chandler Smith, and Stewart Friesen were the class of the field all night; but it didn’t matter because none of them were eligible to win the Championship. Smith won the race, with Friesen second; but Rhodes came home third and claimed the Truck series Championship. His first career Cup start would come in 2021 as he drove the Spire

Motorsports Chevy at Sonoma to a lead lap finish. Rhodes kicked off the season with a second at Daytona; suffered a crash the next week at Fontana; but then ripped of four straight top five finishes; with a win coming at Bristol on the dirt. After that the team fell into a lull as Rhodes finished most races between 8th and 18th. He started the play-offs with a second place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park and advanced to the round of eight. In that round, he finished well; including a second place finish at Talladega. In the Championship he was no match for Zane Smith. Smith had finished second the previous two seasons in the Championship, but this time managed to lead 77 laps on his way to the Championship. Rhodes finished second in the race and in the championship. He was back behind the wheel of the #99 truck again in 2023. Rhodes had a good season even though he was only able to pull off one win. In the season opening race at Daytona he would finish

eleventh. He had top five finishes the next two events before a pair of tenth place runs. All his runs were inside the top 20 until the Xfinity series visited North Wilkesboro where he crashed and finished 33rd. But he rebounded and grabbed the win the next week at Charlotte. His team provided him a good truck and he ran well the next four events and placed inside the top ten in all of them. He made the Chase for the Championship thanks to his win at Charlotte. When the playoffs kicked off he finished 16th at IRP, 16th at Milwaukee and 25th at Kansas. Normally this would have eliminated him from the Chase; but even worse results by Matt Crafton and Matt DiBenedetto saw Rhodes eek by. In the Round of 8 Rhodes left no doubt he

belonged in the Chase as he finished seventh at Bristol, and was runner up at both Talladega and Homestead. Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar were the co-favorites to win the Championship when they rolled into Phoenix. But none of the drivers were favorites to win the race. Christian Eckes, Zane Smith and Ty Majeski all had strong trucks, but had already been eliminated from contention for the Championship. Majeski jumped out and led the first 48 laps, with Heim, Hocevar, and Smith close behind. Rhodes ran OK, but was no match for the leaders. On a restart with 30 laps to go Heim had the lead when Hocevar dove to the apron to try and take the lead. Hocevar got loose and spun both Heim and himself. With the two drivers starting so far in the back with so few laps remaining, this put Rhodes and Grant Enfinger in the battle to see who would win the Championship. Zane Smith scooted out to a comfortable lead; and as the field got the two-to-go signal, Heim took out his frustration on Hocevar for the earlier

incident and crashed him; stealing a sure win from Smith. From there it was a crash fest as it took an additional 29 laps to complete the race as the yellow flew time after time. When the dust settled, Christian Eckes was the first one under the checkered flag, followed by Jake Garcia and Chase Purdy. Rhodes would finish fifth to win the Championship, and just hold off Enfinger who finished sixth. It was the second Truck series championship as he also won it in 2021. He will be back with ThorSport Racing in 2024. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

BENJAMIN J "BEN" RHODES - 02/21/1997