By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Friday night’s Vankor 350 at Texas Motor Speedway had no shortage of agression, blocking and gutsy meneuvers from nearly start to finish. Just ask Ben Rhodes.
Starting eighth for the 147-lapper, Rhodes was racing for the lead in a four-truck battle when he and Brett Moffitt made contact on the
The incident was the last of many questionable moves that Rhodes endured.
“I don’t know if everyone’s helmets were too tight or what,” Rhodes said. “I had to start dishing out because I just couldn’t keep taking it from everyone. Nobody really understood what aero meant at this track, that’s why you saw so many wrecks early on.”
Improving on his Thorsport Ford throughout the night, the late contact with Moffitt was especially painful for the No. 99.
“I thought we had a good second-place finish going, I had the outside rolling behind Busch,” he said. “Brett Moffitt just cleared himself into my front nose… like, on the straightaway. I don’t know what was going on there.
And it wasn’t their first time coming together.
“Another inccident from him. That’s happened. We got history, I guess,” he said. “He’s wrecked me twice in the past in the Truck Series. I hold onto that. I haven’t realy ever wrecked him. He put himself in a lot of bad positions tonight. We just got to know who we’re racing with on the track.”
On a track dominated by a single-lane racing groove, Rhodes knew it would be more aggressive than usual. However, some drivers were balancing on “insanity” through the night.
“I couldn’t believe half the moves that were being made,” he said. “I’m having a hard time pacing myself and being patient because you’re being eaten up by guys making aggressive moves.”
With his third top 10 in the first five races, Rhodes was both disappointed and fulfilled leaving Texas, as his No. 99 was on its way to another potential top five.
“I’m really proud of the speed we had,” he said. “It was insanely fast right off the hauler. We got a lot of easy things, low-hanging fruit, that we can fix on this truck.”