Defending champion Ben Rhodes is the stealth bomber of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
In 2021, Rhodes passed Zane Smith with eight laps left in the title race at Phoenix and finished third to Smith’s fifth to secure his first series championship.
Last year, Rhodes began the seven-race Playoffs in seventh place with 13 Playoff points to his credit. He survived two Playoff rounds and won his second title with a fifth-place finish to Grant Enfinger’s sixth in a wild shootout in the Sonoran Desert.
This season, Rhodes heads to Sunday’s Playoff opener at the Milwaukee Mile with two Playoff points, one marker below the current cutoff for the Round of 8. Though he hasn’t won a race or a stage this season, the driver of the No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford remains unfazed.
“Just the fact that we’ve done it, I think that’s going to tell us that we can do it again,” Rhodes said on Tuesday during a media day Zoom call with Truck Series Playoff drivers.
“We have the blueprint. We’ve done it twice. We’ve done it when our backs (have) been against the wall. We’ve done it when we’ve had to get in on tiebreakers, where we’ve had to do crazy strategy and get in on a point.
“We’ve been put through the crucible, we’ve gone through the ringer, and somehow we still found a way to make it to the next round. I can truly say the pressure doesn’t get to us at all. If we make any mistakes, it will just be from sheer incompetence, not from nervousness of feeling any sort of pressure.”
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
