MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ben Rhodes has a simple strategy going into this weekend’s Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville Speedway: he’s going for broke.
Rhodes told the media on Friday, amid a rainy practice day at the .526-mile paper clip, that he isn’t worried about anyone else’s race but his own for the remainder of the season, including the six remaining playoff-eligible drivers who will be fighting to keep their title hopes alive over the next three races.
Asked if there was any sort of balance between racing hard and respecting the remaining playoff drivers, Rhodes shook his head before responding.
“I’ve kind of thrown the balance out the window now,” Rhodes grinned. “Boom, gone. It’s caution to the wind. The way I see it, all these playoff guys have a lot more to lose than I do, and there are certain guys in the playoffs that we’ve had exchanges with throughout the season, so if they’re in my way … they had better watch out, because I’m going for wins.”
However, just because he’s not still in the hunt for the driver’s championship, Rhodes still have a big investment in the remaining rounds of the season. His No. 41 team remains alive in the owner’s playoffs, and a win would give them a shot to fight for that championship at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
That doesn’t mean the driver is stressing that fact, though.
“I think the owner points will take care of themselves; my focus is on our team and getting the best finishes I can at this point,” Rhodes noted. “I don’t care what anyone else is doing and I’m not worried about stage points or anything like that. The gloves are off, there’s nothing holding us back and we’re here to have some fun and take home some trophies.
“It’s very motivating, though, to be in the position to potentially give the No. 41 team an owner’s championship,” he continued. “I think it’s even more so for my crew members than it is for me personally. (Crew chief) Eddie Troconis and all the guys on our team want to win that one each year just as much as the driver’s championship and I’d love to be able to give that to them.”
It’s not just Rhodes’ team that wants the owner’s title, but his truck owners as well. ThorSport Racing has two driver’s championships from Matt Crafton (2013-14) but was beaten out in the owner points race both times by Kyle Busch Motorsports.
That’s a statistic that Rhodes sorely wants to change.
“I want to make Duke and Rhonda (Thorson) happy at the end of the day. (The owner’s championship) has been the one thing that has eluded them over the years, and I really, really want to get that for them. That would be amazing. They’ve done a lot for me and that would be a great way to repay that.
As far as Martinsville goes, Rhodes had the dominant truck there in the spring, starting from the pole and leading a race-high 134 laps before being shuffled back due to rough pit stops in the closing stages.
“We were all really upset after that race (in the spring),” admitted Rhodes. “My team has kept talking about it and talking about it and talking about it ever since then, and it would be nice to get one back here for them because they gave me such a fast truck back in March.
“That was such a letdown for both them and for me, but I look more at the team than at myself, and to see how much they were bummed out and how much it mattered to them … I want redemption for them and to finish it off right.”
This year’s first Martinsville race was the latest in a line of disappointments at the paper clip for Rhodes, who has two poles at the track but only two finishes inside the top 10 over his six career starts there.
“We’ve had speed here at Martinsville; our performances have been good, but our finishes have just been awful. What we need is a good race, solid pit stops and to not make any mistakes. If we could lead like we did last time … that was the nicest race I’ve had here.
“The truck was clean until 70 to go when we had some bad pit stops. If we could do that again, it would be perfect. We’ll just see what happens on Saturday.”
