MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ben Rhodes felt like he had a truck capable of winning Monday’s snow-postponed NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Unfortunately for the 21-year-old Kentucky native, issues on pit road foiled those plans and left him with another early season disappointment.

Rhodes qualified on the pole for the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 on Saturday, leading the field to the green flag and pacing 22 of the first 23 laps before inclement weather forced the remainder of the race to be pushed all the way to Monday after nearly six inches of snow blanketed southern Virginia.

Even the snow did little to hamper Rhodes. When he and the rest of the field returned Monday to resume the race, Rhodes picked up right where he left off, surviving an early scrap with ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton to retain the lead. Rhodes then went on to win the first two stages.

However, it was the break before the final stage kicked off that bit Rhodes and left him out of contention.

A slow stop after trouble on the right side of the truck sent Rhodes tumbling from the lead to outside the top 10. Once back in traffic, the handling of his truck changed drastically and Rhodes began to have overheating issues, sapping the good from his truck and leaving him fighting to hang on.

Rhodes battled hard but could only muster a 12th-place finish in the end, with a second slow stop before the finish causing even more issues.

After the race, Rhodes was very clear on his feelings about what went wrong.

“The pit crew just killed us today,” Rhodes said. “That was the story of 2017 … and I don’t want that to be the story of 2018. We’re going to make some changes going forward. Really, if you look back at our season in 2017, I think we could’ve won the championship had we not had hiccups on pit road.”

The Kentucky native had driven one of his best career Truck races prior to the pit issues, leading five times for a race-high 134 laps and picking up two playoff points by virtue of winning the first two stages.

“I felt like we had the dominant truck today. Our Alpha Energy Solutions Ford was really fast from the get-go, and really during the first stage, I wasn’t even pushing it,” said Rhodes. “I was just riding and saving the brakes. Even in the second stage, when Todd (Gilliland) got behind me … I was going hard, but towards the end of that stint I pulled away from him a bit and was able to back it back down.”

However, Rhodes admitted that once he got back into traffic, his day was undone.

“Once we had the issues on pit road though, and you’re in the back, there’s not a lot you can do. With the new NT1 motors, if you get them too hot, then they’ll actually start shutting down and losing power,” explained Rhodes. “That happened to us and we just lost a lot of power from being too hot. Even once we got the truck cooled off and handling better, every time I’d try to make a pass I’d just get pushed up into the marbles near the outside wall.”

Rhodes has now seen potential victory slip away at both Atlanta Motor Speedway – where he had a motor issue and salvaged a fourth-place finish with one of the fastest trucks in the field – and Martinsville this year.

While Rhodes is glad his trucks have the speed to win, not being able to close the deal has gotten frustrating.

“I’m sure it has built character, but it sucks [laughs]. There’s no other way to put it. It sucks, it’s horrible. I hate losing, my whole team hates losing and we’re just heartbroken for it.”

“We really have to go make changes. We’re all putting way too much into this thing for this to happen. That’s the biggest disappointment. I honestly thought today could be the day.”