Ben Rhodes pads playoff cushion with Gateway Top-10
Perhaps the second-biggest winner following Gateway was Ben Rhodes with his collection of stage points and a Top-10 finish Saturday.
Rhodes, the defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, finished seventh in the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway after leading 11 laps.
Rhodes picked up extra points with Top-10 finishes in the first two stages (10 points). He placed eighth in stage one and fourth in stage two.
In total, Rhodes earned 47 points, the fifth-most of the competition.
Entering Gateway, Rhodes was 10th in points with a 32-point cushion over 11th-place Stewart Friesen. Following the Toyota 200, Rhodes is eighth in points with a 36-point cushion over the cutoff.
Rhodes has scored three Top-10 finishes in the last four races. in the first eight races, he had just one Top-10.
Still, he remains winless in 2024.
The two-time champion’s last victory came at Charlotte last year, 24 races ago. Rhodes has a four-year streak of at least one win per season entering 2024.
In total, Rhodes has qualified for the playoffs six times, including the last four consecutively. In two of those four times, he went on to win the championship.
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.