Ben Rhodes captures pole for Granite State 100 as he chases fifth straight victory

Going into this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ben Rhodes is trying to become only the second driver in NASCAR K&N Pro Series history to win five straight races, something that was accomplished by Ricky Craven in 1991. Rhodes is off to a good star this weekend as in qualifying on Thursday afternoon, he would win the pole for the Granite State 100.

“I feel great going into the race this year.  Last year we had an okay race.  I ended up getting into the wall on the first or second lap with the track bar and came in, replaced it and still finished fourth.  So I feel good going into the race this year,” Rhodes said earlier this week. “Not sure how much the track has changed.  I know going to Richmond earlier this year the track had changed quite a bit and we were out in the left field when we unloaded, but we went to another pretty good track, Iowa, and we had a really fast car there, and we had it all dialed in for the race.  If we can do the same here this weekend, I think we’ll be all good.  I’ve got faith in my guys, and I think they always give me a great car every weekend.”

Rhodes admitted also that New Hampshire is one of the track that he likes based on how the banking is different throughout the corners.

“It’s got character.  That’s what makes it fun,” Rhodes said. “These big tracks are fun because we race on so many short tracks, and I’ve done that my whole life.  When we get on these big tracks it’s just a nice change of pace.

“But last year’s race, I ran 17 races part-time last year, and last year’s race was good.  It was good.  That last restart we made up a lot of position from like 8th, 9th and went up to 4th.  Somebody started missing some gears on the restart and I was able to pull low and get past him for that good finish.  I had a fast car, I just got us in trouble early on when I was on the outside, I ended up getting knocked up to the wall.  I think somebody took it three wide on the bottom, so I got pushed up into the wall, but I’ve got to learn to make my own luck and keep myself out of the position, and when you do that, that’s when you run up front, also.

“You just have to have control of your race weekend, and you have to own it, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do this year and make the most out of every race.”

For the success this year, Rhodes attributes a lot of the success to his entire Turner-Scott Motorsports team.

“The people make the race team.  The people are what make the equipment, and I have really good people behind me, from Kevin, my car chief, to Mark, my crew chief, Joe, Mark and Trucker,” he commented. “They’ve been great this year.  I couldn’t ask for a better group.  We all complement each other really well, and we all pick up the slack when the other one kind of falls off or it may not be their specialty.  We all complement each other extremely well, and it makes for a great combination and a great race team.”

One of the biggest things for the 17-year-old is working with Mark McFarland as a crew chief, who has experience in the Nationwide Series, Truck Series, K&N Pro Series and alte models. Rhodes says that he’s been able to learn a lot from McFarland based on the past experience that he has shared, and learning to give better feedback.

“He actually showed me his line around the track, and then I went to some other people that I knew that raced up there, and they showed me the line.  So he is definitely a key factor in the races this year,” Rhodes added. “The tracks that I haven’t been to and the ones that he has has definitely sped up the learning curve and made it a lot easier.  He’s very knowledgeable, and I just need to tap into that more often, actually, and talk to him more often about just everything.  He’s just very smart.  A lot older than me, a lot more years than me, but if I can learn from him, that will be really big.”

Moving forward, Rhodes is hoping to continue to climb the NASCAR ladder, skipping the trucks and going straight to the Nationwide Series.

“I think it would be an easier jump from the K&N cars to Nationwide and an easier jump from Nationwide to Sprint Cup,” he explained. “But that’s looking pretty far ahead, and I think that would be much easier because of the aero package and everything that makes it up.  I know those trucks with the huge side force that they have, it would make it hard learning those things and then trying to jump in the Nationwide car.  It obviously works and it’s a very good learning curve and definitely a good stepping-stone, but if I could just get in that and learn from the get-go, I think that would be good.  It would knock out some of the learning curve, I think, going from the trucks to the Nationwide, and I think sponsors and funding is a little bit better for Nationwide Series.  I think the following is a little bit more.”

NKNPS East New Hampshire 07/10/14 Qualifying

* Denotes Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate