ThorSport Racing's Ben Rhodes starts on pole at Daytona road course

Ben Rhodes will get back to driving fast Friday night in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Daytona's road course. A few days after winning last week's truck series opener on the famed tri-oval at Daytona, Rhodes found himself in more bumper-to-bumper traffic — but not by choice. He had a flight home to Louisville canceled Monday due to bad weather so he drove from Charlotte to Kentucky. "You're doing 25 mph, bumper-to-bumper traffic in the snow. There's one lane open. It was a frustrating trip," said Rhodes. The ThorSport Racing driver was back in Charlotte on Thursday to do an interview with FOX, then caught a flight to Florida. He'll be on the pole in the season's second race and has one main goal: stay out of trouble. "I can go hard right off the bat. I don't have to worry about people around me messing up and hitting me," Rhodes said. "Hopefully we can get the lead and hold on to it awhile." Rhodes, who turns 24 on Sunday, doesn't have a lot of experience on road courses. He got in some work on a simulator this week but says "I'm not a ringer." "It's more setup-oriented than people realize," he said. "The biggest thing a driver can do at a road course is be consistent and don't make mistakes." Rhodes avoided critical mistakes last Friday when he earned his fourth career victory. He lost the lead as the white flag dropped but stayed close to leader Cory Roper as ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton gave him a push. Rhodes made a late move to the outside to regain the lead at the finish as chaos erupted behind him. "I didn't realize that the race was as chaotic as it was at the very end," Rhodes said. "I was trying to set everything up on the last lap to play out how it did. "I didn't know that Josh Anderson (finished second) was coming with this huge run; I didn't know all these people were making these crazy moves behind me. You just don't know what people are going to do." Rhodes said it helped that Crafton was right behind him for much of the last lap. "People were coming at us coming off Turn 4. (Crafton) was defending his position but at the same time he was defending us in a way," Rhodes said. "When he threw his block to try to stall that momentum it really helped us out. I owe him a big thank you." Afterward, Rhodes hung out with the No. 99 team outside their hotel in Daytona, celebrating into Saturday. "I was with my team, all of the guys on my crew. We were back at the hotel and we had some beers sitting outdoors," he said. "There was a little fire area and some guys were around the fire and the rest of us were at some tables. We talked about the race and had fun till about 3:30 in the morning." Plans for a celebration Wednesday at ThorSport Racing's headquarters in Perkins Twp. were scrapped because of the weather. Rhodes said he was exhausted after last year's Daytona road course race because of the intense heat and the fact that he got wrecked. Heat won't be an issue Friday, but rain might come into play. Thunderstorms are in the forecast. Rhodes' thoughts on some other topics: The timing of ThorSport's move from Ford to Toyota: "I heard about it in maybe December, but that's stuff I don't want to know because I'm not making those decisions. If I know about it I have a chance of leaking information. I'm not good at keeping secrets sometimes. I was OK with not knowing. "I'm absolutely thrilled with the decision. Toyota has offered us so much help and so much support. Their engineering support is second to none. That's going to lead to a lot of success this year, I do believe." Working with teammates during races: "In an ideal world you're working with each other the entire race. It's definitely not ideal when you're out there. It's a very reactive sport. There's no guarantees; it's certainly very fluid, but it's never perfect." The 2021 trucks schedule that doesn't include Kentucky, Michigan or Eldora: "Those are all races that people around me (in Louisville) could go to easily. I don't quite understand all of that. That's a huge demographic that lost a lot of races (in the Midwest). I would've liked to see maybe if they got rid of Eldora, put Mid-Ohio on the schedule. "I love Kentucky Speedway. I remember when (the schedule) was announced how much flak NASCAR was getting on the radio. The local news stations were talking about how much money the Kentucky government put into the infrastructure leading up to the race track. To lose the race was devastating to all of us." What's in his driveway: "I've got a Toyota Tundra on the way. I got remote start, all these cool features. With all this snow, I've been going out and starting up (his Ford) in the mornings. I'm looking forward to being spoiled with the Tundra." ----- Today's race What: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: The BrakeBest Brake Pads 159Where: Daytona Road CourseWhen: 7:30 p.m.TV: FS1