NASCAR Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes not letting up

PERKINS TWP. — Ben Rhodes has maintained a frenetic pace since winning his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship in early November in Phoenix. The 26-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, was in town Wednesday to celebrate his title at ThorSport Racing's open house, which drew a large crowd of appreciative race fans. Earlier in the day, Rhodes drove his No. 99 Ford in a parade. He did so many burnouts that his left rear tire went flat. "It's been crazy. I tell people I closed my eyes that night in Phoenix at 3 a.m. and woke up and here I am now," Rhodes said before mingling with fans at ThorSport's headquarters. "It's been an absolute whirlwind. I'm hoping to have a week or two off real soon." The 2024 Truck Series begins February 16 at Daytona. What down time? "The funny part about the offseason, air quotes, for racing is that it's really just the 'not-going-to-the-track' season," Rhodes said. "We work as hard as ever, but we're not going to the race track, which is the best part. "Basically every week until Daytona I'm somewhere new. I don't actually have one complete week at home." Rhodes' wife, Caitlynn, and their 15-month-old son Theodore accompanied the young star to Sandusky. Theo, like his dad, is fast. "He's chaos," Rhodes said. "He's gotten to the age where he wants to be into everything and doing everything all the time. He's not old enough to understand any discipline. You can't teach him what he's doing is wrong. You can try to. You're only going to frustrate yourself. "All he knows is there's a bright world and he has to be in all of it." The future appears bright for Rhodes, too. He became one of just five drivers to win multiple Truck Series season championships when he finished fourth in Phoenix, one slot ahead of former teammate Grant Enfinger. After a caution flag dropped with about 20 laps left, Rhodes felt confident. "I was doing the math in my head: 'OK, we've got like seven minutes left. As soon as this goes green, 15 minutes at the most. Just bring it home, don't get in a wreck,' " Rhodes said. "Nope, it was like an hour-and-a-half from that point. Five or six overtime cautions." Rhodes ended up holding off Enfinger in the fourth overtime despite damage to his truck. "The part that I was losing my mind on was when Zane Smith missed a shift. Blew the whole front of our truck apart, knocked the toe out," Rhodes said. "If the steering wheel was at the 12 o'clock position before, now it was at like 1 o'clock. I was struggling to make it around the track. When the nose is blown apart like that you lose a ton of grip. No more downforce. "It got really, really hard to drive. I'm on old tires and I got a guy (Enfinger) on new tires coming at me. Very stressful situation, championship on the line. Caution after caution, that's what happens." Rhodes held on to become a champion — ThorSport's fifth in the last 10 years. He's happy to be at ThorSport, which will have four full-time teams next season (Rhodes, Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton, newcomer Jake Garcia) along with part-time driver Connor Jones. Rhodes says he's happy driving for ThorSport, a team he joined in 2016. "A lot of people talk about up, down, this ladder of the sport. My goal since I set out was to race in NASCAR and win championships," Rhodes said. "I'm doing that. I'm having a great time. The relationship and support you get from ThorSport Racing is second to none. "Everybody is here is very good, just good people. You don't get that anywhere else. I'm extremely grateful and happy to be racing here." Rhodes will be paired with crew chief Rich Lushes again in 2024. Lushes was Rhodes' third different crew chief in 2023 and helped the driver win it all. "It's a really good group of guys," Rhodes said of his team. "One of the things that determines success in life as much as anything is attitude. Our guys have amazing attitudes. They're all-in all the time. If things are going bad they don't complain. They just want to win the next one." Both Rhodes and ThorSport general manager David Pepper singled out truck chief Anthony Pelican with helping secure another title. "No matter who the crew chief was, he was the No. 2 man on the team and he kept those guys focused and listening to whoever the leader was," Pepper said. "He was truly instrumental in helping us win this championship." Pepper hopes to work with Rhodes for many more years and stressed that moving "up" in NASCAR can be a roll of the dice. "I think he's happy," Pepper said. "He's an extremely intelligent young man who can look at Matt Crafton, who has had an incredible career — three-time champion, most starts ever, all these accolades and has made a great living for his family. "If you don't get one of those elite cars, you'd rather win championships. I'm sure he'd love to race Cup or Xfinity. You have to look at opportunities. Right now I feel like he wants the opportunity to win races. There's no benefit to going to a Cup car and running 25th to 30th in a mid- to back-market car just to say you were in Cup. "I hope this is where he wants to be for a long time." Rhodes has been loyal to ThorSport, and for good reason. When he lost sponsorship in 2018, team owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson found a way to keep him behind the wheel. "They basically said, Hey, let's go win some races and we're gonna shoulder that burden of finding sponsors," Rhodes said. "You focus on winning races and doing the best you can." Rhodes has won seven career races under the ThorSport banner, as well as season championships in 2021 and 2023. The Thorsons' decision paid off. "Duke and Rhonda are the last real old-school owners in the sport, in my opinion," Rhodes said. "They try to hire talent and then worry about finding the money to make it happen. They've run the team (since 1996) and they've been able to grow the team. "They've built a unique and spectacular program and I'm happy to be part of it. If it wasn't for Duke and Rhonda, I don't think I'd be racing right now. They gave me that opportunity in '18 when I didn't have anything on my side."