May 7th, 2012 – UARA-STARS rookie Ben Rhodes headed to Kingsport Speedway (TN) on Friday, May 4th, for the fourth stop on the Late Model Stock tour looking to keep the momentum going after his sixth-place finish in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown at Richmond International Raceway (VA) the week prior. Rhodes was able to turn the fastest lap in qualifying, earning his first-career UARA pole position, and was looking for a great finish to the 150-lap event when contact from another car late in the race severely damaged his car, ending his chances at a victory.
Rhodes and the Marcos Ambrose Motorsport #9 Stanley / Alpha Energy Solutions Ford team had a successful practice on Thursday at the track, timing in third fastest in the final practice on the day. On Friday, prior to qualifying, the car experienced issues with the radiator and brakes, forcing the team to scramble replacing parts prior to qualifying. Going out onto the track third of the 22 drivers in attendance, Rhodes went to the top of the charts and never gave up the top spot, earning his first-career UARA-STARS pole.
“We certainly earned this one the hard way,” said Rhodes. “We thought we were good Thursday night, but then Friday in practice things just didn’t seem to go our way. Once we discovered the problems with the radiator and brakes, the crew thrashed to get the car ready for qualifying. When I hit the track for my two laps in qualifying, I didn’t know what the car was going to do. I went into turn one and it stuck, so I mashed the gas and was able to get the pole.”
When the green flag flew, Rhodes initially settled into the second position, logging laps while keeping the brakes cooled down and saving tires until the end of the race. A caution caused him to restart on the high side, and for the first part of the race, Rhodes dropped back through the field to the 10th position saving his equipment. The second half of the race saw Rhodes patiently pick off positions one by one until he was in fifth position. A restart with less than 15 laps had Rhodes challenging for fourth, looking towards further advancement when contact from another car damaged his car too much to continue.
“I didn’t want to go back as far as we did there, but I wasn’t going to jam my car down to the inside and cause a wreck when I got stuck in the upper lane,” explained Rhodes. “I fell into position around 10th and just worked my way around the cars to get back to the top five. After a restart, I was on the inside of a car going towards turn three and he just turned hard left into my car. The same guy spun me a few weeks back at Dillon. We were able to salvage a 10th-place finish then, but unfortunately this time it did a lot of damage to our car, so we were done for the night.”
Despite the frustration of the incident, Rhodes focused on the positives from the weekend.
“My team did a great job overcoming our mechanical issues and put a great piece under me so I could earn my first-career pole position in UARA. I have to thank them, my sponsors and my fans. The end race result is not what we wanted or expected, but sometimes things happen outside of our control. We are going to focus on the many positives we have had so far this year and use that momentum moving forward to our next race at Anderson Motor Speedway.”
