The 13th stop on the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock tour took place on Saturday, September 22nd, at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Virginia.  Ben Rhodes and the #9 Stanley / Alpha Energy Solutions Ford Fusion with Marcos Ambrose Motorsport entered the race looking for another solid run.  After starting fifth, Rhodes battled hard at the end of the race, crossing the line in sixth in a wild green-white-checker finish.

 

Usually Rhodes would be at the track for the Friday practice session, but instead he was at Kentucky Speedway (KY) for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event making the announcement he will race a part-time schedule in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2013 alongside a show car (click here for the story).

 

“I had a great time at Kentucky Speedway, meeting the fans and discussing my 2013 season,” said Rhodes.  “Even though we had to miss the Friday practice at Lonesome Pine Raceway, Billy Smith and the Marcos Ambrose Motorsport team had a good baseline set-up from our test a few weeks back, so I was confident we could get the car dialed in on Saturday before the race.”

 

On Saturday, the team was able to get the car rolling well during the two practice sessions with Rhodes timing in fourth fastest in the final practice session.  That carried over to qualifying, where Rhodes turned a 16.496-second lap, which put the car in the fifth starting position.

 

When the green flag flew, Rhodes settled in to the fifth position as the race went green until just after the halfway point.  The second half of the race saw some great battles throughout the field, including with Rhodes, who spent time racing the competition to stay within the top five.

 

“The car was really good and coming to us throughout the race,” said Rhodes.  “We spent the majority of the race just logging laps until the end, but we did a have a great battle with Danny O’Quinn.  This is his home track so he knows how to get around this place.  It was a lot of fun racing against him and learning from him as well.”

 

In the late stages of the race, a caution came out, forcing a green-white-checker dash to the finish.  Rhodes restarted fifth and was able to get to fourth on a three-wide move, but coming to the checkered flag, he was moved up the track, and with a lot of contact up front, crossed the line in sixth.

 

“That was a very exciting end to the race,” explained Rhodes.  “I was able to get under a couple cars coming off turn two and make it three wide down the back stretch.  We made it through there and took the white flag.  I was looking to see if we could get at least one more spot, but going into turn three a car dove way low and knocked me up the track into another car.  I was completely sideways from the contact and did everything I could to get the car back to the line without losing too many spots.

 

“It was a great run for the #9 Stanley / Alpha Energy Solutions Ford.  Billy and the guys had the car rolling for the end of the race and I wish we could have picked up a few more spots there, but on a green-white-checker finish you could end up first or last with how crazy it gets.  We will take sixth and move on to the next race.”

 

Unofficially, Rhodes has moved up three positions in the UARA-STARS point standings in the last two events, sitting seventh overall in his rookie season with three races left on the tour.

 

For more information on Ben Rhodes, please contact Jason “Stix” Buckley of STIX FX Entertainment at (704) 519-5528 or [email protected], and make sure to keep up to date on Ben Rhodes’ racing career at www.benrhodesinc.com, and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/benrhodesinc and Twitter at www.twitter.com/benrhodesinc.