JR Motorsports Race Report
Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015
Race 20 of 33: Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International
Track Specs: 2.45-mile road course / 82 laps
Weather: Cloudy; 74 deg.
Race Winner: Joey Logano
Rhodes’ finish: 35th
After rallying through the field on two separate occasions, rookie Ben Rhodes’ promising day ended with a 35th-place finish in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International due to a transmission issue.
The No. 88 Alpha Energy Solutions team faced an uphill battle from the drop of the green flag. A broken drive plate in qualifying forced the team to make repairs prior to the race, and resulted in Rhodes dropping to the rear of the field for the start. But the rookie wasted no time climbing forward. By lap seven, he cracked the top 20 and further improved his position to ninth before the team’s first pit stop on lap 21. Unfortunately, Rhodes drove through too many stalls on pit road and was penalized as a result. Rhodes again dropped to the tail end of the field and lined up in 23rd for the ensuing restart.
Back up to speed, Rhodes began a gradual ascent through the field with lap times comparable to the top five. Rhodes worked into 18th and had his sites on the top 15 when a transmission issue became prevalent. The incident proved catastrophic for the team and Rhodes coasted the No. 88 machine behind pit wall 47 laps shy of the finish.
Joey Logano won the race and was followed to the line by Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Boris Said and Ty Dillon.
Ben Rhodes, driver No. 88 Alpha Energy Solutions team
“The takeaway is that I learned a lot. I was racing with some of the best in the business, some of the best in the world. I gradually got better and better as the weekend progressed. I learned how to get through the bus stop better, made my shifts better, made my braking zones better and got more comfortable with our Alpha Chevy. I guess it wasn’t enough in the end because I still made a lot of mistakes and I need to keep minimizing those. The goal for the weekend was to finish all the laps and I didn’t do that, so it’s really disappointing for my team and myself. I only have 10 of these opportunities and I need to make the most of them, and prove to people that I can do this. I want to be in the Sprint Cup Series one day and it’s difficult to do that when you can’t finish all the laps at a road course. So I just need to keep working at it and minimize my mistakes. With the performance that we had, if I can just keep the car on the track, I think we’ll have good finishes.”