JR Motorsports Race Report
Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015
Race 23 of 33: Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville at Road America
Track Specs: 4.048-mile oval / 45 laps
Weather: Cloudy; 66 deg.
Race Winner: Paul Menard
Rhodes’ finish: 32nd
Everything was going right for Ben Rhodes and the No. 88 Alpha Energy Solutions team from the beginning of the weekend at Road America through the early laps of Saturday’s Road America 180. After being the fastest in the first practice session on Friday, Rhodes earned the pole position when rain forced NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) qualifying to be cancelled Saturday morning. JRM would take the front row for the start as Rhodes’ teammate, Chase Elliott, was second fastest in first practice, giving him the outside pole.
Rhodes led the field to the green flag, but Elliott quickly took over the top spot and led the first lap. The driver of the No. 88 settled into the second spot and was holding his own when the first caution flag waved on lap two. After restarting second, Rhodes’ position was challenged by aggressive front runners and as he was fighting for fifth, the 18-year-old flat-spotted his tires, which caused him to lose several more positions. He tried to drive through it until the first scheduled pit stop, but had to come down pit road early after the tires continued affecting the handling of the Alpha Energy Solutions Chevrolet.
Crew chief Dave Elenz called for four tires and fuel on the unscheduled green-flag stop, and Rhodes rejoined the field in 33rd on lap eight, after reporting that his No. 88 Camaro felt like it was plowing, or not turning well, through the corners. Within 10 laps, Rhodes worked his way up to 11th, while still reporting that the car was too tight in the center of the corners and was loose on exit.
The second caution came on lap 23, while the No. 88 was scored in the 12th position. Rhodes reported that the race car was far too tight, particularly in the slow corners, so when he came to pit road for four tires and fuel, Elenz called for the team to make an air pressure adjustment to try to help Rhodes on the restart. Rhodes restarted 15th, but the Alpha Energy Solutions team calculated him to be four laps short on fuel mileage, so Elenz called for a fuel-only stop under green on lap 29.
Rhodes rejoined the field in 18th and moved to 15th before struggling further with the tight handling condition that continued to plague the Alpha Chevy and dropping to 17th. On lap 35, just 10 laps shy of the finish, he reported that his left-front tire had gone flat, which caused him to be stuck in the sand trap off of Turn 7 and the caution to come out. The team made quick repairs once the car was towed to the garage, getting Rhodes back out on track after missing just four laps during the long caution period. Once he was back on track, Rhodes picked up two spots to be the first car four laps down, resulting in a 32nd-place finish. While the promising start to the day didn’t pan out, Rhodes showed a poise beyond his years as he stayed calm and made the best of the situation.
Paul Menard won the race, earning his first NXS victory of the season and third of his career. Ryan Blaney finished second, followed by Brian Scott, Elliott and Darrell Wallace Jr.
Ben Rhodes, driver No. 88 Alpha Energy Solutions team
“It was an up-and-down day once again. I would say it was more of a ‘down’ day than an ‘up’ day, though. I think we had a decent No. 88 Alpha Energy Solutions Chevy, but the track certainly changed on us from yesterday and I think some of the changes we made in practice yesterday to anticipate the track may have been in the wrong direction and hurt us.
“All in all, I have a lot I learned today – pacing once again was the big issue. Early on, the guys went a lot harder charging for positions in the front than I thought they would and that put me in a bad spot several times. I lost some spots, got a little greedy trying to make them up and went off the track. We had to pit to get the grille clean, which put us around some bad cars and ultimately lead to our demise today. What really hurt us was going into the sand trap after a flat left-front tire. I felt it going down a couple of corners before, but it gave me some false confidence thinking that I could nurse it back a little bit quicker. By the time I got to that corner (Turn 7), it was already on the rim and there was nothing I could do. If we weren’t in the sand trap for so long and could’ve driven out, then I think we could have made up a lot of the spots and salvaged a decent finish.”