Ben Rhodes

Benjamin Jon Rhodes (born February 21, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 99 Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing. He is the 2021 and 2023 Truck Series champion. Before moving up to the Truck Series, Rhodes competed full-time in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East, where he drove for Turner Scott Motorsports and won the 2014 series championship. He also has previously competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and what is now the ARCA Menards Series.

Racing career Early years Rhodes began his career in 2004 when he was seven years old, starting in kart racing, winning several champion titles before moving to Bandoleros in 2008, and Legends cars in 2010, then moving up to late model stock cars beginning in 2011. After the 2012 season, Rhodes signed a deal with Turner Scott Motorsports to begin racing part-time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2013. Rhodes scored five top five finishes in seven starts. In June of that year, Rhodes was named to the NASCAR Next roster, composed of up-and-coming drivers expected to become the next group of stars in NASCAR competition.

K&N Pro Series East Rhodes would move full-time in the K&N East Series for 2014, with former driver Mark McFarland as his crew chief. He earned three top tens, including an eighth-place finish in his debut, in four Truck Series races. Rhodes would also make his ARCA Racing Series debut at his home track Kentucky Speedway, starting fifth but finishing 27th after a crash. Rhodes had the fastest time in the first practice at Road America in August 2015 and he was awarded the pole position after qualifying rained out. On October 20, Rhodes announced that he had left JRM, intending to run a full-time Xfinity schedule in 2016.

Craftsman Truck Series On December 15, 2015, Rhodes joined ThorSport Racing to run full-time in the Truck Series in 2016, driving the No. 41 Toyota Tundra. Rhodes started the season with a seventh-place finish at Daytona. Rhodes and Johnny Sauter were in contention for the win at Kansas but both crashed on the final lap, allowing William Byron to secure the first win of his career. Rhodes missed the inaugural Truck Series Chase and finished 14th in series points. Rhodes came close to victory at Kansas when, after passing Kyle Busch late in the race, his engine expired with ten laps to go. On September 15, Rhodes secured a spot in the 2017 Truck Series playoffs. On September 30, Rhodes held off eventual champion Christopher Bell to win his first Truck race at the Las Vegas 350.

For 2018, Rhodes returned to the No. 41 truck, now a Ford F-Series, with Troconis returning as crew chief. After being plagued by engine troubles throughout the year, he won his second career race at Kentucky Speedway after dominating the race and holding off a hard-charging Stewart Friesen. He finished the season eighth in points. Later in the regular season at Eldora Speedway, Tyler Dippel forced Rhodes into the wall in the late stages of the race, again knocking Rhodes from a top-ten finish, and then rammed his truck into Rhodes on the cooldown lap. On pit road after the race, Rhodes tried to drag Dippel from his truck before calling him a dirty driver. Dippel, in return, directed an expletive-laced tirade at Rhodes and called it "cool" that Rhodes would miss the playoffs, which Rhodes indeed did.

Rhodes returned to ThorSport in 2020. He had a tumultuous race at the SpeedyCash.com 400 in October, when contact from Rhodes caused Todd Gilliland, Christian Eckes, and Josh Bilicki to retire from the race in three separate incidents. Rhodes blamed Eckes for driving him into the wall in retaliation against him, and blamed Chandler Smith for the wreck with Bilicki; Rhodes later exchanged words and had a shoving match with Eckes after the race.

The 2021 season began with Rhodes winning the first race at Daytona International Speedway after passing leader Cory Roper as they approached the finish. Rhodes followed his Daytona oval win with a victory at the Daytona Road Course the next week in the BrakeBest Brake Pads 159, scoring back to back victories for the first time in his career. Rhodes won his first Truck Series championship on November 5 by finishing third in the race.

In 2022, Rhodes finished second at Daytona. He DNF'd at 31st place at Las Vegas but made up for the loss with three consecutive top-five finishes before winning at the Bristol dirt race. Rhodes finished second at Phoenix and second in the standings.

Rhodes started the 2023 season with an eleventh-place finish at Daytona. He scored his first win of the season at Charlotte. Rhodes finished second at Homestead to make the Championship 4. He finished fifth at Phoenix; as the highest-finishing Championship 4 driver in the race, he clinched his second Truck Series championship.

Rhodes' 2024 season saw a significant decline in performance compared to last season. Rhodes only had six Top 10s during the regular season, but he was still able to qualify for the Playoffs. However, he would be eliminated after the first round, ultimately finishing ninth in the standings. It marked his first winless season since 2019.

Rhodes' decline continued in the 2025 season, ultimately missing the Playoffs for the first time since 2019.

Cup Series

On May 31, 2021, it was revealed through the release of the entry list for the Cup Series race at Sonoma that Rhodes would make his debut in the series in the No. 77 for Spire Motorsports. The usual driver of that car, Justin Haley, a full-time Xfinity Series driver, was at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the race in that series that weekend. Rhodes was available due to the Truck Series having an off weekend that weekend. Rhodes started 31st and finished 30th.

Other racing In March 2019, Rhodes participated in the Michelin Pilot Challenge sports car race at Sebring International Raceway, driving a Ford for Multimatic Motorsports alongside ThorSport Racing teammates Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, and Myatt Snider.

Personal life Rhodes is the son of Lori and Joe Rhodes. His father is the president of a Kentucky-based mechanical service contractor, Alpha Energy Solutions, which has sponsored Ben's racing efforts.

Rhodes graduated from Holy Cross High School in Louisville, Kentucky in 2015, finishing with a 3.98 GPA despite missing classes due to his racing career. He missed the school's graduation ceremony on May 15 because he was in Iowa to prepare for his Xfinity Series debut the next day; the school's president traveled to the race to present Rhodes with his diploma during driver introductions.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Cup Series NASCAR Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pts Ref 2021 Spire Motorsports 77 Chevy DAY DRC HOM LVS PHO ATL BRD MAR RCH TAL KAN DAR DOV COA CLT SON30 NSH POC POC ROA ATL NHA GLN IRC MCH DAY DAR RCH BRI LVS TAL ROV TEX KAN MAR PHO 63rd 01 2022 Kaulig Racing 16 Chevy DAY CAL LVS PHO ATL COA RCH MAR BRD TAL DOV DAR KAN CLT GTWQL† SON NSH ROA ATL NHA POC IRC MCH RCH GLN DAY DAR KAN BRI TEX TAL ROV LVS HOM MAR PHO N/A — † – Qualified for A. J. Allmendinger

Xfinity Series NASCAR Xfinity Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Pts Ref 2015 JR Motorsports 88 Chevy DAY ATL LVS PHO CAL TEX BRI RCH TAL IOW7 CLT DOV MCH CHI21 DAY KEN NHA12 IND IOW30 GLN35 MOH10 BRI ROA32 DAR RCH CHI KEN30 DOV13 CLT KAN TEX PHO HOM20 28th 230

Craftsman Truck Series NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Pts Ref 2014 Turner Scott Motorsports 32 Chevy DAY MAR7 KAN CLT DOV22 TEX GTW KEN IOW ELD POC MCH BRI9 MSP CHI NHA LVS TAL MAR TEX PHO5 HOM 35th 132 2016 ThorSport Racing 41 Toyota DAY7 ATL6 MAR16 KAN18 DOV28 CLT17 TEX11 IOW4 GTW2 KEN13 ELD23 POC11 BRI30 MCH6 MSP30 CHI25 NHA15 LVS12 TAL24 MAR19 TEX15 PHO14 HOM20 14th 387 2017 27 DAY12 ATL4 MAR20 KAN23 CLT8 DOV4* TEX5 GTW8 IOW14 KEN27 ELD30 POC2 MCH11 BRI5 MSP10 CHI6 NHA7 LVS1 TAL23 MAR9 TEX18 PHO20 HOM19 5th 2263 2018 41 Ford DAY4 ATL4 LVS7 MAR12* DOV8 KAN18 CLT5 TEX16 IOW17 GTW19 CHI2 KEN1 ELD29 POC11 MCH6 BRI7 MSP14 LVS4 TAL16 MAR4 TEX2 PHO12 HOM10 8th 2254 2019 99 DAY14 ATL5 LVS25 MAR2 TEX10 DOV6 KAN2 CLT4 TEX21 IOW2 GTW8 CHI32 KEN19 POC9 ELD14 MCH23 BRI8 MSP3 LVS8 TAL12 MAR16 PHO4* HOM12 9th 773 2020 DAY25 LVS5 CLT10 ATL9 HOM18 POC5 KEN2 TEX9 KAN7 KAN5 MCH11 DRC14 DOV5 GTW11 DAR1 RCH3* BRI13 LVS23 TAL4 KAN20 TEX20 MAR2 PHO7 7th 2240 2021 Toyota DAY1 DRC1 LVS10 ATL16 BRD2 RCH7 KAN10 DAR2 COA10 CLT3 TEX26 NSH7 POC17 KNX7 GLN15 GTW3 DAR34 BRI9 LVS2 TAL13 MAR7 PHO3 1st 4034 2023 Ford DAY11 LVS3 ATL5 COA10 TEX10 BRD19 MAR6 KAN16 DAR18 NWS33 CLT1 GTW7 NSH9 MOH5 POC9 RCH12 IRP16 MLW16 KAN25 BRI7 TAL2 HOM2 PHO5 1st 4032 2024 DAY30 ATL28 LVS13 BRI16 COA7 MAR14 TEX24 KAN16 DAR3 NWS22 CLT5 GTW7 NSH7 POC18 IRP21 RCH7 MLW9 BRI27 KAN22 TAL35 HOM12 MAR2 PHO9 9th 2150 2025 DAY20 ATL7 LVS14 HOM33 MAR5 BRI5 CAR32 TEX6 KAN11 NWS23 CLT17 NSH14 MCH4 POC18 LRP4 IRP11 GLN26 RCH8 DAR11 BRI2 NHA24 ROV36 TAL16 MAR14 PHO29 12th 632 2026 DAY12 ATL4* STP3 DAR36 CAR18 BRI11 TEX5 GLN32 DOV19 CLT4 NSH28 MCH21 COR8 LRP31 NWS14 IRP15 RCH18 NHA18 BRI KAN CLT PHO TAL MAR HOM -* -*

Season still in progress Ineligible for series points

ARCA Racing Series (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) ARCA Racing Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts Ref 2014 Venturini Motorsports 55 Toyota DAY MOB SLM TAL TOL NJE POC MCH ELK WIN CHI IRP POC BLN ISF MAD11 DSF SLM 61st 275 Turner Scott Motorsports 41 Chevy KEN27 KAN

K&N Pro Series East NASCAR K&N Pro Series East results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pts Ref 2013 Turner Scott Motorsports 41 Chevy BRI9 GRE FIF RCH35 BGS IOW3 LGY COL IOW8 VIR GRE6 NHA4 DOV26 RAL 19th 217 2014 NSM4 DAY15 BRI3* GRE1* RCH2 IOW1* BGS1* FIF1 LGY1* NHA22 COL3 IOW7 GLN3 VIR10 GRE4 DOV15 1st 640