Ben Rhodes claims first Truck win in thrilling finish at Las Vegas

Rhodes made a three-wide pass for the lead on Christopher Bell and Ryan Truex on the final restart of the race with seven laps to go, scoring his first Camping World Truck Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I have no idea (how he held off Bell). I used every play in my playbook. I knew if I could keep him close to me, he couldn’t break the bubble. Every time he tried to break the bubble and get far away, he’d suck right up to the 27 Safelite Toyota Tundra and be right there on our bumper. So I had to keep him at a distance and that was most nervous thing I think I’ve ever done in my life," said Rhodes.

After the bitter disappointment earlier this season when he appeared to have a win in Kansas only to have mechanical issues end his night prematurely, Rhodes can finally celebrate and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

The historic win for the Louisville, Kentucky native also secured his place in the Round of 6 as the battle for the 2017 NCWTS championship heats up.

Rhodes made the pass on Lap 139 and had to fend off a hard-charging Bell the rest of the way to score the victory.

“I used every play in my playbook and I knew if I kept him close to me he couldn’t break the bubble,” said a happy Rhodes in Victory Lane. “Every time I would use a trick to gap him he would suck right up to my No. 27 Tundra and be right there. It was the most nervous thing I’ve done in my life.”

The former NASCAR Next driver added that the win was a long time coming.

“This is the biggest high of my life,” he added. “I just thought it would never come after so many things went wrong (before).”

Following Bell were BKR teammates Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric with Kaz Grala rounding out the top five. Playoff drivers swept the entire top five.

Cody Coughlin was sixth with playoff contenders Matt Crafton and John Hunter Nemechek seventh and eighth. Grant Enfinger was ninth with defending champion and playoff contender Johnny Sauter rounded out the top 10.

Bell built up a lead by as much as two seconds throughout the race and appeared to be on his way to a second consecutive playoff win until Austin Wayne Self made contacted with the wall to bring out the final caution of the race on Lap 132 to set up the pivotal restart.

The final race of the first round of the NCWTS playoffs will be held at Talladega Superspeedway on October 14th. Grala and Nemechek sit at the bottom of the playoff standings heading to the next race with only the top six in the standings advancing to the Round of Six.

Stage 2

Rhodes picked up his second stage win of the season holding off Bell to pick of the win. Bell was second with Nemechek third, Truex and Matt Crafton completing the top five.

“I don’t know what else we can do right now to make (the truck) a whole lot quicker,” said Rhodes. “He (Bell) was all over my bumper and I was doing everything I could in my playbook to keep him behind me (at the end of the stage).”

The second stage produced fireworks as Johnny Sauter encountered problems on the restart, hit bu Austin Cindric and sent spinning. Four other trucks were involved.

Sauter was forced to the pits for repairs, but was able to stay on the lead lap during the caution.

Bell took the lead on the restart with Rhodes second, Crafton, Nemecheck and Briscoe the rest of the top five.

The second caution of Stage 2 was given to the field on Lap 55 when Cindric spun through the grass along the front stretch after making impact with Grant Enfinger.

Cindric was able to keep the truck off the wall, rebounding to finish eighth in Stage 2. Sauter also pushed forward after his incident to finish 10th in the second stage of the race.

Stage 1

Truex started the Las Vegas 350 from the pole but it was playoff participant Briscoe who quickly moved into the lead and led all 35 laps to win Stage 1.

Briscoe led Johnny Sauter to the line with last week’s playoff opener winner Christopher Bell third. Truex and Matt Crafton completed the top five.

Playoff participants Rhodes, Kaz Grala and Austin Cindric were sixth through eighth with Stewart Friesen and Las Vegas native Noah Gragson completing the top 10.

Briscoe maintained the lead during pit stops after Stage 1 and was happy with his truck early in the race.

“We feel like we had a pretty good truck (in the first stage) and we didn’t want to take too big a swing at it during our stop,” Briscoe said.

Nemechek ran 11th, putting all eight playoff participants in the top 11 after the first stage at LVMS.

The first caution of the race came out on the opening lap when Myatt Snider spun after contact on the backstretch, sending Snider into the wall.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	27	Ben Rhodes	Toyota	146		20
2	4	Christopher Bell	Toyota	146	0.066	64
3	29	Chase Briscoe	Ford	146	0.647	40
4	19	Austin Cindric	Ford	146	2.719	1
5	33	Kaz Grala	Chevrolet	146	3.191
6	13	Cody Coughlin	Toyota	146	3.444
7	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	146	3.727
8	8	John Hunter Nemechek	Chevrolet	146	5.885	8
9	98	Grant Enfinger	Toyota	146	6.719
10	21	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	145	1 lap
11	02	Timothy Peters	Chevrolet	145	1 lap
12	16	Ryan Truex	Toyota	145	1 lap	2
13	18	Noah Gragson	Toyota	144	2 laps	12
14	49	Wendell Chavous	Chevrolet	144	2 laps
15	1	Jordan Anderson	Chevrolet	143	3 laps
16	50	Josh Reaume	Chevrolet	142	4 laps
17	83	Camden Murphy	Chevrolet	141	5 laps
18	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Chevrolet	138	8 laps
19	6	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	129	17 laps
20	44	Austin Wayne Self	Chevrolet	128	18 laps
21	24	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	117	29 laps
22	45	Travis Pastrana	Chevrolet	112	34 laps
23	52	Stewart Friesen	Chevrolet	41	105 laps
24	38	T.J. Bell	Chevrolet	27	119 laps
25	0	Matt Mills	Chevrolet	11	135 laps
26	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	9	137 laps
27	57	Mike Senica	Chevrolet	4	142 laps
28	51	Myatt Snider	Toyota	0	146 laps