Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Kansas Lottery 200 Advance | Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Ben Rhodes, driver of the No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing, was this week’s guest on the weekly Ford NASCAR media call. Rhodes, who finished 16th the last time the series visited the track in May, is three points below the cut line going into Friday night’s Kansas Lottery 200.
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 – HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF IN THIS POSITION GOING INTO A CUT-OFF RACE? “Yeah, I have. The unfortunate part about it is that I’ve found myself in this situation in the first round – you know, the round of 10, right? Typically when this happens, it’s been in the second round where things are a little bit tighter and four people get cut rather than just two. So, I’m not happy about that by any means, but I have been in this situation before. In fact, when we were racing for the championship in 2021, we made it on from Bristol by one point… or maybe it was a tie-breaker. Then last year at Homestead, it was one point that got us into the final championship race at Phoenix. So, I find myself in this situation more times than I care to be in, right? It happens. But, the experience that I’ve gained from being in it already makes it to where I can go to this race and not stress. The intensity is there. The stress is there. But, I’m not going to let it get to us or affect us, because we’ve known this before. The difference is, with this race now going to Kansas, some people can approach this as just that they can lollygag their way through it. For us, we’re going to have to approach this like it’s Phoenix. This is it. So, there’s a level of intensity that my team has to bring this race weekend that others don’t have to do.”
DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE POINTS SCENARIO THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN, OR DO YOU HAVE TO SHUT IT OUT DURING THIS WEEKEND IN ORDER TO PERFORM? “Well, I guess I just don’t look at stuff. It’s funny because we were at the last race, Milwaukee, and Josh Sims, the FOX Sports 1 reporter, kept bringing up where we were in the playoffs and in the points. I’m like, ‘Man, I didn’t even know.’ He kept bringing it up, but ‘I didn’t know and I didn’t care to know. Let’s just not talk about it.’ But really, the stress is just part of it. I actually enjoy this time of the year, because the intensity is up and it makes everything seem more real to me while we’re at the track. It makes every moment matter more – not that the regular season doesn’t. But, you can kind of get into a little lull in the hot summer months, week-after-week, and now we do typically have a break in-between races – the next two are the exception. But, we do typically have a break, which allows you to put special emphasis on it. The intensity is up, and it makes everything matter more. I like it, and I feel like I typically thrive in it myself. I’m not saying that our performances are ‘stand-out’ in the playoffs by any means, but I’m saying that me personally…my mental realm that I’m living in… I feel like I thrive more in this high-intensity stuff.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL MENTIONED THAT HE WATCHES THE FLAGS AT KANSAS TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH THE WIND IS AFFECTING HIS CAR. DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE WIND AFFECTS YOUR FORD F-150 THERE? “It can. Typically, we’ll kind of look at the flags before getting into the truck to have an idea of where it’s blowing. But really, you can tell a decent difference when you’re inside the truck, right? The way that it handles in Turn 1 versus Turn 3, and coming off Turn 4 versus Turn 2. You can kind of see differences, and everything you’re doing as a driver to try and weigh that against aerodynamics versus the track and how it’s laid out – the dynamics of the track between the bumps, the load and then just the mechanical grip of the race truck itself. There’s a lot going on in your mind as a driver if you are a thoughtful driver. I’ve been told and accused of overthinking things. I have prescribed the philosophy lately of, ‘Shut up and drive,’ because you can’t overthink it. But at the end of the day, giving good feedback to your team is what matters to tune it in. I feel like I’ve always done that. I just try to make sure that I frame it within reality – like ‘Is this a real sensation, or is this just fake because the wind is blowing here on x number of laps, and then later in the race it is going to go away?’ We work on that stuff.”
HOW CLOSELY DO YOU WATCH WHAT THE OTHER DRIVERS ARE DOING IN YOUR CURRENT SITUATION? “That’s tough. I remember vividly racing at Bristol in 2021, and we were below the cut-line and we were racing for, what felt like, our lives. I watched the other guys, but I don’t really want updates on where they are. I physically or mentally know where they are whether I see the scoreboard myself, or I’m keeping track of them in my mirror or in my sights. I’m kind of doing mental math the whole race, and maybe at the very end, in the last 10 or 20 laps, I’ll ask for an update. That will give me an idea of, ‘Hey, this is all or nothing,’ or what I have to do. It gives me an idea of how to frame everything at the end of the race. If I need to frame it up as, ‘Alright, I need to do everything I can to keep this guy behind me,’ or ‘I just need to be five spots ahead of them,’ whatever it is, it gives me an idea of how I have to work. So all-in-all, I try to keep an eye out for myself, but I’ll ask at the end. It gets complicated, and you have so much going on in the race truck where worrying about that too early can make things worse for yourself.”
