Luck runs out for Ben Rhodes at Loudon - Speedway Digest

After starting on pole for the Granite State 100 Friday, Turner Scott Motorsports (TSM) driver Ben Rhodes couldn’t hold the lead.

Rhodes lost the top spot to Chad Finley on lap 3, but got back by him on lap 10 and led the next 15 laps and only led 18 laps on the day.

The 41 car started to lose power early and was trailing most of the day.

“We started out strong,” Rhodes said. “As we went on I told the guys were we losing some power. That really hurt us on the straight-aways and it really hurt me all the way around.”

The Kentucky driver made contact with another driver on lap 24 causing a tire rub on the No. 41 car and Rhodes held on until the half-way break.

The 17-year-old attempted to pass on the inside before the start-finish line on a restart with five laps to go and had to serve a drive-through penalty and relegated him to a 22^nd place finish in the final rundown.

Rhodes described his day as being a “pinball” during the Granite State 100.

“Those guys were driving a little crazy today,” he said. “That’s why there were so many tore up race cars here today and so many angry people.”

He was looking to win his fifth consecutive K&N East race and try to tie Ricky Craven’s 23-year-old mark.

“I never looked at it (the streak) in the first place to get that win for the record,” Rhodes said.

Craven met with him before Friday’s race.

“He gave me some good advice I was using in the race,” Rhodes said of Craven. “I was glad I got to see him beforehand. He’s a really good guy and I enjoyed listening to him.”

Craven told the youngster a few things before the green flag fell.

“Good luck,” Craven said. “I thought it was so much fun. I care more about the sport than I care about myself. I really, really wish that he could of tied it and it would have given some excitement going into the next race.”

The 1991 Busch North Series champion also spoke highly of the current K&N East points leader.

“My impression was that he has the enthusiasm of the 17 year old,” Craven added. “The skills of a 27 year old but has the sense of a 37 year old. When you’re 37, things make sense that didn’t make sense at 27 or 17 and that’s what so impressive.”

With Craven’s record still intact, Rhodes is still confident about his No. 41 team, even after Friday’s result.

“We’re gonna reset back to one,” he said. “We’re gonna get go four more wins in a row and then we’re gonna get that fifth one here later in the season.

Rhodes is also looking forward to doing some K&N East road course racing in August.

“We’re gonna do a couple road course tests,” the TSM driver said. “I never really done them (road courses) before except in legends cars and a go-kart so this will be all new to me.

Rhodes still has a 62-point lead heading into this weekend’s race at Columbus Motor Speedway.

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Kyle Magda

Currently, I’m a journalism student in college who enjoys the sport of racing. I've been following NASCAR in-depth since 2001.Along with my love of racing, I’m also into baseball, football (college & pro), and college basketball.I also have my own website, The Life of Kyle, where I write about various topics.And to get my feet wet into radio, I have my own show called Overdrive. I started it with my friend. Since we can’t record together most of the time, we have our own versions. I cover NASCAR and ARCA, and he takes Formula One and IndyCar.Not forgetting to mention, I have my own YouTube channel as well.As for race tracks, I’ve gone to races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Daytona, Dover, Loudon and a few local short tracks as well. I hope to cross the Indianapolis 500 off my list in the future. I hope to become a man of many hats.