John Hunter Nemechek’s day started going south in the opening 10 laps of Friday’s NASCAR Truck Series championship race. After hitting the wall and making contact with another truck, the championship favorite came down pit road and had to surrender his lead lap position.
The driver of the No. 4 would battle back, but ultimately didn’t have enough time to catch Ben Rhodes, who will celebrate on Friday in Phoenix with his first career championship in the Truck Series.
“That was the hardest last 40 laps I’ve ever driven in my life,” Rhodes said on Fox Sports 1. “I was doing things in a race car I probably shouldn’t have been doing, but we brought it home and we won it. I don’t even know what to say. That was crazy.”
Rhodes kicked off the season with back-to-back wins, taking the victory at the Daytona season opener and then the next week on the same track’s road course.
It’s the first owners’ championship that ThorSport Racing has gotten.
“Man, I’m so proud of my ThorSport racing group,” Rhodes said. “We went to Daytona, right? This wasn’t like a vision that we had. Everyone wants to win. I just can’t thank Duke and Rhonda enough.”
Always Race Day congratulates Ben Rhodes on his 2021 NASCAR Truck Series championship.
