Ben Rhodes, driver of the #88 Alpha EnergySolutions Chevrolet, checks his tablet before practice for the NASCAR XFINITY Series Owens Corning AttiCat 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on June 19, 2015 Photo – Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
The 2015 season for JR Motorsports driver Ben Rhodes, is fair to say, ‘different’ from most young drivers entering this sport. Especially, considering that Rhodes is coming from a championship season in the NASCAR K&N East Series in 2014. This season has been a big learning experience in his young career, directing him toward more of an observation role, in contrast to many of his peers. Rhodes is only scheduled to run ten NASCAR XFINITY Series races at JR Motorsports this year, but he has also been at the track every race week to take in information that will help him later.
“The big thing for me is just being here and seeing everything,” Rhodes said in our interview at Chicagoland Speedway. “It’s hard to verbalize everything that you can learn because there is a lot of stuff that just comes from doing it. The one thing for me is just the comfort of being in this atmosphere, being around the same people, building those relationships and that’s been huge for me. I go up on the spotter’s tower almost every week that I’ve been going now. After spending some time on the pit box, I also went up with NASCAR and saw how the new scoring system worked.”
Rhodes is sharing the No. 88 with some huge NASCAR names, such as Sprint Cup Series stars, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. That’s not an easy task to fill those shoes, but Rhodes has shown the ability to do so and is thriving in gaining knowledge from two highly talented drivers who are so accomplished in the sport.
“I’d say the biggest help for me so far has been Dale (Earnhardt Jr) and Kevin (Harvick). Dale’s gone out of his way to talk to me, he’ll get out of his race car and bring me to the hauler and spend that entire time with me talking about the race car, trying to help me understand and get better. Kevin is a very busy guy being the Sprint Cup champion, but when he has time, like during the qualifying sessions, he’ll get out of his car and talk to me just like Dale does and that’s a huge help because they have the feel that I’m looking for and they can verbalize and explain it and it definitely helps.”
Now with two XFINITY Series events completed, Rhodes has finished seventh at Iowa Speedway and 21st at Chicagoland Speedway. Although he’s competed at Iowa in the K&N Series, Rhodes has never raced at Chicagoland until this past weekend. He was competing in the top-15 for most of the race before having a minor situation put him back a bit. From my observation, Rhodes showed pure talent, without regard for his inexperience at the track, competing with the best in the series. His finish was not indicative of his racing ability and he’s sure to improve on that in his next race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The way Rhodes has broken down his approach for his ten races this season is interesting with an escalating progression.
“These first five races of my schedule, I’m taking it as a learning approach,” said Rhodes. “I’ll get that baseline for myself. I’ll get that background and then the last five, I’ll go on attack. Although I’m still learning and want to finish all the laps, but I’ll get more aggressive and start going after some better positions. Instead of maybe giving a little more, I’ll start taking a little more.”
It’s rare to see a racer, at the age of 18, with the ability to follow his plan and allow himself to stand aside and learn. Rhodes is a remarkable talent and a tremendously gracious young man. This racer is the total package – expect to see some fire at New Hampshire Motor Speedway July 18th and beyond. Although Rhodes is a nice guy, there is a fierce competitor inside that is ready to make the most of his JR Motorsports’ opportunity.