Defending Ford Champ’s Team Comes to His Rescue After a Disappointing Start to 2024 Campaign

The Fords have been quick on the track, but they just haven’t managed to clinch a win yet. Their champion driver, Ben Rhodes, who snagged his second Truck Series championship last year, has hit a rough patch this season as well. Take Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup series champ; he nearly grabbed a win in Atlanta but fell just short. Then there’s Michael McDowell, behind the wheel of the #34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, who’s been struggling with an average finish of 31.2 over the last six races. Another Ford champ [Xfinity], Cole Custer, has also not been able to grab any wins this season after 10 races. 

Eight races in, and Rhodes hasn’t even cracked a single top-5, much less scored a win. Faced with these challenges, it looks like Rhodes’ team is ready to mix things up a bit, hoping a few changes might spark some better results at Darlington. Just a couple of days after Bommarito Automotive Group announced they’re sticking with ThorSport Racing and sponsoring Ben Rhodes for the 2024 NASCAR Truck Series season starting at Kansas Speedway, Rhodes’ team decided it was time for an internal shake-up. So not just Ben, even Jake Garcia will be undergoing some changes ahead of the Darlington weekend.

The 2-time Truck Series Champion currently stands at No. 12 ( 156 points behind Corey Heim) in the Truck Series standings. It looks like this could be a reason for an abrupt shuffle for Ben Rhodes and the #99 team, as it is set to work with crew chief Doug Randolph, while Jake Garcia’s #13 truck will get guidance from crew chief Rich Lushes. Not just this, even the lead engineers are swapping too. Major organizational changes, right?

Ben Rhodes and Rich Lushes have a solid history, bagging two championships together. This season they averaged a fourth-place finish and managed only one Top-10 finish (7th position at COTA) in the first eight races. On the other hand, Randolph and Garcia have a better average finish compared to Rhodes (18.3 vs. 18.5). But they have no Top-10s. But why such big changes? ThorSport believes “these adjustments offer new opportunities and signal our proactive approach to progress.” 

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a switch. Last year, Ben Rhodes teamed up with his third different crew chief of the season when Rich Lushes jumped back on board the #99 Ford F-150 for the last four races of the 2023 campaign. But that helped the defending champion. Over his full-time tenure with ThorSport Racing at the Truck Series level, Rhodes has seen quite a lineup of crew chiefs.

In his ninth full season competing in the Truck Series, driving the No. 99 Ford for ThorSport Racing, Ben Rhodes became the fifth multi-time Truck Series champion in 2023, padding his collection after his first title in 2021. The 26-year-old has 7 career Truck Series wins in four of the past five seasons and won the ARCA Menards Series East championship in 2014 (in his rookie year).

With just Eight races in now, Ben Rhodes’ is in a tough spot, and it’ll be interesting to see him climb up the ladder after these major changes.

Ben Rhodes’ odds of scoring a win at Darlington

Looking at the numbers, Ben’s average finish at Darlington is 16.0 over five starts, with two top-5 finishes. His last five runs on this track ended in 18th, 25th, 34th, 2nd, and 1st places. While it’s tough to predict whether Ben Rhodes can shake off his rough patch here, counting him out would be premature. The chance for a turnaround at Darlington is still in play. Does ThorSport believe Rhodes has a chance to score some good points there?

However, if we look back at last year’s Truck outing at Darlington, Fords were nowhere near the top. It was Chevy and Toyota that led the pack (Christian Eckes finished P1, followed by Stewart Friesen and Tanner Gray). Leading a race-high 82 of 158 laps, the No. 19 truck scored a convincing double-overtime victory. And for the defending champ, it was a mid-grid P18 finish.

Darlington Speedway has been a NASCAR staple since 1950, starting with Johnny Mantz’s win at the first Southern 500. Mantz famously used truck tires that outlasted everyone else, leading 351 of the 400 laps and finishing nine laps ahead on a scorching September day. The Xfinity Series, initially called the Grand National Series, started racing there in 1982. The Craftsman Truck Series first hit the track between 2001 and 2004, made a brief comeback in 2010-11, and has been a regular since 2020.

Only three NASCAR Truck Series drivers have managed multiple wins at Darlington, namely Sheldon Creed, Bobby Hamilton, and Kasey Kahne. Ben Rhodes, who took the checkered flag here in 2020, is definitely aiming to do it again to boost his 2024 season, secure a playoff spot, and get into the elite club of two-time winners.