Ben Rhodes wins Bristol Dirt battle over Carson Hocevar

Carson Hocevar has been searching for his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win and it appeared to finally be in reach during Friday’s Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, but Ben Rhodes left him waiting for another day. Both drivers led all 150 laps, but Rhodes dominated the event by sweeping both stages. Although Hocevar led much of the final segment, Rhodes passed him shortly after a restart with four laps remaining to take his first win of 2022.

Rhodes started second alongside Joey Logano, but the former took the lead right away and hit the ground running by leading every lap in Stages #1 and #2. However, it was not smooth sailing for the reigning champion as he had missed pit road between segments; although the stages were short enough that fuel and tyres were not of utmost importance hence his domination of Stage #2, the error forced him to pit ahead of the final stage.

As Rhodes began Stage #3 in thirteenth following his stop, Hocevar—who finished the second stage in eighth—inherited the lead. After only one caution was called in each of the first two stages for Andrew Gordon and Kris Wright‘s spins, the first of the final segment occurred just four laps in for an especially bizarre incident: Austin Wayne Self rammed into Matt DiBenedetto‘s rear, accidentally causing the two trucks to become connected at the bumpers. This pseudo-tandem draft was obviously not a viable “strategy” in dirt racing, forcing the two to stop on the track and wait for crews to separate them.

Three more yellow flags flew in the stage for Keith McGee‘s spin, Chandler Smith turning Christian Eckes, and Buddy Kofoid and Ty Majeski‘s spin that ended with Derek Kraus sliding into the former. The last caution set up a restart with five laps remaining. While Hocevar led the first lap, Rhodes had a run along the outside line to that he used to pass Hocevar with a crossover move. Despite Hocevar and John Hunter Nemechek‘s efforts, Rhodes pulled away.

“Second just sucks. It does. It’s terrible, especially being that close,” Hocevar told FOX Sports.

“We have Bryan Clauson‘s logo on the car and ‘m wearing the shirt still. I was hoping to be able to give him tribute. He was definitely with me tonight. Hopefully, Tim (Clauson, Bryan’s father) and everybody that he really touched was really happy seeing that BC out front again. He was definitely with me tonight running that thing as hard as we were.”

With a dirt victory, Rhodes has now won on nearly every track type in the Truck Series, if not a complete sweep depending on definition. Two of his six career wins (Kentucky and Las Vegas) came on intermediates, one (Darlington) on a more traditional oval, and a 2021 Daytona sweep for superspeedway and road course. While Bristol, being a half-mile circuit, is normally a short track, it is reasonable to balk at giving its dirt layout that label rather than the traditional asphalt. Rhodes can add the pavement version if he wins there on 15 September.

“It was a tough race once the track started to slick off,” said Rhodes. “It held moisture in different pockets around the track. It was hard to hunt for the grip, but luckily, I had a really good team behind me telling me where to go and where they tried to see it. I just tried to follow their instruction.

“I really wanted to get to the front, but it was so hard to pass. I just didn’t want to give it away. I told (FOX analyst) Michael Waltrip that nah, everything was cool. We meant to stay out, but truthfully, mistake by me. We got the stage win because of it, but you don’t want to forfeit the win, so we had to get to the front. I knew we had the truck to beat, we just had to get there.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	150	Running
2	6	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
3	18	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	150	Running
4	4	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
5	19	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	150	Running
6	1	54	Joey Logano*	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	150	Running
7	7	7	Chase Elliott*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
8	16	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
9	14	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	150	Running
10	17	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	150	Running
11	3	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	150	Running
12	12	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
13	33	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	150	Running
14	10	20	Austin Dillon*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
15	35	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	150	Running
16	27	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
17	21	33	Mike Marlar	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	150	Running
18	26	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	150	Running
19	5	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	150	Running
20	23	17	Harrison Burton*	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	150	Running
21	8	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	150	Running
22	13	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
23	29	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	150	Running
24	34	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
25	28	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
26	25	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
27	32	51	Buddy Kofoid	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	150	Running
28	24	30	Tate Fogleman	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	149	Running
29	15	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	149	Running
30	31	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	149	Running
31	20	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	147	Running
32	22	49	Andrew Gordon	G2G Racing	Ford	146	Running
33	30	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	146	Running
34	36	43	Keith McGee	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	146	Running
35	9	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	145	Running
36	11	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	143	Running
DNQ		62	Jessica Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota
DNQ		6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Truck points