BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ben Rhodes had a top-five No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford in Friday’s (April 11) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
He stated that he should’ve been in victory lane.
After starting ninth, Rhodes finished stage one in fourth place, then led 13 laps to claim the stage two victory.
With a change in pit sequence due to a caution about a dozen laps before the stage break, Rhodes lost some track position. He climbed all the way back to third, but after the final restart of the night with 27 to go, Rhodes slid from third to the back of the top 10, ultimately finishing 11th. The reason?
“I had an alternator issue,” Rhodes told Frontstretch post-race. “Basically, we won the second stage. We were running up front and then we got off sequence. When we started in the back, all the debris, all the wrecks, all the long caution laps just got the motor really hot, and we could not get it cooled down enough.
“And that’s kind of notorious for Bristol. The pace car goes really slow because of how quick we get back around the track after choose laps, things like that. So, I couldn’t get it cooled down and eventually just got really hot and kind of burned up the alternator. That unfortunately happened to us as we got into third place with just a handful of laps left. It shut off probably no less than seven or eight times. Everything shut off, my dash, I couldn’t even diagnose it.”
In order to finally diagnose the issue, everything but the engine itself was shut off.
“So, at that point, I cycled a bunch of stuff, was able to get it running, but still had no information,” Rhodes continued. “So I shut literally everything off but the motor. Nothing else was on in the truck. And eventually the dash came back on, said like 11.6 on voltage, which is really not good. If you’re at 11.6, you’re down on power. So we kind of were just in limp mode bringing it home in 11th place. We couldn’t have gone much longer, or we would’ve run out of juice in the battery.”
It was a tough way to end what looked to be an incredibly promising night.
“I’m usually really conservative, so I wouldn’t say this, but I quite honestly think we should be in victory lane tonight,” Rhodes stated. “I feel like we had the truck to beat. We got off sequence when we were running third or fourth, which led to our victory in the second stage. But if we just came back out in the top five with all those laps left, we would’ve got the lead, I think. I had to start in the back, then I had to pit again so I had to go to the back again, so it was just a really gnarly race after that.
“I really do think we had a truck that could win, and that’s what stings so bad. When you have a truck that’s really, really good, you don’t get those every day. And when you get that, you have to capitalize on it, and you better go win the race. And we didn’t do that tonight, so it really sucks. You have to seize the opportunity when it’s there.”
With seven NASCAR Cup Series drivers entered in Friday’s field, a Truck Series record, points were at a premium. Thanks to his stage points, Rhodes scored the second-most points, some consolation to take from the 0.533-mile short track.
“It was still a good day thanks to the stage points,” he added. “But yeah, I mean, the scary part is if that happened any sooner or we had to go any more laps, we wouldn’t have finished the race. You could just watch the voltage. I got the voltage up enough to finish by having everything off, which gets a little uncomfortable as a driver. You get no cooling, no fresh air. You got the visor shut and literally no fresh air with the helmet skirt on it. It’s hot, gets kind of stuffy, and then I’m just watching the voltage drop, drop, drop, so still got to be thankful that we finished, right? You gotta look at the silver lining and be thankful for what you got.”
Rhodes left Bristol eighth in points, now 44 points above the cut line and only 27 behind points leader Chandler Smith. While only six races have been completed thus far in the 2026 season, it’s one-third of the regular season complete. Every point matters, even when Rhodes had to endure a less-than-ideal situation.
To top it off, he was ill on Friday. Imagine racing at Bristol with a failing alternator and being sick. Not ideal conditions, and he finished 11th despite all the circumstances.
“That was a rough race,” Rhodes said. “I’ve had a few races where you don’t feel OK, you know, or you’re sick, but this one was painful actually. During the race, I was going through some pain, I’m better now but the race was especially challenging for that reason. …
“Embrace the suck or embrace the suffering.”
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.