Ben Rhodes wins wreck fest NextEra Energy 250

            The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returned Friday night to start the 2021 season at Daytona International Speedway. Thirty-six trucks made the race out of 46 trucks. Johnny Sauter won the pole, and Sheldon Creed qualified second. James Buescher (qualifying time disallowed) and Derek Kraus (unapproved adjustments) had to start at the back of the field.

Just as the race got underway, it quickly went into caution when Tanner Gray had an ignition issue that caused three trucks to wreck behind him. This was all before they crossed the starting line. Gray’s truck would head to the garage for the night. The wreck was one of ten cautions to happen throughout the race. The other drivers who were taken out of the race because of wrecks were Derek Kraus, James Buescher, Stewart Friesen, Gus Dean, Todd Gilliland, Tate Fogleman, Chase Purdy, Tyler Ankrum, and Timothy Peters.

Some of these inexperienced drivers were having a hard time handling the track, and it showed. The lack of experience, being moved up to early, and not enough practice time on the track proved detrimental for their teams, themselves, and the other drivers who took to the track. Many veterans in the series voiced their frustration that these drivers needed to be in ARCA.

Not only did the collisions happen on the track, but also pit road. Kris Wright was leaving pit road and hit Derek Kraus as he was entering pit road. Matt Crafton was hit by Timothy Peters, causing damage to Crafton’s left quarter panel. His team was able to put tape on it, and Crafton did well throughout the race.

Raphael Lessard won stage one. John Hunter Nemechek won stage two, giving them each ten points towards qualifying for the playoffs.

After the tenth caution, an overtime finish was necessary. On the final two laps, Cory Roper was leading the race and heading into turn four; Ben Rhodes went outside while Jordan Anderson headed low towards the finish line. Matt Crafton gave his teammate Ben Rhodes a good push, then blocked others from getting by. This resulted in banging and crashing while Rhodes was able to just edge Anderson for the win by .036 seconds.

The rest of the top-five finishers were Cory Roper third, Ryan Truex fourth, Carson Hocevar fifth, Sheldon Creed sixth, John Hunter Nemechek seventh, Codie Rohrbaugh eighth, Chandler Smith ninth, and Drew Dollar finished tenth.

The Truck Series will return to Daytona next Friday night when they race the road course at 7:30 pm on FS1.

#NASCARTrucks