DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway was nearly an exact repeat of the finish from one year ago.
For the second race in a row, a ThorSport Racing truck edged out journeyman driver Jordan Anderson for the win at the World Center of Racing in a photo finish following an overtime restart.
This time, however, instead of Grant Enfinger it was Ben Rhodes who collected the victory laurels.
Rhodes was running second with a half lap to go, behind another underdog in 43-year-old Texan Cory Roper, and used a classic slingshot to the outside coming off turn four to rocket past Roper’s No. 04 entering the tri-oval.
As the field crashed behind them, Rhodes took the checkered flag in front by a nose for his first win at Daytona, with Anderson sneaking through all the chaos on the bottom to finish second once again.
The official margin of victory for Rhodes’ No. 99 Bombardier Toyota Tundra was .036 seconds.
It marked Rhodes’ fourth career Truck Series win and also gave ThorSport a win in the team’s first race since moving back to Toyota from Ford during the offseason.
After a smoky burnout at the flagstand, a jubilant Rhodes climbed out and saluted the cheering fans in attendance at the 2.5-mile superspeedway
“I don’t even know,” answered Rhodes after being asked how he won the race. “I’ve got to give such a big thank you to my team. This is so special. It’s the biggest win of my career. I can’t even believe this. As a driver, you’re always asked about what your biggest accomplishment is. This is it. This is hands down it. This is the place to be. I can’t even believe it.
“We came back to Toyota and we won in our first race with them back with ThorSport,” Rhodes added. “I can’t thank (team owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson enough for this opportunity. This is special.”
Friday’s overtime finish, which pushed the race one lap past its scheduled distance, was set up by a 10-truck crash in turns one and two after Timothy Peters came across the nose of rookie Drew Dollar.
Once the middle of the pack disintegrated and the smoke finally cleared, heavy hitters including Peters, Tyler Ankrum, Raphael Lessard and Johnny Sauter were all involved, ending their chances at a win.
Meanwhile, the race remained under caution as opposed to going under red-flag conditions, setting up the extra-distance finish with Rhodes down low and David Gilliland up high on the front row.
Rhodes got a huge push from his ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton when the green flag waved, with a third Toyota in Dollar getting Rhodes well out in the lead halfway down the backstretch on the first lap of overtime.
The charge from the outside came in turns three and four coming back to the white flag, as Creed surged forward with help from Roper. Creed got to the point by half a truck length at the white flag, but slapped the outside wall going into turn one and got shuffled to the extreme outside lane as a result.
At that point, as Creed lost momentum, Roper slid down to the bottom in front of Rhodes and received a big push from Rhodes exiting turn two that got him roughly two truck lengths clear of the field.
That was the moment, as Roper later explained, that he knew he was “a sitting duck.”
Rhodes stayed within range, getting back to Roper’s bumper in turn four, and finally made his move to the outside coming into the tri-oval as contact between Dollar and Kris Wright sparked a huge wreck from fourth on back.
That was no consequence to the Louisville, Ky., native, who cleared Roper coming to the finish line and had enough momentum to fend off Anderson’s last-gasp charge as well.
Roper’s third-place finish was something he noted was “like a win” after the race, but he did lament coming so close to a victory at Daytona and ending up short after leading with a quarter-lap to go.
“I got a little too far out in front there, and I’d never really been in that situation before, so I was listening and doing the best I could … but once we got off into turn four, I couldn’t get it pulled down in time to throw a block,” Roper explained. “We had gotten a little tight at that point and that hurt us a little bit, I think.
“This is the first year we’re going to attempt the full (Truck Series) season, and what a way to start it off,” Roper added. “We’re feeling very blessed right now. My guys worked so hard on this truck. It’s just amazing to be able to be here and live this dream at Daytona.”
Behind Rhodes, Anderson and Roper, the Niece Motorsports duo of Ryan Truex and Carson Hocevar fought their way through the last-lap carnage to cross the line fourth and fifth, respectively.
Defending series champion Sheldon Creed was sixth, followed by Nemechek, who rallied from being involved in the lap-95 Big One to finish seventh in his first race with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Codie Rohrbaugh, Chandler Smith and Dollar filled out the top 10. Smith led a race-high 22 laps Friday.
Including the final-lap crash that officially ended the race under caution, Friday’s chaotic affair was slowed by a record-tying 11 yellow flags.
It also tied a second statistical record as well, with 31 lead changes matching the mark set during the inaugural Truck Series race at Daytona from 2000.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season continues Feb. 19 with the Sunoco 159 from the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course. Creed is the defending winner of the event.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.