The 10 drivers competing for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship participated in a media day event this afternoon, including Ford drivers Ty Majeski and defending champion Ben Rhodes. Here are transcripts of their media sessions.
BEN RHODES, No. 99 ThorSport Racing F-150 – WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS AGAIN AS THE NINTH SEED WITH ONLY TWO PLAYOFF POINTS? “Just the fact that we’ve done it. I think that’s gonna tell us we can do it again, and I don’t mean that rude in any way, it’s just that we have the blueprint. We’ve done it twice and we’ve done it when our back has been against the wall. We’ve done it when we had to get in on tiebreakers, where we had to do crazy strategy and we’d get in on a point. We’ve been put through the crucible. We’ve gone through the ringer and somehow we’ve found a way to still make it to the next round. I can thoroughly say that the pressure doesn’t get to us at all. If we make any mistakes, it will be just from sheer incompetence. It won’t be from nervousness or feeling any sort of pressure. I can say at the racetrack now that I feel pretty locked in with all of my guys. I’ve been pretty hard on some people and hard on myself, but I’ve been like that for years. I just try to demand the best that we can out of everybody and, of course, of myself. We ask a lot as far as accountability goes and I think that’s all needed right now, especially with our current situation. I feel good about it, I really do. The first round here, with these three races, are races that our stats don’t show well at, but they don’t show well at the first two simply because we had a mistake last year at Milwaukee. We got involved in a wreck at Bristol and then Kansas I think that got a little bit away from our setup, so we’ll work on that one. All in all, it’s a good round for us. If we just do our part, I think we can make it in just fine.”
DO YOU THINK THE SPEED IS THERE AT THIS POINT? “Yeah, the speed can be there. We’ve got to unload a little closer, though. That’s kind of where we’re at with this Next Gen practice session. You have to unload off your transporter straight from the race shop perfect, and there’s no opportunity to really tune on the truck. There are a lot of times where I know what’s wrong, but I don’t have the tools available to me to fix it. When you’re at the racetrack, you’ve got packers, so you can adjust your bar load and the actual splitter gap. You can work on air pressures. You can work on spring rubbers, track bar, wedge – stuff like that. That’s all fine-tuning tools. It’s not really anything you can do to wholesale the truck or get it closer. You can’t change anything really, so it’s just something that we’ve got to do a little better job of unloading close and making sure that when we’re there the tools that are available to us actually help us rather than saying, ‘Well, there’s nothing in our toolbox we can do right now.’”
HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT YOUR SITUATION GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS. ANY STRESS? “I’ve been in a lot worse situations than Richmond, unfortunately, I guess, but, fortunately, struggles and suffering is what makes you a better person in life. By walking through those struggles and those challenges in past years, it’s made us pretty calm, or at least me pretty calm in the current situation. Right now, that’s my mindset and I just try to bring that about to everybody on my team. Everybody that has a hand in on this race track needs to be feeling the same way. They need to be calm, cool, collected and just ultimately focused on getting some points right now. Nothing has really changed since Richmond. I think the temptation to change comes after the checkered flag at Milwaukee. That’s where you have to see where you’re at and see what alterations need to happen.”
WHAT CHALLENGES DOES MARTINSVILLE POSE AS AN ELIMINATION RACE RIGHT BEFORE THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4? “This is the priority right now, this first round, but, honestly, my eyes are still focused on the next round. That’s always the round that matters most is that final round before getting to Phoenix, so I’m already looking at that, just kind of like you mentioned. Martinsville is going to be a challenge, but it’s one of my favorite racetracks. We’ve been going there for so long and I actually started racing there in late models once upon a time, so I love that place. It is true, there’s nowhere to hide if you’re really slow, but if you’re fast, you can kind of hide wherever you like actually. That’s just the name of the game anywhere we go. Speed breed success and speed affords different opportunities and Martinsville is really no different in that regard. The problem with Martinsville being a playoff race though is, as a playoff driver, you can find yourself in trouble from the non-playoff drivers that don’t cut you any slack. Pretty much every time they’re more desperate that time of year to give themselves some success to their program, and when that happens you can find yourself in their way and they don’t care that you have a red spoiler. They’re worried about themselves as they should.”
HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR SEASON TO DATE? “It hasn’t been a good season for us necessarily. From where my standards are and how we’ve been running, and the standards for the whole race team it’s been below what we want, but that’s OK. We have to be able to look at that and compartmentalize that and then apply whatever wisdom we know to garnering results and success. The minute we stop trying to look at it and being realistic that’s a problem, so realistically it hasn’t been the best season. Actually, in the past three years or so that we’ve made runs at championships, this has been the worst that we’ve entered into the playoffs and that comes from the bad regular season. I started out the first part of the season with Rich Lushes as my crew chief and now I have Doug Randolph, so there was a little bit of a swap up there, but as a whole, I’ve maintained my core group of guys and we’ve just been working on the same stuff. It hasn’t been the best, but I think we’ll be just fine. The biggest thing to realize right now going into the playoffs this first round is all about not making mistakes. Then after that you’ve got to have three absolutely perfect races for the next round.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TALK TO DOUG ABOUT WHAT THIS PLAYOFF SCENARIO IS LIKE, OR YOU LET HIM STILL ADVISE YOU? “I think it goes both ways. I think that’s how a good, proper driver-crew chief relationship should work. He hasn’t been in the pressure cooker spotlight in a few years, but he has been around for a very long time. The best thing about Doug is he’s so calm, cool, collected under normal circumstances. That’s what we’ve worked under so far and the playoffs I’ve yet to see, but if he’s anything like his normal self, he should be just fine. Realistically, that’s what’s best for drivers are calm crew chiefs that can see an evaluate things clearly and make the best decision as it’s happening. And I think most of that comes from personal life, at least it does for me. If I’ve got a good personal life, good family life, good foundation, you can perform well under pressure and also a good race team. Our relationship with ThorSport Racing, Duke and Rhonda Thorson have been fantastic. They’ve been amazing to me and we just want to go win championships for them. They give us all the tools to do it and when you have support like that, it makes it easy to go out and not let the pressure get to you.”
IS THE FIRST ROUND JUST A CASE OF NOT LOSING IT AND THEN BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THE SECOND ROUND? “You’ve got to be aggressive right away, but it’s got to be moderate. We see it every year. Some of the guys that come into the playoffs that maybe don’t have the experience or they’re just up on the chip drivers, they usually can throw away their chances in the first round and since there are only two being cut, the biggest thing to do is just have steady races. Something is going to happen unfortunate to somebody in this first round. It may only happen to one driver, it could happen to two, but those are the ones that will have the disadvantage, so the biggest thing is to have consistent races, get your stage points, and that will get you to the next round. After that, you’ve got to be perfect.”
ARE YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHIES IN YOUR HOUSE? DO YOU LOOK AT THEM FOR MOTIVATION? “The trophies are there at the house, but I’m very much a ‘you’re only as good as your last race’ type of driver. We’ve got championships. That says it right here on the patch, but to me what happens in the past means nothing in the present or the future. The experience you take with you means a lot, but the accolades, to me, don’t really mean anything. I really very much function – the last race is what makes your career for you, so I approach everything that way. When I’m at home I really don’t have anything racing out in the house. My wife likes having that stuff around. She thinks it’s cool and that it’s something cool for our kids to talk about, but I really don’t like it in the house. I put all that stuff aside and when I go home I’m Ben the family guy, and then when I go to the race team I’m immersed in racing. I don’t really look back a whole lot, I guess.”
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 ThorSport Racing F-150 – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT STARTING THE PLAYOFFS AT WHAT COULD BE CALLED YOUR HOME TRACK? “It’s always special to go back to your home track. It’s nice to have a Wisconsin race on the NASCAR schedule. I feel like it’s such a honey hole and a great demographic for NASCAR fans and race fans in general. Hopefully, we keep going back. I think it would be a huge missed opportunity if there isn’t NASCAR in Wisconsin some way, shape or form. But it’s very special to go and kick off the playoffs in Milwaukee, a track that’s special to me. I’ve gotten a chance to win there a couple of times, so it would be a huge deal to go there and run well for not only myself, but Joe Shear, Jr. That’s his NASCAR home track so to speak as well from southern Wisconsin. I’m excited to go back there and hopefully we can carry our momentum.”
NICK SANCHEZ SAID YOU ARE ONE OF THE TOP THREE DRIVERS HE HAS TO WORRY ABOUT. IS THAT HOW YOU VIEW YOURSELF GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “Yeah, I do. I think we’re one of those top three contenders, for sure, especially coming off of these two wins. I think we’re probably carrying the most momentum in the series right now. I feel like maybe our valleys have been a little bit lower than the 19 and the 11, but I feel like our peaks have been similar, so as long as we can just peak at the right time and keep this momentum going, there’s no reason why we can’t be a competitor when we hopefully get to Phoenix. I feel good about where we’re at. Our team is in a really good spot. We’re working really well together right now. Obviously, coming off of two wins is a huge deal. Our 98 team always seems to peak right about playoff time, so we’re ready for another good playoff run.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON SOME OF THOSE CHALLENGING YEARS THAT ULTIMATELY LED TO THIS OPPORTUNITY? “I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason. I feel like I learned a lot about not only myself, but how to navigate the NASCAR industry. There’s a lot of things that a lot of people don’t see from the outside looking in and how this business works behind the scenes. I think I just learned how to put myself in better situations and place myself and give myself a better path to success, not necessarily taking any opportunity that’s in front of me. I’m trying to look at that opportunity and understand where the team is at with whether it’s dollars or spending or different affiliations that they have with other teams. So, just looking at all of these opportunities as a whole and understanding where that team is at at that time is a big deal, and ensuring yourself success and a good opportunity. I think through those things, obviously, mentally it was not easy being a super successful late model driver and then coming into the NASCAR ranks and having what I call two failed opportunities, and then obviously landing on my feet at ThorSport was a huge deal for my career. I’m super thankful to have those failures because I felt like I learned a lot about myself as a person and as a driver to shape me up for success with ThorSport.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR REGULAR SEASON? “I think it’s been the timing of the racetracks and how the schedule lays out specifically for myself and the 98 team. Coming to Richmond and IRP are probably our two best tracks as far as myself and Joe Shear, my crew chief, obviously a really good short track crew chief. I feel like I excel on the short tracks, so it’s just been the timing of when those races are at in the schedule, and I feel like the playoff schedule really lays out well for us as a team. We’re obviously going to my home track in Milwaukee, and then to Bristol, which I’ve won at. Kansas I’ve run second at and Homestead and Martinsville I’ve won at Homestead and second at Martinsville. Obviously, Talladega is a little bit of a wildcard, so just the way the playoff tracks lay out is very, very good for our team. They’re all good tracks for us and I feel like we’re starting to peak at the right time here and put races together like we need to in order to advance through the rounds.”
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF RACING AT PHOENIX IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE? “It’s situational. Obviously, there’s a lot on the line. We’ve had very good trucks at Phoenix the last two races and obviously the 2023 Phoenix race turned into a race that none of us should be proud of from a series perspective. It was filled with yellows and people putting each other in bad situations, so we qualified second there and won the first stage. We had the speed to really win that race, so the finish has probably been skewed with how we’ve run there the last couple years. I think we’re as confident as we’ve ever been going back to Phoenix. We see a lot of similarities from Milwaukee to Phoenix. Probably the most similar track we can find to Phoenix is Milwaukee, so we’re trying something outside of our comfort zone package-wise going to Milwaukee and hopefully hit on it for Phoenix.”
WHEN YOU RACED AS A KID IN THIS STATE WAS THERE A PART OF YOU THAT WANTED TO RACE AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE AND HOW HAVE YOU DONE THERE? “I’ve been to Milwaukee probably six or seven times. I have two wins there in a super late model and have my one Truck start, so I have some experience there. Obviously, it’s a race that really eluded me for a lot of years on the late model side. I think my first win there wasn’t until 2021 and I’ve been racing there since around 2014. I’ve raced there about once a year. There were a couple off years in there where the track shut down and we didn’t go there, but I have some experience there which helps. The rest of the series, having just gone back there last year, a lot of these guys either have no experience there or one race max, so I feel like it’s a home type track for me. I definitely probably have the most seat time there in the series and that’s always a help anytime you go to any of these racetracks.”
HOW GOOD IS IT TO SEE MILWAUKEE GETTING BACK INTO THE BIG TIME RACING GAME? “As I said before, Wisconsin is such a great area for racing in general, whether it’s dirt racing or late model racing. There are a ton of fans up there and a lot of traction in motorsports up in Wisconsin. I think it would be a huge missed opportunity if NASCAR didn’t go there in some way, shape or form, whether it be Road America, Milwaukee or some other track. There are just a ton of fans up there that love racing, that are true hardcore race fans and I’m thankful to experience them all the time. I’m thankful enough to race up in Wisconsin on the late model side a ton and I know what those fans offer up there. I think Milwaukee was a huge success last year, at least visually from the infield. The stands were packed, which we don’t see at a lot of these Truck races, so hopefully we keep finding a way to go back to Wisconsin.”
DOES IT CREATE ANY ADDITIONAL SENSE OF URGENCY THIS WEEKEND WHEN IT HASN’T BEEN ANNOUNCED IF THE SERIES WILL BE GOING BACK NEXT SEASON? “A little bit. Knowing that it might be the last race there we want to win. We want to go there and I’ve always wanted to win a NASCAR level race at my home track in Milwaukee, so there’s natural pressure obviously starting the playoffs and we do more to prepare for playoff races, just like any pro sport team. You start putting all of the effort that you have and all the resources that you have come playoff time. You always try to step up your game. It sort of is still business as usual. You show up to every racetrack to win, but try and cross your t’s and dot your i’s and put as much effort in as you can into all of these playoff races and not just Milwaukee. It would certainly be a special win if we were able to pull off three in a row and win at Milwaukee. It would probably be the most special win of my career.”
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