Kentucky native Ben Rhodes won the Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway on Thursday night. The win was Rhodes’ first of the season and second of his career.
Noah Gragson brought the field to the green flag and disaster didn’t wait long to strike as John Hunter Nemechek tangled with Tyler Matthews in turn 1. Matthews’ truck was sent into the wall to bring out the race’s first caution. The restart was cleaner and Gragson jumped out to a nice lead. The strongest truck of the 35 lap stage belonged to Rhodes who slowly chipped into Gragson’s lead before passing him with three laps to go to win the stage.
Stage 2 belonged soley to Gragson, he led every lap and held off a late charge from teammate Brandon Jones to claim the stage win.
In the pits following the stage Gragson had a long stop due to a wheel spacer being put on his truck. Parker Kligerman restarted upfront after only taking two tires. Kligerman led 12 laps before being passed by Stewart Friesen with 63 laps to go. Final pit stops came with 28 to go and Rhodes gambled with no tires with put him ahead of Friesen, where he stayed en route to the win.
