March 29, 2024

Rhodes rolls to K&N Series race win at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON — Ben Rhodes gave NASCAR K&N Pro Series West drivers a glimpse Saturday night at what his East counterparts have been experiencing the first few months of the season.

Rhodes, who entered Saturday night’s race with four top-five finishes in the East series’ first five races and an 18-point cushion in the East series standings, won the Casey’s General Stores 150 at Iowa Speedway.

Saturday’s race was the first of two joint East-West races this season. Rhodes won the race by 2.377 seconds and secured his second victory of the year in the process.

Rhodes posted the second-fastest time during the afternoon qualifying session and never fell back from the leader early in the race. The 17-year-old high school junior then went on to lead 115 of the 150 laps at Iowa Speedway.

“I just felt like we had to be in the right position,” Rhodes said. “I didn’t want to fall back too far, but at the same time we needed to save tires and we got to the halfway point, told them what we needed and the track actually changed a lot once we went back out with the sun going down and the changes they made really worked out well and made me capable of saving the tires and not having to fall back at all. I think that was the key to our race tonight.”

Nick Drake, Scott Heckert and Jay Beasley finished second, third and fourth  — all career best finishes in a joint East-West race.

The race recognized winners from both the East and West series and David Mayhew, who finished ninth overall, was the top West performer Saturday night.

More on the first race of the 2014 season at Iowa Speedway in Monday’s Newton Daily News.