NASCAR has suspended two crew members from the Ben Rhodes No. 99 team of the Truck Series following a penalty issued for the Nashville race. Pedro Martinez and Evan Clay have been suspended from the next two NASCAR Truck Series races for “Loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle during the event,” per Jayski.com.
Martinez and Evans will not be at Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway and the race at San Diego on Friday, June 19. Additionally, NASCAR announced that Quinta Funderburk has been suspended indefinitely.
Rhodes drives full-time in the Truck Series for ThorSport Racing. He finished 28th in the Nashville race but has put together a strong season. In 11 races, Rhodes has four top-five finishes, including a P4 finish at Charlotte one week before Nashville. In his career, Rhodes has won seven Truck Series races and has claimed the Truck Series championship in 2021 and 2023.
Ben Rhodes in the running to win another NASCAR Truck Series title
Rhodes has competed in one Cup Series race, which was in 2021, when he finished 30th at Sonoma. In a 2024 interview with Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Rhodes was asked what he would change about his career to compete in more Cup races.
“I’m pretty content with where I’m at,” he said. “Does that mean I don’t have ambitions to do it? Not at all. I was telling my wife the other day: So long as ThorSport would bless it, I would love to go out and run a whole bunch of Xfinity races and I would love to go run a whole lot of Cup races.
“I’m a race-car driver, and I love being in the race car, whatever it is. So any opportunity I can get, I’m gonna jump on it, just like we did with the IMSA Ford Mustang GT4s at the Rolex this year. (That was a) phenomenal experience. I had so much fun with that. It blew my mind how fun that side of racing is.”
Rhodes is currently seventh in this year’s NASCAR Truck Series standings. He is 158 points behind the leader, Layne Riggs, who has won three races this year.