Ben Rhodes: Christian Eckes is ‘at Taylor Gray’s mercy next week’ after Martinsville incident

Last night in all of the chaos and drama of the Taylor Gray and Christian Eckes ordeal, Ben Rhodes was left out despite being very much involved. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series can be physical at times.

Martinsville Speedway seems to bring out this physical racing. At times, more than just physical, outright poor driving. But is that what went down on Friday night?

Taylor Gray got the boot. Ben Rhodes wasn’t raced quite as aggressively and didn’t mind the contact. But he knows that Christian Eckes will have to answer for something.

“My heart rate jumped up like 100 clicks when I finally got the lead. I was like, ‘Oh this is happening, this is happening, we’re going to do it.’ The closest I’ve come to a grandfather clock and yeah, sure enough I said, ‘Man, he got a really good run off of Turn 4, I better drive it in like super deep into 1.’ I drove into as deep as I could go,” Rhodes said after the race, via Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “I mean, I couldn’t go any further and not make the race track. And somehow he got to me. I know how he got to me, he didn’t use brakes. So, he got to me and used me as his brakes, but um, you know, again I guess you’ll have that.”

Despite being raced hard and having a win taken from him, Ben Rhodes was all smiles. He had a strong Martinsville run. And he doesn’t have to worry about Eckes after Phoenix, so why be upset?

Ben Rhodes knows Christian Eckes is in danger

As a two-time Truck Series champion, Ben Rhodes knows how this goes. He knows how revenge works in the Truck Series. In fact, there is a very recent example.

Last year the championship race was a mess. Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar made sure of it.

“It was. You know, if I was… I’ll be careful what I say here. But the championship mindset that you have to have to win championships is playing big picture,” Rhodes explained. “Even in this playoff format. So, what could have easily played out is I could have lost my head and dumped him and then I don’t know if he would have been locked in or not or I could go to Phoenix, right, and it could play out really ugly. I’m not like that.

“The point I’m trying to make though is when you’re running for a championship, you have to do that big picture racing. We saw it last year, Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim get into each other, they ruin each other’s chances for a championship. So, when you’re locked in and you’re running really rough and you’re making enemies like with Taylor Gray, that’s a big deal because he’s not going to Phoenix now and he would have probably, I think Christian still would have made it on points and now he’s at Taylor’s mercy next week.”

Could this Taylor Gray and Christian Eckes scuffle rear its head next week? Ben Rhodes thinks so.