Late-Race Incident Relegates Rhodes to a 20th-Place Finish at Phoenix – Misses the Championship 4
What are your thoughts on the wreck?
“Yeah, you know, there’s definitely a time and place to go three-wide. I think that there was still a lot of racing to do. I could have done the same move to the guy in front of me, but chose not to do it because it wasn’t the time. He (Austin Cindric) put me in a bad place, and I tired to do everything I could to keep the spot, but once you filed into Turn 1 we were all going to wreck, so I’m not sure that was the right move on his part. I did everything I could to just make sure we were having a good day. We were in front of him all day long, and we were going to be in the Championship 4. It looked like a desperation move to me because there was so much racing left. I guess if I was in his position, I mean I can’t blame him, but it’s definitely not the move I would have liked to see this early in the race. You know, the line in front of me started checking up, and I could have done the same thing, but you have to be smart on the restarts, especially when you have what, 70 laps to go still?”
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Was Austin Cindric justified in nosing underneath there?
“Well, he didn’t have the position on me at all. His nose was barely in there, he didn’t back up, he wouldn’t ever have made the corner, so, you know, just driving over his head I guess. I don’t know. We’re just going to go forward from here to Homestead (Miami Speedway) and finish out the season strong. I guess we’ll still have fifth-place to cheer about. Just, you know, unfortunate for my teammate (Matt Crafton). He was having a really good run today. It’s sad that we tore up two good trucks for Duke Thorson (team owner) and ThorSport Racing. There’s a lot of hard workers at ThorSport racing that put these trucks together and, you know, just sad to see that stuff happen.”
What were your emotions after the accident?
“Yeah, I was pretty mad. They got me calmed down there in the medical center, so we’re just going to move forward from here and finish out the season strong and show everybody that had we not get taken out here that we should be the champion.”
Team Information:
Started: 3rd
Finished: 20th
Laps: 129/150
Laps Led: 0
Status: Accident
Driver Points: 5th
Owner Points: 10th