Ben Rhodes wins at Daytona and Busch drives by to win Clash

    After suffering through a season of a pandemic, social changes, and learning of the loss of our home race at Kentucky Speedway the time has finally arrived to drop the green flag in the 2021 NASCAR season.
    The week started off with the Clash on a Tuesday night, a nonpoint event, but no less competitive. The race was NASCAR first as it was ran on the road course at Daytona. At one point, the race had to be red flagged so the blowers could clear dirt in one of the turns. It had become such a hazard drivers were complaining on the scanner that they could not see and conditions were unsafe. At the end of the race two best friends, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, found themselves fighting for the win. As they went through the last two turns Blaney slid under Elliott for the lead and looked to be on his way to the win. In racing there are no friends on the last lap and as the two rubbed each other eventually into the wall, Kyle Busch waved at them as he passed and picked up the win.
    Busch had a horrible season last year, but I’ll go on record now and say he could be the champion this season. I would not be shocked at all to see him win eight or nine races. He has never been one to accept adversity sitting down. Just think back to the season he broke his leg.
    The trucks kick started the season on Friday night. A mix of veteran drivers and new faces took to the track. Hailie Deegan moved over from ARCA to the trucks this season and for a while in qualifying held the pole position.  In her first race as a truck driver she ended up starting eight and was running a good race and sounded very calm and collected in the scanner. She ended up being wrecked by other drivers hitting their brakes in a cloud of Speedy Dry and tearing up the front of her truck.  Kentucky native Ben Rhodes was near the front of the pack the whole race. With pack racing you go forward and you go backward it’s all a part of the drafting process. However at the end of the night Rhodes found himself leading the pack and having to defend his spot. On the last lap it looked as though he was going to get passed coming out of the last turn, but he was able to block and hold on fir a close win.