NASCAR Insider Solves Denny Hamlin’s Confusion Behind Ben Rhodes’ Second ‘Tipsy’ Presser

The iconic Ben Rhodes press conference returned with a second installment. Rhodes became the only fifth driver in Craftsman Truck Series history to win multiple championships and joined some of the sport’s greats in an elite company. The 26-year-old driver took advantage of the chaos unleashed by the power struggle between fellow contenders Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim.

Exuberant after an unexpected win that brought him his second Truck Series title in three years, he inebriated himself to a good amount before letting the world know about his thoughts. This takes Denny Hamlin and his co-host Jared Alen back to 2021, the previous instance of Rhodes’ tipsy press conference, as they dig deep to find the story behind it.

Denny Hamlin believes Ben Rhodes performed when it mattered

The Truck Series Championship race was a chaotic affair. The clashes between Hocevar and Heim continued throughout the evening until the final retaliation from Heim. The race underwent four restarts in overtime, as the problem seemed never-ending. At one point in time, Grant Enfinger was the best-posted driver to win the race. However, with restarts shuffling the order and Enfinger having to take the pit road for a change, he fell behind Rhodes in the pecking order.

Rhodes’ truck also suffered some damage, but he held on to his small lead over the #23 truck to emerge as a 2-time Craftsman Truck champion. As per Denny Hamlin, his win was an unexpected development. Speaking on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, the Cup Series veteran revealed, “Ben Rhodes is the Truck Series champion. I don’t know who saw that coming. With all due respect to Ben Rhodes, he didn’t have a whole lot going on this year. But he won the race that mattered, and he’s the champion again.”

Rhodes brought back the festive feeling from his 2021 win as he headed straight to The Barn. The Barn is a hospitality area within the Phoenix Raceway premises that also includes an allotted space for a bar. The ThorSport Racing driver started the conference by saying,

“I’ll kick us off with this: I was the experiment in 2021 because they just built The Barn. I went to The Barn first; they’ve taken me to The Barn second. It’s like they learned something. So guess what I did? I got lit beforehand!”

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Rhodes’ drunken state has piqued Hamlin’s interest. As he pondered the thought of what could have unfolded between the track and the media center, he said, “We’ve got the great Ben Rhodes presser after. What’s interesting is that they said he goes from being totally sober in the truck in 10 minutes to absolutely hammered in the media center. I guess that happens between the transportation between the car and the media center.” Well, as the winner of the championship race, Rhodes does get the right to decide the way he would celebrate a hard-fought win.

Jared Allen unearths the story behind Rhodes’ enjoyable press conference

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Responding to Denny Hamlin’s request to know more about how Ben Rhodes managed to get himself drunk to the brim prior to meeting the media personnel, co-host Jared Allen told him about the history between the Barn and Rhodes.

“They said they moved his barn appearance to after the press conference,” stated Jared. “He knew that and went all in on the victory lane champagne. 2 years ago, when they won the championship, they went to the barn first and then the media center, which is why he was so hammered. But this year, they changed it to put the barn after the media center.”

“He heard that they did that. So he just got hammered in the victory lane on the champagne.“, added Allen.

Rhodes was unaffected by the change in the order of events and was absolutely hard-willed to have his moment from two years ago. Despite that, the community thoroughly enjoyed the moment. Rhodes often interrupted the conversation by himself, either burping or breaking out a laugh, and even poured some beer on his crew chief.

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Moments and personalities like this are what make NASCAR a much more enjoyable sport. To be able to see the fun and more extravagant side of the drivers is truly great for the sport to create a connection with the fans.