Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan
So far this year hasn’t worked out as well as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would’ve hoped as he hasn’t the luck that he would’ve been wanting. So without a doubt and having a new sponsor on the car – Fifth Third – Stenhouse is hoping for some success.
:I think we’ve done a lot of work to our car this past couple of weeks,” Stenhouse commented. “Being off the oval last week we worked really hard on this car and I’m excited to get it on the race track and see what Mike Kelley and the guys put underneath this thing that hopefully will make it fast for us.”
In trying to find what’s missing, Stenhouse Jr. says that it’s not just one problem and it’s something that the entire Roush Fenway Racing team has missed to this point. In finding the solution, they haven’t spared expense as the sophomore driver notes that they’ve done a lot of testing. There have been some races where the car has been there, though, and Stenhouse recognizes that his mistakes have taken them out of contention.
Stenhouse sees an opportunity this weekend, though, based on previous 1.5-mile success in both Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series.
“The speed that they have is a lot of fun, and I enjoy that,” Stenhouse commented. “Normally at these mile-and-a-halves there are so many lanes that you can pick from, so I enjoy racing on them. Qualifying, I think we haven’t exactly nailed down the new qualifying format. I think if it would have been the old format our starting positions would have been further up this year, but we seem to get one good run in and then either miss the adjustments or I go overdrive the tires after I got all the good out of them. The mile-and-a-halves are just a lot of fun and carrying a lot of speed. It’s all about keeping your momentum up, so I really enjoy them.”
