NSCS: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Gives Roush Fenway Bright Light at Bristol

The beginning of the season certainly hasn’t gone how Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Roush Fenway Racing would’ve hoped for. However, Saturday night at Richmond, they received a bright light in the midst of the struggles. Stenhouse would cross the finish line in the fourth spot, marking his first top-five of the year.

It wasn’t an easy night for Stenhouse, starting in the back half of the field. However, he avoided trouble and was able to get up front, continuing to make passes throughout.

“We had a crash in front of us. I don’t know how they didn’t get it stopped,” he said. “My ankle was killing me and I still got it stopped, so I don’t know what they were paying attention to, but that was good spotting. My spotter was on it really early on every wreck in front of us and I didn’t have to put myself in a bad position. It’s always good to have a great spotter here at Bristol and I really wanted to come home clean, but we’ll take a top four and go on to Richmond.”

Late in the race, Stenhouse pitted when the leaders stayed out, and then stayed out when they pitted on the next caution. The finish marks the perfect attribution to a solid car, some strategy by the team, and a nice move on the green white checkered to move from sixth to fourth.

“We were sitting on old tires and a lot of guys were on new, but we worked really hard and fought really hard and made a lot of adjustments,” he commented. “The Zest Ford was decent all night. We still need a little bit to go up and contend and lead laps, but we always feel good coming to Bristol. It’s one of my favorite tracks and it was a good night for us. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”

The first six races of the season, Stenhouse failed to crack the top 10, posting a best finish of 12th. He then debuted a brand new car at Texas Motor Speedway, running solidly throughout the night en route to finishing 15th. That handed him some momentum heading into Bristol.

“We had a little bit of momentum and compared to our mile-and-a-half runs lately and we were looking forward to getting to Bristol,” he said. “We still lack a little bit to go up and lead laps, but here at Bristol I don’t think we’re far off, but we still have to work on our front ends some more and get our Fords turning a little bit better, but tonight was a lot of fun. I always enjoy running up next to the wall and those late-race restarts we were able to gain some spots and just a good night of racing.”

Stenhouse hopes that momentum carries forward to Richmond, but admits that they struggled last year. He said that they struggled with getting the front end to turn, which is something that they’ve worked on since but need to get even a little bit better.

“Richmond will be a test for us as bad as we were there last year, but Talladega and Kansas are good race tracks for us,” he commented. “I’m looking forward to getting to Kansas. We’ve led laps there and led laps late and cautions caught us off, so those are the next two that I’m really looking forward to getting to.”