Photo Credit: Justin McFarland
While his car bared the name of his friend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a great finish, picking up a runner-up to ty his career-best finish, which was also set back at Bristol Motor Speedway in March 2014. It is also his best finish for Roush Fenway Racing this season.
The Olive Branch, Mississippi native says at the start of the race his car wasn’t what he wanted it to be. As a result, he went two laps down in the beginning stages. He was able to get stronger through the middle, fighting his way back on the lead lap to be in the position to challenge for the win in the closing laps.
“We had some really good timely cautions,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “Nick made a lot of great changes to get our car better, and that was really the thing that turned us around was the good adjustments on pit road. We made a lot of them. Really good team effort. I really wanted to park in victory lane for Bryan and his family, but we just came up one spot short. I thought we were matching the 4 car lap for lap there at the end, just starting 6th he kind of stretched it out on me, and I wasn’t able to really make a run at it. Really happy with how we ended the day. It was a tough weekend. “
The 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year doesn’t think a late caution would have helped in at the end of the race. Despite Harvick having a good lead over him, a final restart may not have been enough. It doesn’t mean he would’ve have tried to make the pass.
” I thought we were lapping him that lap time lap, lap for lap,” Stenhouse Jr. added. “I’d definitely give it all I got if we had a restart there. Like I said last time in here, a restart on the front row here at Bristol, if you don’t give it all you got and move them out of the way or whatever you need to do, you don’t really want it bad enough. We would have given it all we got, and I thought we had a car that was capable of doing that. The run before‑‑ before we put tires on, when him and the 22 were battling, I thought we were faster than they were lap for lap. I definitely think we would have had a shot at it. “
Bristol has always been good to the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion which results in him always feeling confident when he enters the half-mile bullring. He says at the start of the weekend he felt he had at least a top-10 car, but Mother Nature wrecked havoc on the track resulting in some doubt for the sophomore competitor.
“Qualifying wasn’t real good for us,” Stenhouse Jr. quoted. “But we didn’t really get to practice on the top because of what they did to the racetrack on the bottom. Everybody kind of ran down there, and we ran some laps up top in practice, but it was not rubbered up and ran in enough to really say, hey, this is gonna work out up here. We thought it was going to work, and Larson and I talked about it a lot over the weekend, and we thought we could get it rolling and it would be the best, and he showed in the XFINITY race that it was going to be good.
“I wish going back to practice, we probably needed to run up there a little bit more to start closer in the race. We weren’t very good to start the race. That being said, I thought we practiced a little different than normal with what they did to the racetrack. For me I was glad that the race wasn’t won on the bottom. I think this race is way better won on the top. I thought what they did to the racetrack definitely opened up the bottom for options. I mean, I passed quite a few cars down there. I thought the 11, the 19, some of those really fast cars, they got their car working, could really pass some good cars down there. I thought it made it a two‑groove racetrack for sure and definitely more interesting. I don’t think it was a bad option. “
The 2012 Nascar Nationwide Series Champion drove a special paint scheme to honor his friend Bryan Clauson who was killed in a tragic accident on the 7th of August. As much as he wanted to win to honor his friend, second isn’t to bad either.
“Yeah, I’m telling you, Saturday night watching the race from Belleville, as soon as it happened, I texted our agent and told him that he needed to figure some things out before anything was announced,” Stenhouse Jr. stated. “I watched it, the ambulances hadn’t even got there, and I went ahead and told them that he needed to figure out a way to get to Kansas because I just had a feeling that it wasn’t good. So it started Saturday night and went through obviously a roller coaster that whole night. I was getting updated throughout the night. I was up until about 2:00, 2:30 that morning talking to him and trying to figure out what was going on.
“It’s definitely been tough, but I think going to Knoxville and being with his family, being with his fiancee and being with friends that we all had a great time together, you know, talking about it, talking through things and talking about all the good things that Bryan did and his organ donation really helped a lot of us really feel comforted with what he was still doing after the fact. The service Wednesday‑‑ I mean Thursday this past week was one of the toughest days that I think I had. But again, just being there and telling stories really I think helped us all get through it. His fiancee Lauren has been a rock getting everybody‑‑ I mean, she’s supporting everybody even though you would think it would be the other way around.
“She’s really helped a lot of people. We’re really looking forward to getting there Wednesday, and again, just being with all the racing family that we were able to always be around. I know Bryan was watching and wanting us to win tonight, and we gave it all we had. He was trying to run 200 races. Somebody asked me, how do you feel coming to here and racing, and talking with Tim, Bryan’s dad, he was like, man, I feel like Bryan is probably mad at me right now because I’m not at home working on a midget to get it ready to go racing because Bryan, all he wanted to do was race. That’s what he was doing, and leading one of the biggest races of the year. If he had to choose a way to go out, I feel like that was the way he wanted.
“Lauren and her mom and dad were here. Tim did not come and Bryan’s family, but they came and just hung out all day on Saturday throughout the day around the motor home, and I was like, well, rain delays are good for some things. We all got to hang out together and spend some more time together, and that definitely has been helping us a lot the last couple weeks.
“We’re going to get there‑‑ I think it’s going to be cool starting around 1:00, just going to have friends and family tell stories, good stories that we had with Bryan throughout the years, and that’ll start at 1:00, and then they’re actually going to have a race at Kokomo, so hot laps will start at 6:30, and then a friend of ours that was going to play Bryan and Lauren’s wedding is actually going to play after the race for all the fans and friends that are going to be out there. Kokomo was Bryan’s favorite place to race every Sunday night, so it’ll be special. “
