Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Las Vegas Advance
Team: No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Nick Sandler
Twitter: @PR17RFR @stenhousejr @FastenalRacing and @roushfenway
ADVANCE NOTES
Stenhouse Jr. at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
· Stenhouse has two-career Sprint Cup starts at Las Vegas with an average starting position of 6.5 and average finishing position of 22.5.
· In 2012, Stenhouse Jr. cleared veteran Mark Martin with 54 laps remaining and built a six-second lead going on to claim his first victory of the 2012 NASCAR XFINITY season and his third XFINITY career win.
· Stenhouse has a total combined (XFINITY and Sprint Cup) five starts at Las Vegas with an average starting position of 5.9.
Last time at Vegas
After leading Roush Fenway’s qualifying efforts with a sixth-place starting position, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. consistently ran in the top-20 before a costly pit-road speeding penalty put the 2013 Rookie of the Year two laps down. With the race going mostly green, Stenhouse settled for a 27th-place finish.
The Car
· It was last raced in Texas by Edwards where he finished ninth.
· In the three times that this car was raced in 2014, it earned its best finish at Kansas with a fifth-place finish.
Fastenal
· Fastenal is currently in its fourth season as a primary partner in the NSCS for RFR. They spent three years on the No. 99 before jumping over to the No. 17 entry, and were the primary partner on the No. 60 XFINITY team that captured the owner’s championship in 2011.
· Next weekend, Fastenal will serve as the primary of the No. 17 machine at Phoenix International Raceway.
Stenhouse Jr. on racing at Las Vegas:
“I’m looking forward to Las Vegas after the solid qualifying and run we had there last year before the pit-road penalty. I think we learned some things in Atlanta last weekend which is another mile-and-a-half track. We have been working really hard and haven’t gotten the finishes we have deserved the past two weekends because of late-race accidents so hopefully we can have a solid race on Sunday and start moving back up in the points.”
Sandler on racing at Las Vegas:
“We definitely learned a lot from the time we unloaded in Atlanta for the test til the end of the race. I think that should help us at Las Vegas. Our priority for Vegas is to make smart adjustments, execute on pit-road, and not make any mistakes. I know if we can capitalize on these three things then we should have a solid finish this weekend.”
