RICHMOND, Va (April 26, 2015) – After rain postponed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Richmond International Raceway until Sunday afternoon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fought an ill-handling Fifth Third Ford for a majority of the 400-lap race, eventually taking the checkered flag in the 28th position. Stenhouse Jr. currently sits 25th in the NSCS point standings.
“We thought our Fifth Third Ford was decent in race trim during practice on Friday,” said Stenhouse. “Our car had a different balance on each set of tires that we put on. We were making gains and I thought we could have picked up a few positions there in that last 30 laps but the new set of tires made our Ford super tight. Definitely not the day we wanted but we will go back and keep working on our cars and head to Talladega next weekend.”
After advancing to round two in the qualifying session on Friday, Stenhouse led the Roush Fenway Racing qualifying efforts with his 24th-starting position.
At the start of the race, the Fifth Third Ford was really loose in and tight in the center but Stenhouse knew that a competition yellow was going to displayed at lap 50 due to the rain overnight and the team could work on his machine.
As the race progressed, the two-time NASCAR XFINITY champion was running similar lap times to the top-10 cars and felt that the adjustments were helping his drive off which gave him an advantage over his competitors.
When the caution was displayed on lap 359, the Olive Branch, Miss. native brought the Fifth Third Ford to pit-road for four tires, fuel, and a slight adjustment to make his Ford looser on the short run but the new set tires tightened his machine instead and Stenhouse was forced to settle with a 28th-place finish.
Stenhouse and the No. 17 team return to action next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway for the GEICO500. Race coverage starts at 1:00 pm EST on FOX.
