Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Texas Advance
Team: No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Nick Sandler
Twitter: @PR17RFR, @stenhousejr, and @roushfenway
ADVANCE NOTES
Stenhouse at Texas Motor Speedway
Stenhouse has five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) starts at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) with an average starting position of 19.4 and average finishing position of 24.0.
Stenhouse knows how to get to victory lane at TMS. In 2012, he held off Sprint Cup veteran Denny Hamlin to claim his first victory at Texas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
Last time at Texas
After overcoming two pit-road penalties and battling back from three laps down, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the Roush Fenway Racing efforts driving his Ford to a 15th-place finish.
On the Car
Fastenal is currently in its fourth season as a primary partner in the NSCS for Roush Fenway. 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.
Texas natives
The No. 17 team has two Texas natives. Eric Wallace, the rear tire carrier, is from Austin, Texas and Kenny DeGuisto, the underneath mechanic, is from Garland, Texas.
Stenhouse Jr. on racing at Texas:
“Texas is one of my favorite tracks. Eddie Gossage (TMS track president) and his team really know how to put on a good show for the fans. We’ve seen improvements on our cars at the past couple 1.5 – mile tracks that we have raced at so I’m optimistic about this weekend. We have three races remaining in the season so we need to end the year strong and carry that momentum into the off-season. Based on our past couple of races, I’m confident that we will have a solid run in our Fastenal Ford.”
Nick Sandler on racing at Texas:
“We have definitely seen improvements with our 1.5-mile track program so I think we should have a strong showing this weekend at Texas. After Martinsville, we need to bounce back this weekend and keep gaining points. Earlier this year we made a few mistakes on pit-road so if we can have a mistake free race, I believe we will leave Texas with another top-15 finish.”
