Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Phoenix Advance
Team: No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Nick Sandler
Twitter: @PR17RFR @stenhousejr @FastenalRacing and @roushfenway
ADVANCE NOTES
Stenhouse Jr. at Phoenix International Raceway
· Stenhouse has six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) starts at Phoenix with an average starting position of 18.5 and average finishing position of 19.3.
· Stenhouse has completed 1758 of 1783 laps (98.6%) at Phoenix.
· Stenhouse has a total combined (XFINITY and Sprint Cup) 12 starts at Phoenix earning six top-10 and three top-five finishes.
Last time at Phoenix
After running in the top-15 for most of the 312-lap race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. battled back after having a loose wheel on his Fastenal Ford to finish 12th in the Campingworld.com 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
On the Car
· Fastenal is currently in its fifth 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.
· Next weekend, Fastenal will serve as the primary of the No. 17 machine at Auto Club Speedway.
Stenhouse Jr. on racing at Phoenix:
“Phoenix is a tough one-mile track but it is a lot of fun to race there. This is our first short track of the season so it will allow us to evaluate our cars against our competitors and to see how our car reacts with the new low downforce package. We’ve had three solid races this season so we need to keep it up. We’ve had success at Phoenix so I’m looking forward to this weekend and hopefully we can have a solid run in our Fastenal Ford.”
Sandler on racing at Phoenix:
“Phoenix is our first short-track of the season. We had some success last year at the short tracks so hopefully we can continue that trend this weekend. The key to being successful at Phoenix is to get your car to turn through the corners, so we will work on our set-up and make sure we give Ricky a car that he can be competitive with. It’s so easy to go a lap down at Phoenix so we will focus on qualifying and trying to keep the Fastenal Ford up front during the race.”