FORD FAST FACTS (CHICAGO)
• There are 15 Fords participating in the Geico 400 Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway Sunday afternoon.
• Six of those Blue Ovals will have to qualify for the race on speed.
• Two Ford drivers, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, are in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kenseth is seeded fourth (six points behind first), while Edwards is fifth (-9).
• A Ford has never won in the 10-year history of the Chicago race.
• Matt Kenseth has finished runner up in the Chicago Cup race on two occasions for Roush Fenway (2005 and 2007), while Kenseth and Carl Edwards notched a two-three finish here in 2007.
• Kenseth has finished second on three occasions at Chicagoland; twice in the Sprint Cup Series (2005 and 2007) and once in the Nationwide Series (2007). In fact, Kenseth came just one place short in each race from sweeping the track in both series in 2007.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, enters Saturday’s Dollar General 300 with a 16 point lead in the NNS standings over Elliot Sadler. Stenhouse met with media members at Chicagoland Speedway to discuss his lead and more.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford) – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE THIS WEEKEND TO BE SUCCESSFUL HERE AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY? “For us I think it is good to get back here. We had a really fast Mustang last time we were here and had an issue on pit road that kind of cost us a few spots there. We blew a right front. We are good to get back to the mile-and-a-half tracks late in the season because we have been running really strong on them. Atlanta was a really good race for us and I have always liked coming to Chicago after coming here in our ARCA car in 2008. It has always been one of my favorite mile-and-a-half tracks. It is really fast and a lot of fun to drive. We are looking forward to getting on track today and getting our practice in. Hopefully we have a really good race on Saturday.”
HOW DO YOU BALANCE POINTS VERSUS WINS AS RACES UNFOLD? “I think if you look at it over the whole season, no matter where you are in points you have to go out there and get all the points you can. You don’t have to really worry about the points; you just go do the best job you can do. I don’t think you can really technically points race until Homestead when you know exactly what you need. The way our series has been this year, whoever is leading tends to have a bad race and brings everybody right back into it. It doesn’t matter if you are 70 or 80 points out of it. Come Homestead, you could be in it still. We just have to stay consistent and I think if we run the way we’ve been running the last few weeks we can do that. We just plan on staying up front as much as we can. If you can stay in the top five you tend to stay out of trouble there and that is really our game plan from here on out.”
HOW DO YOU THINK THE DYNAMIC OF THE RACE WILL CHANGE WITH FIVE MORE CUP GUYS IN IT THIS TIME? “I think you are still going to have to beat the same ones, even when all the Cup guys don’t come over. You still have to beat the 18, 60 and 22. Really if you can beat those three, I feel like you are going to win the race, no matter what weekend it is. If you can beat those three I feel like you are going to end up in victory lane no matter what.”
