Ricky Stenhouse Jr. proud of championship, disappointed in sixth place finish
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[/media-credit]“We won Rookie of the Year in 2010 and we were at the banquet, and we said that we wanted to be there in 2011, and we were able to accomplish that. To sit up there last year, and we told each other that we wanted six to ten wins and another championship, we got that, just a lot of hard work by a lot of great people, and I’m just blessed to be a part of it.”
For the sixth time in series history, the NASCAR Nationwide Series has a back-to-back champion as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was able to secure his second championship in a row on Saturday night.
The final laps saw some anxious moment as Stenhouse was racing Austin Dillon, Brian Scott and Elliott Sadler for position. With fears of possibly wrecking and losing the championship, spotter Mike Calinoff got on the radio and told Stenhouse to let them go.
“There were some anxious moments for our spotter, and I got tired of listening, so I keyed up the mic so he couldn’t talk to me the rest of the way,” Stenhouse said. “He wanted me to let him got, and of course I wanted 20 top 5s at least, so I came up one spot short. We wanted to win the race; that’s what we come to do each and every week and that’s what got us in the position that we were in.”
The possibility of hitting the wall and losing it all didn’t occur to Stenhouse as he says he doesn’t think about that, racing 100% every lap.
“I ran the bottom when I needed to, I ran the very top when I needed to, and I ran the middle,” he said. “I just — I don’t know. Luckily I’m not having to tell you how it would have felt.”
The night didn’t go as Stenhouse would’ve hoped with the handling being off throughout the night. He would finish the Ford Ecoboost 300 in the sixth position. However, Stenhouse did what he likes to do all night – race hard.
“I like racing hard like that,” he said. “That’s what I do, that’s what I enjoy, and that’s why I love racing. That’s just how I drive.”
With coming up short, Stenhouse was disappointed and that was evident during the championship celebration.
“Well, we lost the race,” he said. “I like winning races. I didn’t come to Homestead, my favorite racetrack, to run sixth.”
Gordon wins season finale; Keselowski wins 2012 NSCS championship
After a controversial race last week at Phoenix, Jeff Gordon stretched his fuel mileage and won Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Oh my gosh, it means so much. This is for DUPONT right here. 20 years. That is a long time to be together with a sponsor. For them to commemorate that with this awesome paint scheme, this silver car means so much. I knew we had a great race car going into the race.” Gordon said.
Gordon crossed the finish line 1.028 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer for his second win of the season.
“Can you believe that? There was one restart where I had Joey (Logano) and maybe Aric (Almirola) and Clint right there surrounding me. That thing is going to work itself out some way through racing. I felt terrible how I went about it, and I still regret the way I went about it. But, I can’t take it back. But what we can do is look forward and race guys as hard and clean as we possibly can.” Gordon said.
Ryan Newman finished third, Kyle Busch fourth and Greg Biffle finished fifth.
The day, the battle, was between 5-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and the new contender, Brad Keselowski.
Johnson was leading the race and the championship until lap 213 during a schedules green flag pit stop. The pit crew left off a rear lug nut and Johnson had to come back in to pit again. Johnson lost a lap and the title started fading at that point. Then on lap 226 Johnson slowed and went to the pits for repairs……the championship was over for Johnson and the No.48 team.
“Pretty heartbreaking. We were doing what we needed to do, certainly in a position to put a lot of pressure on the 2 car. But that’s racing.” Johnson said.
Keselowski finished 15th, but more importantly, he finished first in the standings, 39 points ahead oh Johnson. This championship marks the first-ever Sprint Cup Series title for legendary car owner Roger Penske.
After exiting his car, Keselowski summed his life long story up.
“I saw this really cool video that Ray Lewis did and he said, ‘Throughout my whole life I’ve been told that I’m not big enough, I’m not fast enough, I’m not strong enough and I don’t have what it takes.’” Keselowski said.
“I’ve used that as a chip on my shoulder that’s carried me through my whole career. It took ’til this year for me to realize, they’re right. I’m not big enough, fast enough, strong enough. No person is. Only a team can do that. And these guys up here, they make me big enough, fast enough, strong enough to do anything we want to do.” Keselowski added.
Unofficial top-12 standings after Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway
| Pos | +/- | Driver | Points | Behind | Starts | Poles | Wins | Top5 | Top10 |
| 1 | — | Brad Keselowski | 2400 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 5 | 13 | 23 |
| 2 | 2 | Clint Bowyer | 2361 | -39 | 36 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 23 |
| 3 | -1 | Jimmie Johnson | 2360 | -40 | 36 | 4 | 5 | 18 | 24 |
| 4 | -1 | Kasey Kahne | 2345 | -55 | 36 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 19 |
| 5 | 2 | Greg Biffle | 2332 | -68 | 36 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 21 |
| 6 | -1 | Denny Hamlin | 2329 | -71 | 36 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 17 |
| 7 | -1 | Matt Kenseth | 2324 | -76 | 36 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 19 |
| 8 | — | Kevin Harvick | 2321 | -79 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 14 |
| 9 | — | Tony Stewart | 2311 | -89 | 36 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 16 |
| 10 | 1 | Jeff Gordon | 2303 | -97 | 36 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 18 |
| 11 | -1 | Martin Truex Jr. | 2299 | -101 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 19 |
| 12 | — | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 2245 | -155 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 20 |
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Ford EcoBoost 400, Homestead-Miami | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 15 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | 47 |
| 2 | 6 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 42 |
| 3 | 19 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 42 |
| 4 | 8 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 42 |
| 5 | 13 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 39 |
| 6 | 7 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 39 |
| 7 | 5 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 37 |
| 8 | 23 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 36 |
| 9 | 26 | 78 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 35 |
| 10 | 16 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | 18 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 12 | 4 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 32 |
| 13 | 2 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | 32 |
| 14 | 1 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 30 |
| 15 | 3 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 29 |
| 16 | 9 | 55 | Mark Martin | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | 35 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 11 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | 27 |
| 19 | 33 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 20 | 14 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 12 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 22 | 17 | 22 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dodge | 0 |
| 23 | 20 | 21 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 0 |
| 24 | 41 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 20 |
| 25 | 32 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | 19 |
| 26 | 38 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 30 | 83 | Landon Cassill | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 21 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 28 | 13 | Casey Mears | Ford | 15 |
| 30 | 24 | 51 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | 34 | 34 | David Ragan | Ford | 13 |
| 32 | 31 | 36 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | 12 |
| 33 | 40 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | 11 |
| 34 | 37 | 10 | David Reutimann | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 39 | 37 | J.J. Yeley | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | 10 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 37 | 42 | 32 | Ken Schrader | Ford | 7 |
| 38 | 22 | 30 | David Stremme | Toyota | 6 |
| 39 | 27 | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 0 |
| 40 | 36 | 26 | Josh Wise * | Ford | 4 |
| 41 | 25 | 98 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 3 |
| 42 | 43 | 23 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 43 | 29 | 119 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | 0 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – A True Champion
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[/media-credit]It has been quite a season for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and now he can celebrate with his second consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) championship. This championship proved that he is a true champion and all he endured throughout the season set him up for this great championship run. Stenhouse Jr. wasn’t as dominate as he was in 2011 but he still proved he was the best in the series. This season was Stenhouse Jr’s final one in the NNS as he moves up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) starting in 2013.
The Nationwide and the Sprint Cup Series differ, a lot. The Nationwide Series is full of young, soon to be successful drivers and drivers who are trying to salvage a career. The Sprint Cup Series is filled with the best stock car drivers in the world and it is way more competitive than the Nationwide Series. The Sprint Cup Series will throw many surprises at Stenhouse Jr. as he enters his rookie year in 2013 and it will be the way Stenhouse Jr handles them that will dictate how successful he will be. Stenhouse Jr. will be looking for his third consecutive NASCAR championship next season but it likely won’t come. He will need to gain some experience and in a few seasons, he will be competing for another championship.
The season Stenhouse Jr. had this season was memorable and exciting. Numerous times we witnessed Stenhouse Jr. in the wall or involved in a wreck but when he wasn’t involved in a wreck, he was running up front. Stenhouse Jr. won six races this season and no race was more memorable for Stenhouse Jr. this season than the Kansas race in October. Stenhouse Jr. essentially wrecked halfway through the race but he managed to win the race after completing an incredible comeback. Stenhouse Jr. passed Kyle Busch for the lead in that race on the final lap when Busch ran out of fuel. That race was a race a champion drove and conquered.
One of the lows for Stenhouse Jr. this season was at Dover in June when he wrecked. The most shocking thing about that wreck was that it occurred without contact from any other driver and Stenhouse Jr. wrecked himself. At that time, Stenhouse Jr. was having a rough patch and that wreck added salt to the wound. The true champion Stenhouse Jr. is allowed him to bounce back and be dominant enough to win the championship. By the summer races, Elliot Sadler was doing very well and leading the points and for Stenhouse Jr. to catch up to him like he did was incredible and showed how ready Stenhouse Jr. is for the Cup Series.
Stenhouse Jr. had such a great season in 2012 and it was the ups and downs that propelled him to the championship. Stenhouse Jr. could have easily given up halfway through the season when times were tough but he didn’t. He kept on going and his hard work paid off when he held up the championship trophy in Homestead. If there was any driver who was ready to take on the challenges the Sprint Cup Series has to offer, it’s Stenhouse Jr.
During the three seasons Stenhouse Jr. was in the Nationwide Series, we’ve seen him grow into a top level race car driver. He will create some noise in the Sprint Cup Series one day, and once he does, he will be unstoppable.
