Tough day in Charlotte cuts Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s point lead by 21
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[/media-credit]Just as quickly as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entered the picture on Saturday in the History 300 at Charlotte, he left it.
Stenhouse finished 26th in his No. 6 EcoBoost Ford after the transmission went south on lap 65. He’d qualified third and was running in the top 10 when he felt something go wrong and had to pit. The team eventually headed to the garage to fix the issue before Stenhouse was able to rejoin the race.
“I think the U-joint between the driveshaft and the transmission broke first,” said Stenhouse afterwards. “We’re gonna have to go back and look at it. It was a new driveshaft, new everything, so it was a tough day. Our Ford EcoBoost Mustang was by a far a top five car and had a chance to win for sure, so we can take that from today and go on.
“Our mile and a half program this year has been really strong and it was strong again here today. We went back out and tried to learn some things for our Cup guys and learn some things for us the next time we come back here. We had a really fast car there at the end, so all in all, it was obviously a tough day for points, but we’ve got to hang out hat on we were really fast.”
Stenhouse said he began to feel a vibration in the car while under caution. But when he came down pit road he didn’t see anything and went back on track for the restart. That’s when it finally broke and TV cameras caught a piece of metal fly out from underneath his machine.
It took the team 21 laps to repair the car to be able to send Stenhouse back out to salvage any points they could. Stenhouse had entered the day 34 points ahead of second place Elliott Sadler and on an impressive streak of not having finished outside the top six in the last nine races.
After Saturday though, Stenhouse’s point lead sits at 13 over Sadler as he suffered his worst finish since the season opening race in Daytona. Certainly not what the team had in mind coming off their third win of the season last weekend in Iowa and driving the same car they had won with in Texas last month.
It was a fast car, so fast that even while Stenhouse was multiple laps down he was racing amongst the leaders. That didn’t go over well with his competition, specifically Richard Childress and his driver Austin Dillon.
As Stenhouse came up and passed Dillon the young driver shouted over the radio that if he was able to get to Stenhouse he was going to hit him. Childress agreed, saying Stenhouse would have deserved it and then used a five-letter word to describe the champion. Dillon was unable to ever get to Stenhouse’s back bumper.
For Stenhouse though, it’s apart of racing and he has no regrets. He knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it at that point in the race. And while others might have said it wasn’t appropriate, Stenhouse won’t apologize for it.
“I’m just letting them know we’re here to win,” said Stenhouse of actions. “We pulled away by more than a straightway. I was respectful of the guys – the 20 [Joey Logano] and the 30 [James Buescher] – I was respectful to them because they were battling for position there at the end.
“I got to them and could have passed them, but I backed off and rode around. We’ve got to go out and get every lap we can and if that means running as hard as we can, we’re trying to learn, I’m not gonna just ride around.”
He further defending himself by saying he would never put others in jeopardy and put himself in a position where someone would end up wrecked. Stenhouse was just looking to see how fast his car was and what he could do with it in traffic. Unfortunately he had to do so in that position instead of contending for the win.
But the defending champions aren’t panicking. Their competition knew they were there Saturday and Stenhouse feels confident it will be more of the same going forward. The NNS heads to Dover next weekend where Stenhouse finished fourth last season.
“It doesn’t at all,” said Stenhouse when asked if his outlook changes now. “We’re gonna go out to win every week. We’ve been fast at Dover every single time we’ve been there.
“We’re going to win. That’s what we do every week and I think we’re gonna have a shot at it next weekend.”
Keselowski wins the History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
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[/media-credit]Brad Keselowski led the final 67 laps in route to his victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Keselowski last pitted with 73 laps to go while most of the field did pit. Keselowski and his team were left guessing if they had enough to make it to the end. It was enough to finish and Keselowski got his first victory of 2012 and his eighteenth overall victory in the Nationwide series.
“Thankfully, we were able to save enough fuel. And I get what I think is one of the biggest wins of my career, to win on Memorial Day weekend and what it means to me and this country. It feels great.” Keselowski said.
The race was a tale of two halves. The first 100 laps were dominated by Kevin Harvick who led a race high 97 laps and were for the most part uneventful. The second half saw a number of crashes and lead changes, with Keslowski ultimately making his way to the point, after starting the race from the 10th starting position, and leading the final 67 laps in his Penske Racing Dodge.
“There’s a strategy and you know, Penske Racing engines, they do a great job with fuel mileage on the Dodges and they deserve a lot of credit for it. There’s only so much you can do as a driver and a lot of it comes down to the car and what it needs. Denny didn’t let me save any. I can tell you, at the end he was running pretty hard.” Keselowski said.
Denny Hamlin finished second.
“Just didn’t have that great of a car. We were able to get it good enough at the end to run those guys down. Proud of our effort. This is a great run for this Sport Clips Toyota. I want to get these guys a win. I keep talking about it because we keep finishing second, but eventually we’ll knock down the door.” Hamlin said.
Kyle Busch finished third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Elliott Sadler finished fifth.
“It was a really good race for us. Coming home third is pretty good for our Monster Energy Camry. The guys have worked really hard at trying to make our program better and getting it to where it needs to be.” Busch said.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had driveshaft problems and took it to the garage on lap 65. He returned to the track 22 laps later and finished 26th.
“I think the U-joint between the driveshaft and the transmission broke first. We’re gonna have to go back and look at it. It was a new driveshaft, new everything, so it was a tough day. Our Ford EcoBoost Mustang was by far a top-five car and had a chance to win for sure, so we can take that from today and go on.” Stenhouse Jr. said.
Stenhouse now holds a 13-point lead in the series standings over Sadler.
“We picked up some points today with a top-five finish.” Sadler said.
Joey Logano was the pole sitter setting a fast time of 30.157 and finished 6th. For Logano, it was his first NNS pole.
“It didn’t play out the way it was supposed to. It didn’t play out right according to a sixth place finish.” Logano said. “Overall got a pole today, so that’s good. Just wish we were a little bit faster. We weren’t quite quick enough to win the race anyways, but I feel like we had a third place car for sure.”
Travis Pastrana spun several times, bringing out the caution flag twice. He finished 24th, five laps down.
Danica Patrick qualified third, but she fell a lap down after getting caught on pit road during an early caution. She battled her way back to finish 13th. Patrick is now ninth in points.
Rookie Austin Dillon, who was the fastest qualifying rookie (2nd) finished 11th, while Cole Whitt finished 28th.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| History 300, Charlotte Motor Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=11 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | – | 22 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 0 |
| 2 | – | 18 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0 |
| 3 | – | 54 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0 |
| 4 | – | 33 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 5 | – | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | – | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 0 |
| 7 | – | 30 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 8 | – | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 9 | – | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dodge | 35 |
| 10 | – | 21 | Joey Coulter | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 11 | – | 3 | Austin Dillon * | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 12 | – | 44 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | 32 |
| 13 | – | 7 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 14 | – | 43 | Michael Annett | Ford | 30 |
| 15 | – | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 16 | – | 198 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | – | 38 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 18 | – | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 26 |
| 19 | – | 41 | Timmy Hill | Ford | 0 |
| 20 | – | 19 | Tayler Malsam | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | – | 124 | Casey Roderick * | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | – | 70 | Johanna Long * | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | – | 108 | Kyle Fowler | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | – | 199 | Travis Pastrana | Toyota | 20 |
| 25 | – | 52 | Joey Gase * | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | – | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 18 |
| 27 | – | 40 | Erik Darnell | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | – | 88 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | – | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 15 |
| 30 | – | 50 | T.J. Bell | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | – | 11 | Brian Scott | Toyota | 13 |
| 32 | – | 14 | Jeff Green | Toyota | 12 |
| 33 | – | 81 | Jason Bowles * | Toyota | 12 |
| 34 | – | 39 | Josh Richards | Ford | 10 |
| 35 | – | 4 | Danny Efland | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | – | 100 | Angela Cope | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 37 | – | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | Chevrolet | 7 |
| 38 | – | 174 | Mike Harmon | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 39 | – | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | Chevrolet | 5 |
| 40 | – | 46 | Chase Miller | Chevrolet | 4 |
| 41 | – | 42 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 42 | – | 47 | Scott Speed | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 43 | – | 10 | Kevin Lepage | Toyota | 1 |
