After going a lap down early on in Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes at Phoenix Raceway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. battled back to get back on the lead lap with 76 laps remaining in the 312-lap race. Despite battling an ill-handling race car for a majority of the race, the 2013 Sprint Cup rookie of the year finessed his Cargill Beef/Fry’s Ford to a 17th– place finish.
“Our Cargill Beef Ford was better there at the end but was still too loose to compete with the front runners,“ Stenhouse said. “We went a lap down but made some strategy calls to get us back on the lead lap and gained us some track position. It is definitely not the finish we want but we will take it and move on to Homestead.”
The two-time NASCAR Nationwide champion started the race from the 18th place and maintained his position but as the handling of his Ford became too tight for his liking Stenhouse lost a few positions.
After taking the wave around on lap 237, the Olive Branch, Miss. native was able to steadily work his way up inside the top-20. When the caution was displayed on lap 287, crew chief Mike Kelley called Stenhouse to pit-road for two tires in hopes to gain valuable track position for the final 20 lap shootout.
With another late race caution, the four tire strategy prevailed forcing Stenhouse to settle with a 17th-place finish.
RFR PR
