Teams hit the track for day two of testing at the 2012 Daytona Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway. The main focus of the test is for teams to work on their final preparations for 2012 Speedweeks – in particular, the 54th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26. Reigning NASCAR Nationwide series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will run the 500 in the Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford Fusion and talked about how his test has gone thus far.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford Fusion
HOW HAVE THINGS GONE FOR YOU SO FAR? “Pretty good. I guess they changed the restrictor plate size last night and going around the track made it a little more fun by yourself because we are obviously going faster now. We are about a half a second faster than what we were yesterday. That is cool. We will get to drafting here this afternoon I think and that should be a lot of fun learning. Hopefully I can draft with Matt (Kenseth). I just talked to him a little bit about it. Overall, it has been pretty smooth. I think we found a few things that made it a little quicker by ourselves and that has been our focus the first day and so far today.”
ANY NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCES FOR YOU AS A DRIVERS WITH THIS FUEL INJECTION ENGINE? “Well, I didn’t run a lot of the Cup stuff before but it seems like one of the biggest problems we had was getting it started. It seems like Roush Yates and everybody at Ford has really got that process a lot better than it first was when I first drove it at Kentucky. That is a good thing. We had a little problem with it yesterday but they were able to plug it into the computer and fix it and it turns out that it all worked out.”
YOU ARE GOING TO DRIVE THE DAYTONA 500 IN THE 6 CAR. HOW COOL IS THAT? “That is going to be exciting. I think obviously being in the race is going to be fun but I think the pre race stuff before it and just being a part of it, looking around and seeing all the people here, and just knowing what you are a part of is going to be really special.”
WHAT IS THE BIG GOAL FOR YOU THIS AFTERNOON WHEN YOU START RUNNING IN PAIRS? “Just mainly building some confidence up in whoever I am drafting with so that they will have confidence going into the 500 that I can do it and make sure they are comfortable with me. I think that is one of the big keys down here. Obviously being new I think it is important to build a relationship with somebody that trusts you. That is the plan for me.”
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