Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds a 41-point lead over second-place Elliott
Sadler in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings going into Saturday’s
Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and needs to finish 37th or
better to clinch the championship. Stenhouse Jr. took part in
NASCAR’s championship contenders press conference on South Beach in
Miami, FL, to talk about this weekend and possibly taking home the
series title.
STAGE REMARKS
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 6 Blackwell Angus/Cargill Ford Mustang –
WHAT HAS THIS JOURNEY BEEN LIKE FOR YOU? “It’s been a journey that’s
obviously up-and-down, but I think one of the biggest things that
makes me feel good is to be able to bring a consistent year to the
guys that have stood behind me. Our team, everybody at Ford Racing,
Roush Fenway, everybody that stood behind us and to see them just as
excited as I am, I think that’s been one of the key things for me to
appreciate this year. It’s definitely been a journey and I’ve learned
a lot from it.”
DO YOU LET ANY BAD THOUGHTS LIKE BLOWING A TIRE ON THE FIRST LAP OR
SOMETHING LIKE THAT? “I’m not really worried too much. We’re just
gonna go out there and do the same thing we’ve been doing since
Daytona at the start of the year. We’re gonna go out and get our car
as fast as we can in practice, qualify as well as we can and just race
as hard as we can. I think when you start trying to control things, I
think that’s when you get in trouble, so we’re just gonna go out and
do our same deal as we always do. Homestead is one of my favorite
race tracks and I think we’ll have a good shot to win this weekend. I
think that would be a good way to cap off Ford Championship Weekend.”
IS THERE ANY SMALL PART OF YOU THAT WISHES ELLIOTT WOULDN’T HAVE HAD
HIS ACCIDENT LAST WEEK AND THIS WAS A CLOSER BATTLE? “We’ve been
having a great battle all year. It was exciting. Obviously, it took
a lot of pressure off our shoulders, but, looking back, that could
have happened to us. You don’t wish that on anybody and, like I’ve
told Elliott before, I really learned a lot from him coming down the
homestretch running for this championship. He’s given me a lot of
room. I don’t think we’ve touched. We’ve raced really hard and
really clean and I really respect that, and I’ve learned a lot from
him.”
HOW HAS THIS SEASON GONE WITH TREVOR BAYNE AS A TEAMMATE – ANOTHER
YOUNG DRIVER? “Trevor and I, we both have obviously had different
years with him having to be out of the race car for a while. I was
there to support him and back him up when he came back and started
running with us. Obviously, I was trying to keep up with him when he
was running around after Daytona and showed him some support, and now
he’s getting to do that for me, so it’s been a good year for both of
us.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM NEXT YEAR? “It’ll give
our team confidence for sure, but we’ve got to get some sponsorship
sold before we can get back out there and keep going. Obviously,
that’s been a struggle for us this year, to secure that sponsorship,
and I think that’s gonna be our first goal is to get that secured, but
after the championship is over, we’re gonna go back to the grind. The
guys are gonna keep working hard and you can’t ever relax. These guys
have got to work as hard as they can in the off-season and make our
cars better. It’s a business that if you’re not keeping up with it,
you’ll fall behind.”
ONE-ON-ONE QUESTIONING
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 6 Blackwell Angus/Cargill Ford Mustang – CAN
YOU TALK ABOUT THIS CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE? “It’s been exciting. It’s
been an exciting race so far. We’ve had some really good races. The
last month and a half or two Elliott and I have been battling each
other in the top five, and I think that’s all you can ask for to have
an exciting championship.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO POSSIBLY BE THE CHAMPION WHEN CUP GUYS AREN’T
ELIGIBLE? “It’s gonna be cool. Nationwide Insurance has done an
awesome job with our Nationwide Series and I couldn’t be more proud to
win this thing and go represent them. It is a different era now, but
I think it’s a great era. I think it’s for the good.”
HAS IT HELPED YOURSELF NOT HAVING CUP GUYS ELIGIBLE AS FAR AS GROWING
A FAN BASE? “Definitely. I think it’s great that the Cup guys still
get to come down and run with us because I think to know you’re ready
for racing on Sundays, you’ve got to race with those guys at some
point, so I enjoy racing with them and I learn a lot from them. I
definitely still appreciate them coming down and racing with us.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN NASCAR MADE THAT RULE ABOUT DECLARING
WHICH SERIES YOU WOULD COMPETE IN FOR THE TITLE? “I felt like we were
gonna contend either way. My crew chief and I, Mike Kelley, were
sitting at this banquet last year watching Brad Keselowski get the
trophy on stage. We said to ourselves then that we wanted to be there
next year some how, some way. That’s what we were working for and
that was before they changed the point system. When they changed the
point system, nobody really counted us in, but we felt as a race team
that gave us an even better shot to win it, and we just fought really
hard all year. We came into this season feeling like we had a shot at
it.”
HOW BIG OF AN EFFECT DID THAT RULE CHANGE HAVE ON YOUR RUN TO THIS
POINT? “It would have been tough to beat the full-time guys like Carl
and Brad, but we’re third in owner’s points, so I feel like we’ve done
our fair share of running up front with those guys and getting a
couple wins. We beat Carl and we beat Brad, so we know we can do it.
I think with everything that we learned this year, the way we start
next year could be even stronger than what we ended this year with.
Ultimately, I’d like to win the championship and the owner’s
championship for Jack. That would mean a lot.”
HOW DO YOU THINK THIS SYSTEM HAS WORKED? “Looking at the point
standings, knowing that you’re up there, gives you a little more
confidence. When you look at a championship and you look at the
series standings, if you’ve had a bad week and you’re still leading
those points, you still have the confidence and I think that’s one of
the main things that it has done is just built a lot of confidence in
us.”
WHAT HAS BEEN A KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS THIS YEAR? “The key thing I would
say is Ford Racing has put a lot of hard work in our Nationwide Series
and everything that we do at Roush Fenway. All the guys in the shop
have worked really hard. We’re bringing better pieces to the race
tracks. I think that’s a main point. I feel as a race car driver
I’ve had more patience and more focus over last year. I think I
started learning that about halfway through last year as far as what I
needed to do as a race car driver to run up front and run consistent
and we kind of just merged everything together this year.”
HOW DO YOU STRIKE A BALANCE BETWEEN RUNNING GOOD AND BEING AGGRESSIVE
VERSUS TAKING CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT AND NOT WRECKING A LOT? “I’ve
run for one championship before in my life, so this is still all new
to me. I think towards the end of the year I really learned how to
run for a championship, whether that be not taking as many chances on
restarts or making sure I got to the end of the race. I can think
about stuff earlier in the year that at this point now I would not do
on the race track. It’s just a learning process and it’s tough to
balance that act of just going out and getting all you can get and
then kind of holding back. But what I’ve learned over the last two
months is you’ve got to be around for those last 50 laps. You’ve got
to turn it up those last 50 laps and you’ve got to maintain and
survive until you get there. Earlier this year, I probably got
ourselves in some trouble and gave some more points away, but it’s all
about learning.
WHAT ABOUT NEXT YEAR? ARE YOU ALL SET? “We’re waiting on sponsors.
Right now, there hasn’t been any talk other than we’re gonna talk
after Homestead. We’ll sit down with Jack and Steve Newmark, our
president, and kind of lay everything out and see what our best
possibility is. Right now, we don’t have anything secured, so,
hopefully, we can secure the championship and then, hopefully, secure
some sponsorship later.”
BUT YOU EXPECT TO BE BACK IN THIS SERIES? “I expect to be back here
for sure. I would definitely enjoy it. I think there’s a lot more to
learn. If it was up to me, I would like to run some Cup races because
I still think there’s a lot to learn over there running part-time, but
that’s me – that’s what I would do. Ultimately, it’s not up to me,
it’s up to Jack.”
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Stenhouse Jr. Turnaround; Tale of a Champion
“He’s going to be as good in this business as anybody has been.”
Jack Roush on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Jack Roush on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
MIAMI (Nov. 17, 2011) – A year and a half ago Roush Fenway’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was fighting for his job in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series . This weekend he heads into the NASCAR Nationwide Series finale with a 41-point lead and on the cusp of his first NASCAR Championship.
“Ricky Stenhouse a year ago, was just a possibility,” said Roush Fenway co-owner Jack Roush. “He was not a reality for sure. Ricky has matured over the winter. His Dad, Ricky Sr., has certainly counseled him and Ricky Jr., has taken his advice.”
Roush goes on to point out that the rejuvenation of Roush Fenway’s Ford Mustangs has played a role in Stenhouse’s continued development but the veteran owner adds that he feels Stenhouse is going to grow into one of the sports’ elite drivers.
The title would be Roush Fenway’s third Nationwide Series driver title and its sixth overall NASCAR Championship.
“We’ve managed to put him in better cars this year than he had last year, which could account for some of the missed wrecks that we’ve benefited from,” added Roush. “But he’s just matured. He’s arrived on the scene and he’s going to be as good in this business as anybody has been.”
Stenhouse rebounded in 2010, scoring top-10 finishes in five of the last 10 races and finishing the year by earning Rookie of the Year honors in the Nationwide Series; the 12th Rookie of the Year Award for Roush Fenway Racing.
Entering the 2011 season the team was poised to compete for the championship.
“Our goal coming into the season was to compete for the Nationwide Championship,” said Stenhouse. “We’ve led the points for the majority of the season, we’ve led quite a few laps and we’ve contended for and been able to win races. That has been the key this season for this No. 6 team.”
Stenhouse earned his first career NASCAR win earlier this year at Iowa in May and followed it up with another win at Iowa in August.
In a year to remember for the Mississippi native, Stenhouse also made his Sprint Cup debut in 2011, an 11th-place finish driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers’ Ford in the Coca-Cola 600 in May.
Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway.
Romain Grosjean - ?My life as number 3?
L'Equipe (a big French newspaper) asked Romain Grosjean the Lotus Renault GP team's third driver, to describe his weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Romain: It's always the same two questions: ?So you're testing for the team?? ?No. Unfortunately there's no more testing in F1.? ?So what are you doing if you're not driving?? The knockers would say ?not much,' but my weekends are very busy. As the third Lotus Renault GP driver, I go to all the winter tests and all the Grands Prix to replace one of (...)
-
Blogs
-
Blogs
Tony Stewart Vampire Slayer
With his win in the 2011 AAA Texas 500 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart cut Carl Edward’s Chase to the Sprint Cup lead to 3 just points.
Smoke has won four of the eight 2011 Chase races, including the last two. And even though Edwards leads in the standings, it is the Stewart wins [...]
Smoke has won four of the eight 2011 Chase races, including the last two. And even though Edwards leads in the standings, it is the Stewart wins [...]
Fantasy Racing Darkhorse Picks: Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami
Expert
Website
Pick to Win
Finish
Experts Avg
Josh Lobdel
12.74
Jerry Lagger
One and Done Game Winner
14.63
Dennis Michelsen
RaceTalkRadio.com
Marcos Ambrose
16.20
Steve Wronkowicz
On Pit Row
16.06
Eric McClung
KFFL
Kasey Kahne
14.86
Eric McGuire
free agent
Greg Biffle
16.20
Dan Beaver
Fantasy Racing Games
A J Allmendinger
15.20
Matt Mercer
On Pit Row
13.20
Adam Ansell
Roto Experts
Chris Leone
On Pit Row
22.31
Bob Ellis
NASCAR Ranting and Raving
17.00
CharlieTurner
On Pit Row
Kasey Kahne
12.97
Jordan McAbee
On Pit Row
A J Allmendinger
14.91
Jon Rodgers
Gillette Young Guns Challenge Winner
Mark Martin
15.31
James Jones
On Pit Row
13.49
Mike Wells
Racing4Glory.com
12.57
Darren [...]
Website
Pick to Win
Finish
Experts Avg
Josh Lobdel
12.74
Jerry Lagger
One and Done Game Winner
14.63
Dennis Michelsen
RaceTalkRadio.com
Marcos Ambrose
16.20
Steve Wronkowicz
On Pit Row
16.06
Eric McClung
KFFL
Kasey Kahne
14.86
Eric McGuire
free agent
Greg Biffle
16.20
Dan Beaver
Fantasy Racing Games
A J Allmendinger
15.20
Matt Mercer
On Pit Row
13.20
Adam Ansell
Roto Experts
Chris Leone
On Pit Row
22.31
Bob Ellis
NASCAR Ranting and Raving
17.00
CharlieTurner
On Pit Row
Kasey Kahne
12.97
Jordan McAbee
On Pit Row
A J Allmendinger
14.91
Jon Rodgers
Gillette Young Guns Challenge Winner
Mark Martin
15.31
James Jones
On Pit Row
13.49
Mike Wells
Racing4Glory.com
12.57
Darren [...]
INTERIM COMMON SENSE REPORT!!!
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I am publishing this interim report to hopefully address the war of words that is rumbling on between some members of our series on Facebook.
I fortunately do not subscribe to this site and if the unpleasantness that seems to proliferate there is anything to go by I am glad I don?t use it.
Let [...]
I am publishing this interim report to hopefully address the war of words that is rumbling on between some members of our series on Facebook.
I fortunately do not subscribe to this site and if the unpleasantness that seems to proliferate there is anything to go by I am glad I don?t use it.
Let [...]
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)