MS native Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins first NASCAR Cup race

Elizabeth Williams
09:42, May 17, 2017
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.

Race victor Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and team owner Jack Roush remained confident despite some lean years together.

All Stenhouse Jr. knew going into the post-race press conference was that his dad "got escorted to Victory Lane" by track security, and he didn't seem terribly surprised that his dad was so overwhelmed with excitement he nearly got arrested.

"It's good to have Jack Roush back in victory lane". It's been a long time since I've pulled into a victory lane.

He started from pole position but dropped as far back as 20th early on, in order to clear debris from the radiator of his No.17 Ford, before steadily making up ground. Qualifying on the pole, got the win.

"It kinda stinks but it is what it is", said Joey Logano, whose auto was also involved in the carnage. All of the drivers were ok but saw AJ Allmendinger and Chase Elliott get airborne.

As the tension began to build in the closing laps, a massive wreck damaged 18 of the 38 cars still running at the time. Red flag flying and 26 minutes later we went back to green. "There's still things to clean up, and there's still things to get a lot better at, but man, it feels awesome to have everybody at Roush Fenway stand behind us".

After Stenhouse took the lead from Kyle Busch, thanks in part to a push from Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray threaded the needle between Johnson's Chevrolet and Busch's Toyota to vault into second place.

A loose wheel stopped Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s pursuit of another Talladega triumph.

In other words, only Team Penske had each of its drivers in the top tier of contenders on Sunday, and that was prior to the Lap 169 crash shook up the field. With only 14 laps remaining in the race, Earnhardt had to make a pit-stop to fix the issue.

“Thrilled with our vehicle, good speed, ” said Earnhardt, who didnt seem to be joking when he noted a pole would make him eligible to run the preseason “Clash” at Daytona. Aric Almirola and Kasey Kahne completed the top five. Youve got to keep on cracking the whip, keep telling yourself, ‘This is what has to happen, this is how I have to do this to make this work if I want to win.”. He beat fellow Ford driver Stenhouse to win the segment. The incident collected a total of 16 cars including some of the sport's biggest competitors Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth. He tried to climb the fence, found out he couldn't.

The strategy worked for Hamlin - after he stayed out at stage-end, he restarted in the lead.

Next week we are off to Kansas Speedway for The Go Bowling 400, Saturday night under the lights on Fox. Truex won at Las Vegas in March.

Justin Haley, who turned 18 a couple weeks ago, won the ARCA race Saturday at Talladega. The power of the Toyotas and the ability to draft together has been a talking point around the garage for some time now, with Busch and Denny Hamlin demonstrating late in the race exactly why.

Haley, from Winamac, Indiana, also won an ARCA race past year on the Illinois State Fairgrounds' dirt mile. Don't even open your mouth until you've risked getting ejected by the drunk-NASCAR-fan-weary staff at Talladega because THAT'S YER BOY in Victory Lane.

Spencer Davis was third in the race postponed Friday because of rain.

Stenhouse didn't mind spoiling the Talladega party with his first pole in four years.

Capps had a 3.991-second pass at 317.79 miles per hour in a Dodge Charger R/T for his second victory at Atlanta Dragway.

Jack, in this case, is Jack Roush, the legendary owner, and future NASCAR Hall of Famer, whose team has fallen upon rather hard times in recent years. Savoie's bike broke at the start line.

Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.


Popular

CONNECT