By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
CONCORD, N.C. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scored his first top-five finish on a mile-and-a-half in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but the finish did not come easy.
On Lap 87, Stenhouse made contact with Kyle Busch that sent him down the frontstretch road course chicane and through the infield turf at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Luckily, the damage was minimal to the No. 17 Ford Mustang.
“I got loose in front of him,” Stenhouse said. “He just didn’t check up and sent me spinning through the grass.”
After the spin, Stenhouse fought some balance issues, but he felt like they were backing up the speed shown in practice. Once the car became balanced, the veteran driver could drive through the corner.
Stenhouse believed that he had a car on the long run to finish within the top-two, but he left happy as he was able to run with Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske.
“We had a top-three maybe top-two car on the long run to match the lap times of the 19,” he said. “We still have some work to do, but we are really happy to get up there and contend with that caliber of cars two mile-and-a-half races in the row. We have to make sure we keep this momentum going and try to carry it through the summer.”
With this being his first top-five finish on a mile-and-a-half, Stenhouse believes the run at Charlotte was redemption from Kansas and rewarding for the team.
“It’s nice,” he said. “I felt like we gave one away at Kansas. I was telling the guys it was rewarding to finish this one-off and get a top-five. I was bummed that last caution came out because it made us work harder for that top-five for what I wanted. All in all, we got it done and happy to get that for the guys.”
With back-to-back strong runs at Charlotte and Kansas, Stenhouse believes the mile-and-a-half program at Roush Fenway Racing is heading in the right direction. For him, the next step is for the Nos. 6 and 17 to be able to contend for wins and to increase performance on short tracks.
“We have potential, but we have to get our short track program going. Our mile-and-a-half program is what has struggled for many years now,” he said. “It is cool because in the Xfinity Series we were always dominate on the mile-and-a-halves and ran really well and won on a lot of them. Now, it was a bummer to go to all of them and not perform well. Now that we are getting our cars right, Newman and I can drive them as hard as we can and get a good finish.”