(Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was nowhere to be found in the first two stages of Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race, but in the closing moments, Stenhouse worked magic to claw up to a fourth-place finish.
After finishing fifth in a loaded heat race Saturday that included dirt racers Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Justin Haley, Stenhouse started Sunday’s race in 22nd. He failed to earn points in either stage but ran mid-pack throughout most of the event.
By surviving attrition in the closing stage, Stenhouse slowly improved his position. Several racing grooves came to life and Stenhouse drove into the top 10 as the laps ticked down.
On a restart with eight laps to go, Chase Briscoe spun Ryan Blaney at the front of the field and Stenhouse benefitted. The race stayed green, and while the field stacked up, Stenhouse navigated around the incident and into the top five. The result is his best since his Daytona 500 victory in February.
(Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
“It honestly felt like I hadn’t run dirt cars much,” Stenhouse said. “The guys worked really hard all night coming up with something different. We changed our No. 47 Irish Spring Camaro around and we were better. We still didn’t have enough to run up front there, but we methodically kind of picked and chose lanes. We got to running the bottom really well and made up a lot of time on restarts. They all just kind of fell our way there.
Including his victory at Daytona, Stenhouse has had a mixed bag in 2023, averaging a 14.9 finish. He has three top 10s in eight races, a number that is on track to surpass his total of five from last season.
After finishes of 12th or worse in the four races following Daytona, Stenhouse survived three NASCAR Overtime attempts to finish seventh at Circuit of the Americas, where he registered his first top 10 on a road course in 32 tries.
The No. 47 showed early speed at Richmond Raceway last week, but brake issues put the car behind the wall for 16 laps in the opening stage. Stenhouse was happy to put the mechanical issues behind him and record a strong finish on Easter Sunday.
“Really good to get a top-five and a bounce-back after last weekend,” Stenhouse said. “I hope that was a good show. I thought the race track was as good as it could be. You could run kind of all over the place, so hats off to the track.”
Through eight races, Stenhouse is 13th in driver’s points with 194 and trails Ross Chastain by 87. He’s locked into the Playoffs as long as the number of regular-season winners doesn’t exceed 16.
Stenhouse is on to Martinsville Speedway next weekend for the NOCO 400. The race is set for 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 16 on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
