Stenhouse Jr. Finishes 20th at ‘The Lady in Black’

After being awarded the lucky dog position twice during Saturday night’s Bojangles’ 500 at Darlington Raceway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove his Nationwide Insurance Ford to a 20th-place lead lap finish.

“We never gave up and ended up finishing on the lead lap,” Stenhouse said. “For some reason, our Nationwide Insurance Ford was super tight for a majority of the race. After all our adversity this weekend, we will take our 20th-place finish and regroup during the off-weekend and then get ready for Richmond.”

After struggling with a tight machine during the first round of qualifying, the two-time NASCAR Nationwide champion started the Bojangles’ 500 in the 28th-position.  Fighting an ill-handling machine, Stenhouse fell back a few spots early on but steadily marched his way back up through the field.

After being the lucky dog beneficiary on the first attempt of the green-white-checkered, the Roush Fenway Racing driver restarted in 21st position at the tail end of the lead lap.  Stenhouse picked up one additional position before the checkered flag waved settling for a 20th-place finish in his second career Sprint Cup start at the 1.366-mile track.

RFR PR