Stenhouse Leads Roush Fenway with Strong 5th-Place Qualifying Effort at Daytona Pole Day

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. covered the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 46.126 seconds (195.118 mph) for the fifth-best qualifying time in Sunday’s Daytona 500 pole day. The session sets the front row for next Sunday’s Daytona 500, as well as the starting lineup for Thursday’s Twin Duel qualifying races.  Stenhouse will start the qualifying duel in the third position, inside of the second row.

“The Fastenal Ford Fusion has been good all weekend,” said Stenhouse. “I knew we would have a decent shot today but there are still some things the guys are writing notes down for things to work on for when we go to Talladega. Hopefully this is a sign to come for everything this year.

“You always want to start off with a fast race car,” added Stenhouse.  “Everyone at Roush Yates engine shop, Doug Yates and everyone did a great job with our horsepower and everyone at the Roush body shop that gave us a good body on this thing. I am really proud of their effort.”

Greg Biffle turned in the 22nd fastest time, going 193.665 mph in the session and Trevor Bayne was 34th fastest at 191.436 mph in his lap around Daytona.  Biffle will start Thursday’s duel inside of row six from the 11th position, while Bayne will roll off 17th, inside of the ninth row.

RFR PR