LDN - Sports

Stenhouse avoids Big One to earn bigger No. 1

[May 09, 2017] By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Just when you thought the love-hate relationship with the Talladega Superspeedway might turn into a love-love day of racing, the Big One hit.

Suddenly, half the field was once again crashing and hating the racing at Talladega. And it seemed like the last 20 laps took as long as the first 168.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won his first race in NASCAR's premier Cup series on Sunday, emerging from the wreckage, three late cautions and a red flag. Once again, love prevailed at the checkered flag as yet another surprise ending made one forget all that came before.

It was the 24th time the race was decided on the last lap at the Alabama track, where Mississippi native Stenhouse became the 11th driver to score his first career victory.

Adding to the bonhomie was the fact that team owner Jack Roush, who appeared he might not ever win another race, returned to Victory Lane for the first time since 2014. And it finally gave Stenhouse and his girlfriend, Danica Patrick, who crashed heavily in the Big One, a chance to celebrate in Victory Lane -- where his father joined them after a special "escort" from Alabama State Troopers.

Having won rookie of the year in 2013, but without a victory in four full seasons with Roush, Stenhouse acknowledged that he occasionally thought his chances of ever winning a race were somewhere between bleak and nil.

"You get to a point over the last couple of years, I've probably thought that," he said. "At the start of this season I had a different mindset. Let's continue to build on what we learned last year. We circled some tracks where we thought we could win. I've been really good at Bristol and on short tracks. And at Talladega -- we've had a good average finish. I felt like we could get something in Victory Lane and I'm glad it happened sooner than later."

Until the uplifting finish, it was a shame that the 18-car incident had spoiled a picture-perfect spring day of sunshine, a cool breeze and a fast-paced race. The cars boiled off the corners and down the back straight en route to an eventual 26 lead changes.

Plus, there were no star drivers balloon-footing at the back to avoid the Big One due to the stage points. The nearly mile-long grandstands were almost full at a time when NASCAR has had its attendance issues. Of course, NASCAR's most adventurous infield and motorhome overlook had been sold out well in advance.

Among those watching from the motorhome overlook was Ricky Stenhouse Sr. The father earned his living building race engines and was instrumental in guiding his son's career through the short-track phase. When the first victory finally flashed on the scoring tower after the usual close finish at the 2.66-mile track, it turned into a scene right out of "Talladega Nights."

Stenhouse Sr. tried to climb the fence on the back straight to wave to his son on the cool-down lap. To get inside the track, he ran to the Turn 3 crossover, where all the exiting traffic was on wheels, and tried to run across. He ended up getting stopped by State Troopers and placed in custody. Once he explained his story, the State Troopers escorted him to Victory Lane for a "shake and bake" with his son.

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For much of the day, it appeared that a good ol' Talladega tradition might return as pole starter Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott each had a shot at being in front at the finish -- all three looking for their first career win. Blaney then got turned into the wall by Brad Keselowski. Miraculously, only the Wood Brothers Ford suffered damage. But the crash bunched the field and, a short while later, Elliott had his car nearly turned over after contact from A.J. Allmendinger, who did end up on his roof. The Big One had arrived.

Stenhouse Jr., who was within shouting distance of the lead when the melee hit and was fortunate to dodge it, bulldozed his way to the front with a powerful Ford equipped with a Roush Yates Engine V-8. In overtime, Stenhouse Jr. earned this one by something other than the all-encompassing Talladega draft.

He literally bounced past leader Kyle Busch, who appeared to be breaking away on the final restart. "He ran into the back of me," said Busch. "You'd think that would have propelled me forward some, and he just turned left and went right by me."

Will Stenhouse Jr. join that list of six drivers who pulled off a miracle at Talladega and then never visited Victory Lane again? Not likely. He's been mired in the troubles of the Roush Fenway Racing team. But the team has served notice recently that it has the speed it needs to compete.

This was Stenhouse Jr.'s fourth top-10 finish in the last five races and his fifth of the 10-race season. Last year, he had a total of six top-10 finishes, but four of those came in the second half of the season.

Just like that, Stenhouse Jr. is now invited to the all-star race in Charlotte, N.C., and has qualified for the postseason playoffs -- assuming his car passes the detailed inspection at NASCAR R&D this week. It's been a long time coming since Stenhouse Jr. won back-to-back titles in the Xfinity Series with Roush and then his rookie title in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

After a good run at the Kansas Speedway during his rookie year, he decided: "Oh, we're going to get a win here pretty soon." But then the wheels came off.

"I felt things kind of took a turn for the worse, and we just weren't performing as well as we started the (rookie) season, and it was a big, big struggle," Stenhouse Jr. said.

Roush, now 75, is closing in on 500 victories as a team owner in drag racing, road racing and NASCAR. He is confident his team has turned the corner. He acknowledges some of the credit goes to Ford's renewed push in NASCAR, which now includes a technical center in Charlotte.

"We've got a lot of speed with our Fords and the Ford technical group is at the top of its game right now," said Roush. "We've got good fast cars and good fast engines. It's a matter of us to execute correctly on the racetrack, keep it on the black stuff and get our share of victories."

Given that it was Talladega, Roush might have added keeping the shiny side up is also important.

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