Stenhouse comes back at Texas to tie for points lead

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 6 NOS Ford Mustang (Finished 4th) (PIT ROAD INTERVIEW) -

YOU DID WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TONIGHT, COMING BACK, TALK ABOUT YOUR NIGHT. “It was okay to start and then it went really bad. The guys did a great job steadily working on the car. We couldn’t have great pit stops because they had to do so many adjustments. WE were a little better at the end and restarted 11th with 25 to go or whatever it was and we got up into the top-five and it drove a little better but not quite as good as we wanted it to or needed it to. All in all it was a great night for us. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. I was hoping we were going to sweep it.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

HOW MUCH DOES THE EXPERIENCE YOU GOT LAST YEAR HELP YOU TO NOT GET DOWN WHEN THINGS AREN’T GOING THAT WELL? “At Kansas was the main thing that helped me remember today not to give up and to just keep working hard. We weren’t anywhere close to where we needed to be but they made a ton of adjustments. We just went where they weren’t on those restarts and got our track position back and were able to keep it.”

(POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE) - TALK ABOUT THE MOMENTUM YOU TAKE TO HOMESTEAD AND THE RACE TONIGHT. “It wasn’t a great night for us. We felt we had a better race car in practice. The first run we were too tight and made an adjustment. I didn’t think we made too big of an adjustment but it went 180-degrees the other way. After that we played catch up all night long and got it a little bit better. We restarted with 40 to go and were 11th and in a couple laps we had found our way up into fourth or fifth and I was able to maintain the track position a little better for us. It was a great points night and we battled back and now we go on to Phoenix.”

HOW HOPELESS DID THE RACE LOOK FOR YOU EARLY ON? “I didn’t think we would get it back to a top-five car. We weren’t near as far behind as we were at Kansas though so it gave us a little hope. The cautions came out and we were able to work on it as much as we could and I don’t think there were any more adjustments we could do to it to get it tight enough. We took advantage of that second to last restart there with 40 to go and got our track position and that was the best we could do. It was a great night for us but disappointed because we wanted the win.”

ON THE FOURTH PIT STOP YOUR CREW PIT IN FOUR ROUNDS OF WEDGE. HOW RADICAL IS THAT AND DID THE CAR IMPROVE TO THE POINT WHERE YOU FELT YOU WEREN’T SLIDING AROUND? “No, we were still sliding around. I think total we went three down on the track bar, put a rubber in the left rear and four rounds in the left rear. It didn’t touch it as much as I thought it would or needed it to. We ended practice with a great race car and I felt like we had a car that was capable of running in the top-three and we know we get too loose here so we tightened it up. We just didn’t go far enough.”

NOW THAT YOU ARE TIED IN THE POINTS WITH ONE RACE LEFT, HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN REPEAT? “We felt good coming in being six behind but Phoenix is a great race track for him. I think he won there and last time we were there we finished third. Homestead is a great race track for both of us as well. It is going to take a better race car than what we had today. We aren’t going to be able to comeback like that every week. That is two in a row we have done that. It is going to take better race cars but I think we are capable and I feel comfortable where we are. We have made gains on it the last two weeks to where we are tied now. Really I guess all we have to do is tie. Last year a tie won it with the most wins and we have that right now. I feel good about where we are.”

Ford Racing