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Stenhouse has back-to-back titles in sight heading to HMS

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang has a second straight NASCAR Nationwide Series championship in his sights heading into the season finale at Ford Championship Weekend Sunaday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stenhouse talked with Ford Racing about the big weekend ahead.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

YOU'VE HAD A GREAT YEAR SO FAR, BUT IT IS NOT QUITE DONE IS IT? We still have one more to go, it's not over. We have to go down there and be prepared to do work. We are going to go down there and prepare exactly how we have every other race weekend. Our guys have prepared another great race car like they normally do. We'll have our Cargill Beef Mustang ready to go. It's one of my favorite race tracks, obviously, being Ford Championship Weekend. With all the Ford people there, it's a great one to end on and we're looking forward to it. It should be a great weekend for us.

GOING INTO HOMESTEAD IT IS ALMOST DEJA VU ISN'T IT? It is. It would be nice to have the 40-point spread that we had last year, that gave us a lot more leeway. We still have to make sure we do everything we can to finish where we need to. 20 points is not a lot, obviously its better than a 10 point lead, but we have to stay focused. We've given up 20 points in one race before, so we just have to make sure we do our job. It's similar to last year, but it's never over until its over and we have to go in with our heads down and stay focused the entire time.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN LAST WEEK? These cars are put together by humans and humans make mistakes. Drivers make mistakes. There are just so many things in our sport that make it a team effort, and that's what we've been preaching the last half of the year. Everyone has to do their job, and we're double and triple checking everything. We had a drive shaft break in Charlotte and finished 24th. Crazy things can happen, and in NASCAR, it seems those things happen quite often. We have to keep our guard up, keep staying focused and do what we do each and every week. We should be ok, but we have to be ready for anything.

WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH GOING TO BE THIS WEEKEND? A lot of people say I drive really hard and maybe can get ourselves in trouble, which I would agree that sometimes that does happen to me, but it's also what has gotten us to where we are at this point in the season. My guys have done the same great job every weekend; I do the same job driving every week. I've lost points for us and we may have lost a few on pit road, but that's just the team we are and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm going to go out there and push it to my level of comfort. We like to run up front and win races, but being out front tends to bring less problems. So that's our plan.

Ford Racing

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