Stenhouse wins a wild one!

[media-credit id=99 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) NRA American Warrior 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Stenhouse passed Kevin Harvick with one lap and half to go to win his fourth race this season and his first race at Atlanta.

“We had a great Cargill Beef Mustang and the engine was strong under the hood. Doug Yates has been working really hard on that. I just had to get down on him as tight as I could. I’m glad we could make the end of the race interesting because he killed us for the first 194 laps. He killed us, but it was cool to get him on that restart. Kevin is a great driver and it was fun to go up against him.” Stenhouse said.

Stenhouse Jr. now has six career NNS victories and all have come in Mustang (three at Iowa, one each at Las Vegas, Texas and Atlanta).

Brad Keselowski finished second, Kevin Harvick third, Elliott Sadler fourth and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-5.

“I tried to make a move on Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) coming to the white and he blocked it so I figured I’d just give him a push and he took that push and just ran with it and got in front of Kevin (Harvick). I couldn’t keep back up with him. Maybe if I had another lap but who knows.” Keselowski said.

Kyle Busch captured his first pole as a team owner and led the first lap. Harvick started third and was not happy because he felt Busch delayed the start of the race and told his crew chief that he would just wreck the No.54 if he did that again.

The No.52 car of Joey Gase slammed the wall into one and two.  It looked like it was a mechanical issue and nobody came into the pits only because only three laps had been run. Blake Koch took his No.00 to the garage.

They restarted the race with Stenhouse leading them to the green. Stenhouse cleared everybody into turn 1 with drivers going three wide to get as many positions as they could. The green flag did not last long when the No.41 car of Fain Skinner was spraying oil everywhere on the backstretch. Nobody went down to the pits because they only have five sets of tires and they didn’t want to waste them.

On lap 12, drivers Carl Long, Josh Wise, Mike Harmon, Chase Miller and J.J Yeley had already started and parked.

They restarted on lap 16 with Stenhouse being the on the top spot. Stenhouse gets a little ground on the leaders while Harvick, Busch and Kahne were fighting for second. Harvick ended up with the spot. Harvick was closing into turn 4 and on lap 18 he took the race lead coming out of two. Harvick just flew past everybody and by lap 45, he was over 10 seconds from second place of Stenhouse.

Green Flag Pit stops started to occur with the No.88 of Cole Whitt came in and got four tires. Stenhouse came in and got a chassis adjustment and four tires. He was two tight everywhere but especially in turns 1 and 2.  Sadler went down pit road complaining about his right rear was gone. He also said that he was too loose and he wanted a air pressure adjustment and four tires and he was gone. Keselowski took a trip down the pits and said he was free in to three and other then that, he was fine. He got four tires but was speeding on pit road and had to come down again. When he was coming down to serve the penalty, he was speeding again and had to come in for a stop and go. Harvick was on pit road and he was very happy! He got four tires and no changes and was on his way. Kahne came in saying he was loose in the right rear but other then that, he was tight everywhere. They fixed him and he was on his way. He also sped on pit road and all sped coming into to serve his penalty.

About five laps later after green flag stops, Caution cam out for the third time. Reed Sorenson and Robert Richardson Jr. were battling for position and it looked like Sorenson moved up and Richardson Jr. tapped his corner panel. There was only seven cars on the lead lap with Whitt making the eighth by getting the lucky dog.  Busch came in and got a rubber in the right front. Harvick stayed out and trapped all the people who were one lap down, due to green flag pit stops.

They restarted the race on lap 72 with Harvick still leading. He just has a rocket ship and just blew past everybody into turn 1. Travis Pastrana got up to 9th place and is having a very good run. Keselowski is running 17th and he has told his team he is bad loose.

They had the fourth caution of the race when the No.18 of Denny Hamlin blew a tire in turn 2. The leaders cam in to pit for their second stop of the night! Stenhouse came in wanting to put a rubber in saying he has no right rear grip. Allgaier came in and said he was tight and had no side bite. He got a wedge and a air pressure with four tires and was off. Sam Hornish Jr came in and was free and wanted a air pressure adjustment. He got that four tires and fuel. Our leader went in and said exactly what he said last time: He loves it! He got four tires, fuel and left.

Harvick lead them to the green flag and pulled away just like he has done the entire night! On lap 104  Harvick’s lead was about 6.5 seconds. He has had a magic car tonight.

The fifth caution cam out on lap 107 when the No.38 of Kahne cut a tire and shredded it all over the track. Kahne was two laps down due to the pit road penalties. – Allgaier, Michael Annett, Pastrana and a few others drop onto pit road under the caution. The leader of Harvick did not. They will all need to make one more pit stop before the night is over.

The green flag went back to green with Harvick leading and he pulled away like he has done all day. He has had amazing car and yesterday he wrote on twitter that he was having a okay car in cup and had to work on his NNS car. Well I think he worked on it!

Harvick lead for six more laps until the next caution came out when the No.14 of Eric Mcclure cut a tire in turn 2. This has been the third tire cut. The leaders came down to pit stop for their 2nd to last pit stop. Stenhouse Jr came in and got four tires and was a five on a scale of 1 to 10 loose. He also got fuel and was out of  there. The No.3 car of Austin Dillon says his car is the best that they have had today. He got four tires and fuel and was the second off pit road. Harvick got four tires telling the crew not to change anything but tires and fuel. Pastrana did not pit and will be the leader when we get back to green.

Pastrana lead the field back to the green but that didn’t last long. Harvick went three wide into one and gotten the top spot and started to pull away from the No.99. Stenhouse was trying to catch up but Harvick is too dang fast. Pastrana was running ninth with 32 laps to go when he hit the wall with a tire going down.  It was the fourth tire down tonight!

Final green flag pit stops came with 26 to go with the No.54 of Busch as the first one to come in. He said he just could not find the car today. He got some wedge and four tires with some fuel and was leaving right when Harvick was starting with his pit stop. Harvick said the car is amazing and all he wanted was four tires and fuel and he was gone. Stenhouse got in right behind Harvick and got a chassis adjustment with four tires and fuel. Sadler came in and got a chassis adjustment. He said he was still loose in and he didn’t want any changes.

Everybody went in to pit except for Keselowski and Allgaier. They were both trying to wait for a caution so they can come in and get fresher tires. They got it. The caution came out for debris in turn 1 with Allgaier breathing a sigh of relief on his radio. They down on pit road and got fresh tires.

They went back to green with eight laps to go with Kevin Harvick leading. Stenhouse was trying to catch him but there was wreck behind them. James Buescher got a little high, Patrick hit the bumper and turned him. Patrick then went down and collected Mike Bliss who spun and collected Kyle Fowler.

harvick had the dominate car all night, but Keselowski pushed Stenhouse to the lead in the final lap and Harvick drifted back to finish third.

“The 22 is gonna be a great Ford teammate next year. He pushed us down that front straightaway. He had the new tires on and definitely helped us get to the win.” Stenhouse said.