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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACEAugust 21, 2016Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.Bristol, Tennessee THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our second‑place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No.17 Fastenal Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. Tonight's race he tied a career‑best finish set in Bristol in March 2014, and this is the highest finish for Roush Fenway Racing this season, so congratulations on a great race. RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Yeah, it was tough. We didn't have the car exactly where we needed it to be to start the race, went two laps down, wasn't real sure we were going to be able to get back on the lead lap. We had some really good timely cautions. Nick made a lot of great changes to get our car better, and that was really the thing that turned us around was the good adjustments on pit road. We made a lot of them. Really good team effort. I really wanted to park in victory lane for Bryan and his family, but we just came up one spot short. I thought we were matching the 4 car lap for lap there at the end, just starting 6th he kind of stretched it out on me, and I wasn't able to really make a run at it. Really happy with how we ended the day. It was a tough weekend. Q. How involved has Chris and Bob been as far as team meetings and things of that nature, and how welcoming have the primary guys at Roush Fenway Racing been to y'all's collaboration? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Oh, they're in every single meeting. Yeah, we share a lot of information. It's awesome to start seeing it paying off. I know they were struggling at the beginning of the year. Chris is a great race car driver. He showed that in the XFINITY Series. I think the time in the car every week and getting better with working with Bob, this is the first year working with him as a crew chief, they're very, very integrated into our processes. It starts at the top. Everybody at Roush Fenway has been working hard to improve what we're coming to the track with, and that goes down to the 34 team, as well. Q. Granted, your runner‑up finish did have a lot of help from a good chunk of attrition, but what does a runner‑up finish like this say about the continuing efforts to bring Roush Fenway Racing back to the top of the series? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Yeah, I mean, I know for me that we didn't pass all the cars out there. We didn't pass the best of the best cars out there. But we passed some cars that were running and leading laps throughout the whole race. The 19 led a lot of laps, or led some laps, ran up front, the fastest car here in qualifying. So we passed some good cars, and we've got to look at it as what we were able to accomplish coming from two laps down and making our car better. I do think that some of those cars in the wreck we could have got by after making our car better, but we know we've still got a lot of work to do. But this just builds confidence that we were able to get our car better throughout the race. Q. If there was a late caution, would you have had something for Harvick, or did he have the best car at the end? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: You know, I don't really know. He had a lead big enough that he may not have been pressing the issue as much. I thought we were lapping him that lap time lap, lap for lap. I'd definitely give it all I got if we had a restart there. Like I said last time in here, a restart on the front row here at Bristol, if you don't give it all you got and move them out of the way or whatever you need to do, you don't really want it bad enough. We would have given it all we got, and I thought we had a car that was capable of doing that. The run before‑‑ before we put tires on, when him and the 22 were battling, I thought we were faster than they were lap for lap. I definitely think we would have had a shot at it. Q. Bristol has typically been a pretty good track for you. Given your season this year, did you feel like you had a shot at a top 10, top‑5 finish here this weekend, and also, did the way the changes to the track, did that impact the way you raced here at all? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: You know, I always feel confident coming to Bristol for sure. At the start of the weekend, I definitely wouldn't have thought we had a top‑10 car. Qualifying wasn't real good for us. But we didn't really get to practice on the top because of what they did to the racetrack on the bottom. Everybody kind of ran down there, and we ran some laps up top in practice, but it was not rubbered up and ran in enough to really say, hey, this is gonna work out up here. We thought it was going to work, and Larson and I talked about it a lot over the weekend, and we thought we could get it rolling and it would be the best, and he showed in the XFINITY race that it was going to be good. I wish going back to practice, we probably needed to run up there a little bit more to start closer in the race. We weren't very good to start the race. That being said, I thought we practiced a little different than normal with what they did to the racetrack. For me I was glad that the race wasn't won on the bottom. I think this race is way better won on the top. I thought what they did to the racetrack definitely opened up the bottom for options. I mean, I passed quite a few cars down there. I thought the 11, the 19, some of those really fast cars, they got their car working, could really pass some good cars down there. I thought it made it a two‑groove racetrack for sure and definitely more interesting. I don't think it was a bad option. Q. How difficult is it because of the weather to keep your poise and your patience, not really knowing what was going to happen? That must be a frustrating thing at times. RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Well, yeah, we've unfortunately become accustomed to it lately, the last couple years it seems like. What I was really bummed about is I thought we had a really good crowd last night. Seemed like a lot of fans were here and excited for the race, and I was bummed that we just didn't get it in. It was nice to see the fans that were able to stay, but I think a lot of fans that couldn't didn't get to see a great race, whether they were driving home and‑‑ so going in and out of getting ready, not getting ready, we were getting close to 1:00‑‑ or 12:30 there, and I was still in some workout clothes laying around in the bus thinking it was going to rain, and it did. I got to wait around a little longer. You definitely get cooped up in the bus and want to get going. Q. It's interesting that Chris is sitting next to you because the other day a couple of us were asking Joey about Chris winning the other weekend, and Joey said, I don't think average fans really appreciate how hard it is, no matter how you do it, to win one of these races. The level of competition at the very top is just so profound. I'm just curious, where you got today, to put yourself into position to get a second place, could you talk about the nuances you're picking up and how that might change the decision making you make over the course of a race, and in other words, if you get into that spot, how do you feel you'd be ready to handle it when that time comes? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Yeah, I mean, you know what Chris and Bob was able to do as a team, that's what this sport is about. It's about making the right decisions and the right calls, and they nailed it at Pocono. There's a lot of people that get wins on fuel mileage or rain shortened races, and I would take a win that way. But I think we as a team got to run a little bit better before we make decisions like that to really pull off a win. I think Chris will tell you they had some really fortunate circumstances that gave them the opportunity to make that decision and stay out. It's just the way these races work out. But even if you have the fastest car, you're not always going to win. You've got to make sure that you do everything that you can do, make the right pit calls, pit, don't speed, make good moves on the racetrack and not tear up your car. Man, it's just so hard to win these races, and if we keep putting ourselves in the top 5 and in the top 10, you can make different calls. My crew chief taking two tires or things like that to leap‑frog some people and get that track position, maybe start in the lead and then maybe I could have held the 4 off. You know, it's just a product of learning. Q. So it's as much about avoiding losing as it is daring to win? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: I don't know. As drivers we put it all out there and run every lap like we're qualifying to be the best in the series. You can't take a lap off here at Bristol. You've got to put it up next to the wall, and you've got to gas it up. I mean, my right arm was almost going numb I was so tensed up making sure I hit my marks every single lap there at the end. I mean, we run as hard as we can to win, and I'm just saying that if you're running better, then you have more options as a team to make better calls and make, I guess, more daring calls, I guess, and win some races. Q. The service for Bryan Wednesday, are you going to play a role in that? Do you know yet? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: I mean, it's been so all over the place with getting everything organized, but I'm sure I will. We're going to get there‑‑ I think it's going to be cool starting around 1:00, just going to have friends and family tell stories, good stories that we had with Bryan throughout the years, and that'll start at 1:00, and then they're actually going to have a race at Kokomo, so hot laps will start at 6:30, and then a friend of ours that was going to play Bryan and Lauren's wedding is actually going to play after the race for all the fans and friends that are going to be out there. Kokomo was Bryan's favorite place to race every Sunday night, so it'll be special. Q. You've gone through so much the last week and a half, couple weeks, on the track, off the track, what's the roller coaster been like, and to even have a day like today where you come close to getting your first win that everything that you had going and having Bryan's name‑‑ how have you gotten through this period? I'm guessing you're emotionally exhausted? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Yeah, I'm telling you, Saturday night watching the race from Belleville, as soon as it happened, I texted our agent and told him that he needed to figure some things out before anything was announced. I watched it, the ambulances hadn't even got there, and I went ahead and told them that he needed to figure out a way to get to Kansas because I just had a feeling that it wasn't good. So it started Saturday night and went through obviously a roller coaster that whole night. I was getting updated throughout the night. I was up until about 2:00, 2:30 that morning talking to him and trying to figure out what was going on. It's definitely been tough, but I think going to Knoxville and being with his family, being with his fiancĂ© and being with friends that we all had a great time together, you know, talking about it, talking through things and talking about all the good things that Bryan did and his organ donation really helped a lot of us really feel comforted with what he was still doing after the fact. The service Wednesday‑‑ I mean Thursday this past week was one of the toughest days that I think I had. But again, just being there and telling stories really I think helped us all get through it. His fiancĂ© Lauren has been a rock getting everybody‑‑ I mean, she's supporting everybody even though you would think it would be the other way around. She's really helped a lot of people. We're really looking forward to getting there Wednesday, and again, just being with all the racing family that we were able to always be around. I know Bryan was watching and wanting us to win tonight, and we gave it all we had. He was trying to run 200 races. Somebody asked me, how do you feel coming to here and racing, and talking with Tim, Bryan's dad, he was like, man, I feel like Bryan is probably mad at me right now because I'm not at home working on a midget to get it ready to go racing because Bryan, all he wanted to do was race. That's what he was doing, and leading one of the biggest races of the year. If he had to choose a way to go out, I feel like that was the way he wanted. Q. The family and Lauren were here today, also? RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Lauren and her mom and dad were here. Tim did not come and Bryan's family, but they came and just hung out all day on Saturday throughout the day around the motor home, and I was like, well, rain delays are good for some things. We all got to hang out together and spend some more time together, and that definitely has been helping us a lot the last couple weeks. THE MODERATOR: Ricky, congratulations again. Thank you for your time tonight. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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