NASCAR Star Ricky Stenhouse Jr Races Sprint Cup Series for 2013 Roush Fenway Racing Season
- Feb 21, 2013
He finished in sixth place in the race, an admittedly disappointing end to his Nationwide Series run with Roush Fenway Racing. "I really wanted to win the championship and the race all at the same time," Stenhouse said. The rising NASCAR star is moving up to the Sprint Cup Series and will be driving the No. 17 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing in 2013. The race in Miami was his last with his Nationwide Series crew. Together they placed Stenhouse in the same company as Sam Ard, Larry Pearson, Randy LaJoie, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. as the only drivers to win Nationwide Series championships in consecutive years. Still, Stenhouse said he would have liked to end his stint in the Nationwide Series with Roush Fenway with a little more to celebrate. "We had a car throughout the race that every now and then that would be OK," Stenhouse said. "All in all it was a great ride, great weekend for us. I was disappointed that we didn't win. Looking back at the things we accomplished this year, thinking about how long I've been with those guys and that was my last race with them. Without winning the race, the last race with those guys, it was pretty tough. I got over that race pretty quick. After the race, I was pretty upset with not winning for sure."
Stenhouse won six races and four poles en route to his second Nationwide Series championship. He won the Nationwide Series races at Kansas Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He credits his crew for preparing quality and reliable cars throughout the season. K&N filters were part of that preparation. "For us, in the Nationwide side, it's very important for the engine to perform as best it can," Stenhouse said. "Being low on horsepower, it shows when you have extra five additional horsepower. That's definitely a plus. All year long, we never had a K&N part failure. I thought it performed very well." Stenhouse started racing when he was 6 years old. Even at that early age, his father expected him to work on his own cars if he wanted to race. "I always enjoyed it. My dad had an engine shop. I grew up tearing down engines for him and also working on the race cars," Stenhouse said. "It's a weird situation now, being in the stock cars and running them and not working on them as much like I used to. I go to the shop quite a bit. It's a different situation, but I definitely grew up working on them all the time." His experience in the garage and in the pits made him appreciate the work his crew put into his stock cars.
"You have to things that can finish the races, but you also have to have things to go out and win championships," Stenhouse said. "We have the best out there. Everybody at Roush Fenway, I feel like they do an awesome job preparing the cars as best they can and also putting the best equipment in there as well." All that hard work produced two Nationwide Series championships in a row and a place in NASCAR history. "Obviously that was the goal that we set out to do," Stenhouse said. "I really haven't had time to sit back and think about it. They have me running around. The second championship was huge for us. This year was great. The guys worked very hard. We had our ups and downs, but we pulled it through. That's what makes it satisfying. When we have bad races and when we were behind in points, we battled back. That's what it's all about." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
