FOR THE FORD 300
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE
AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2010
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. IN THE No. 6 CITIFINANCIAL FORD CLINCHED RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN TONIGHT’S FORD 300.
NOTES:
· Stenhouse Jr. scored a fourth-place finish tonight at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his third top-five and eighth top-10. He was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race and collected top rookie honors for the 13th time in 2010.
· DID YOU KNOW? Stenhouse Jr. overcame the largest point deficit (35 points) in Raybestos Rookie history across all three NASCAR national series to earn top rookie honors.
· DID YOU KNOW? Since 2001, Roush Fenway Racing has won FIVE Raybestos Rookie of the Year titles in the NASCAR Nationwide Series:
2010: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2007: David Ragan
2006: Danny O’Quinn Jr.
2005: Carl Edwards
2001: Greg Biffle
· Stenhouse scored the first top-five finish by a Raybestos Rookie at Homestead since Kyle Busch placed third in 2004.
· A Raybestos Rookie has now finished in the top-10 in five of the last seven Nationwide Series races at Homestead.
· Stenhouse led tonight’s race once for three laps and is the first Raybestos Rookie to lead the Ford 300 since 2008.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 6 CITIFINANCIAL FORD: ON CLINCHING RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.
“It’s a huge honor for myself and this team especially where we started the year out. CitiFinancial stayed behind us, Black Angus beef came on board and really backed us and Jack Roush did an awesome job getting me focused. It was a long road, it was tough but this is pretty special.”
YOU TOOK TIRES WITH 26 LAPS TO GO AND IT WORKED OUT WELL FOR YOU.
“We weren’t quite good enough and the 21 got us there a little bit on that last restart. I was wanting to shoot around him and he cost us a couple of spots and felt like we could have been at least a solid third. A caution at the end would have been nice.”
THIS WAS A GREAT WAY TO END THE SEASON.
“It was awesome. For CitiFinancial to back us like that it was pretty cool and Black Angus beef. It was special to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. It’s huge honor. We came back from adversity there early in the season. We came here wanting to win this race but that’s why we took tires there at the end and just didn’t get there quite enough.”
ARE YOU ONE OF THE THOSE GUYS WHO DON’T WANT TO SEE THE SEASON END?
“10-4 on that [smiles]. I wish we could have started the year where we are right now. This is good momentum going into the offseason for this whole team. Jack Roush [car owner] has done an awesome job with it and Mike Kelley [crew chief] and Mike Calinoff spotting up there on the roof. It’s been a fun year and I’ve learned a lot.”
WHAT TURNED YOUR SEASON AROUND?
“I was kind of joking with the Black Angus guys. You know, they came on board at Daytona and from then on it was better and better and better. It was really cool to be abele to turn this season around. Patience and everybody working together, it was a group effort that turned this thing around.”
YOU WENT FROM 21ST TO FOURTH ON THAT LAST RUN.
“It was fun. It was probably the most fun I’ve had in a race car right there. New tires coming up through the field. Felt like if we could have got a caution there with about 10 to go our strategy would have worked out perfect. We’ll take fourth to end the season on and go into the offseason and look for some momentum for next year.”
MIKE KELLEY, CREW CHIEF, No. 6 CITIFINANCIAL FORD: IS THIS THE SAME CAR THAT DAVID RAGAN RAN HERE IN 2007?
“Yes sir. Same car sat on the pole with and led a lot of laps. This is one of the oldest cars that we have in the fleet. You know I hear a lot of people talk about building brand new cars and every week bringing new cars to the track. It’s a race car that we’ve had in our fleet for four years. It’s been the fastest car we’ve ever had every time we bring it out. It’s been through some wrecks. Now we probably put 25 or 30 clips on this thing. Ricky was hard on it earlier in the year [smiles] but we raced it three times here lately. Kansas he ran in the top-five. Took it to Texas and led some laps and brought it here tonight. We call it our silver bullet. This is a car that we massaged and worked on and I can’t thank the engine shop enough. They’ve really stepped up here the last couple of weeks.”
THIS WASN’T AN EASY RACE FOR A CREW CHIEF TO CALL.
“Yeah it was a lot of gambling tonight. We came here last night with a car and the same type of thing happened to us. I gambled on pit strategy and it almost paid off. We finished second with Carl and it really didn’t work out and I’ve thought about that for a year. Two hundred laps in a Nationwide race is tough on tires. You only have five sets to work with and you’ve got to know when to use ‘em and we gambled early and we told Ricky there was going to be a point in the race where he was going to take a beating. But we had a good enough car we thought we could do it and it almost paid off tonight. I think with a caution late I think we’d have been okay.”
COMMENT ON WHERE THIS TEAM AND RICKY WERE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON TO NOW. THEY WERE A REAL THREAT TO WIN BY THE END OF THIS YEAR.
“Ricky Stenhouse will one day be a legend in this sport. I believe that in all my heart. This is a racetrack the kid has never been to before in his life and to come here and run and contend and lead laps and almost win at, that just tells you what it is. It took me and him to sit down and figure out what he needed and what he wanted in a race car and about the halfway point of the year…really the turning point of our season was missing Nashville and we did some soul searching. We put our heads together and not me and him but our whole team. They could have gave up early in the year and they never did. I’m so proud of all these guys.”
STENHOUSE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE
“It’s been a rough season but this is one my crew chief Mike Kelley had circled on his calendar that we were going to win when we got things turned around. We’ve turned the season around. It was a struggle that’s for sure but I think it just makes it that much more special to finally come away with the win in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. It’s a huge honor for myself and our team and Jack Roush, I don’t think he’s ever lost it still since he’s run for it so that’s cool to continue that. The race out there tonight, we didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to and was making up track position. We didn’t pit the one time to save our tires for the end. If we could have got one more caution there late I think it would have paid off for us and the 22 [Brad Keselowski] and we just didn’t get that. But a pretty solid run, fourth, for us, another top-five and that’s what we needed to carry the momentum into the offseason.”
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS YEAR? WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THAT’S GOING TO MAKE YOU A BETTER DRIVER FOR NEXT YEAR?
“There’s a lot that we learned this year. You know it’s cool that I wasn’t going through it by myself. The whole team was behind me and that helped a tremendous amount to have a team I learned that’s behind you and a crew chief that really believes in you and a spotter that believes in you. That’s key. I know that from here on now if I don’t feel like the crew chief or the team or the spotter or believe in me, I’ve got to get those guys to do that ‘cause that was a huge boost for us. I learned a lot of patience this year that I definitely did not have coming into this season.
Figured out how to practice these race cars so they’re better in the race not just good in practice. There’s a lot of things that I learned that I could do with the stock car that I didn’t know at the beginning of the season whether it’s easing into the throttle, getting into it hard just to balance the race car out there. Coming into the season I had no idea about that and felt like toward the end of the season we also gained some respect from some of the guys that’s been in the series for a long time. It’s cool to finish tonight fourth and have three champions in front of us so that was pretty cool.”
COMMENT ON THE INTENSITY NOT ONLY OF COMPETING IN THIS SERIES BUT THE COMPETITION WITHIN YOUR OWN TEAM AT ROUSH FENWAY.
“This is the best of the best. When you have 13 Cup drivers coming down and running with us I feel like it make us that much better. I like racing with those guys, I learn a lot from ‘em and I can go to ‘em and ask questions. This series is tough. NASCAR has got the best drivers in the world and to be a part of it I’m really thankful for. But as far as the battle within the team, you know it’s definitely there. I feel like it’s probably there at any big team, not just Roush Fenway Racing. Right now I feel really good going into the offseason. Hopefully we can secure some sponsorship to do this thing full-time again.”
YOU HAD A TOUGH START TO THE YEAR. WHAT WAS THE TURNING POINT? HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE WINNING RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR WILL HELP IN YOUR SPONSORSHIP SEARCH?
“It definitely was a tough start. I feel like it turned around at Loudon. The finish doesn’t show it at Loudon but we had a really good race car, ran up in the top-10 and felt like we were fast enough to run in the top-five there and the following week at Daytona to come home third in the Mustang, that was kind of the turning point I felt like in the season. That’s just kind of where everything came together and clicked. I was messing with the Black Angus beef guys, I told ‘em that they helped turn our season around ‘cause it was at Daytona where it really turned around. We were thankful for them to come on board. But I think ending the season strong and winning the Raybestos Rookie of the Year will help secure sponsorship and also looking back at Daytona and also looking back at Richmond an the COT, the Mustang races, the new cars, we seem to run really strong with those and to look forward to next year to running ‘em every single weekend I think that we can have that in our corner that we ran well in those also.”
YOU ARE LOOKING AT AN UNCERTAIN 2011. IS THERE ANY CONCERN THAT BEING OUT OF THE SEAT MIGHT HAVE IMPACT ON THE IMPROVEMENT YOU’VE SHOWN THIS YEAR?
“I that’s what Jack Roush is really good. He likes to promote within the company and keep his young drivers running good and at some point get their attention like he had to with us this year. I think Jack is really positive with us, especially the way the season has ended. As dedicated as he is he’ll probably find a way for us run and that’s what I’ve got to hope for. He’s been a great owner to run for and I feel like he’s going to do his best. Being out of the seat would hurt us, I feel like, with the improvements that we’ve made but overall I feel like we learned a lot this year and still can move on and work on this for next year.”
COMMENT ON THE COWBOY BOOTS.
“We weren’t leading the points at that time and we were sitting in the lounge and I wear my boots every weekend. We were sitting there and they said hey, if you’re leading rookie of the year points coming into Homestead we’ll all wear cowboy boots on Saturday. A few of ‘em had to go buy some and their feet were hurting all day because it was the first time they wore ‘em. They didn’t realize you had to kind of work ‘em in. They learned a little bit today about wearing boots and I’m just glad that the team is that good and that behind me to be able to do that and have a good time at Roush Fenway Racing.”
COMPARE WINNING RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN NATIONWIDE TO OTHER SERIES THAT YOU’VE RAN.
“I knew we had a challenge. I feel like this is probably the toughest thing that I’ve ever done. Just glad that we could accomplish it and hopefully build on this. I learned a lot. I want this year to keep going but then again I’m glad it’s over so that hopefully next year we can start out on the right foot and not have to talk about everything that happened at the beginning of the season.”
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