Stenhouse still looking for victory

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finally wrote a smooth finish in what has been a bumpy season.

Stenhouse came on strong in the closing portion of Monday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and challenged for the lead before finishing fourth, easily his best run of the season.

Stenhouse entered the Bristol weekend with seasonal finishes of 29, 16, 14, 23, 18, 37 and 25.

“We were fighting track position, gaining it and losing it backand-forth over the last two days, but, all in all, it was a really strong run for our Sunny D Ford,” Stenhouse said. “We had a good Friday, a good Saturday and a good race on Sunday and Monday. I’m glad we were able to get it all in, and we appreciate the fans for sticking around.”

Stenhouse was eyeing first place before a late-race caution reshuffled the field.

“I got into second and was hoping it would just go green to the end, knowing that we had better tires than the 42 (Kyle Larson, then the leader), who was the class of the field all day,” he said. “Then we restarted there at the end (with 23 laps to go).

“It would have been fun if I had had something a little bit better to go racing with. I didn’t feel really good once we restarted there. I just didn’t really have a lot of grip compared to the restarts before.”

Stenhouse hasn’t won since July at Daytona International Speedway.