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It wouldn’t exactly be a surprise if we were to discover that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is wishing there were multiple restrictor-plate races in this year’s playoffs for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Unfortunately for Stenhouse and his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing team there’s only one, at Talladega, and it’s nestled in the middle of the Round of 12 of the postseason. And it’s surrounded by mile-and-a-halves, which the 29-year-old racer will quickly tell you haven’t exactly been his team’s or the organization’s strong suit of late.
“We’re still working on our mile‑and‑a‑half program,” Stenhouse said after Saturday night’s win in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. “We don’t feel like we’re capable of winning on a mile‑and‑a‑half program.
“We feel like we can run top 10 and get top‑10 finishes, but we’re not ready to go out and win those races yet.”
Plate tracks, though, well that’s another story. Stenhouse has won two of three this season and they just happened to be the first and second wins of his career in the series.
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There have been three first-time winners this year, and Stenhouse was the first, winning at Talladega back in May. Austin Dillon (Charlotte) and Ryan Blaney (Pocono) got their first wins this year, too, but a second victory has yet to materialize for either driver.
Stenhouse is the first competitor to win his first and second races in the same season since 2006, the year a 25-year-old Denny Hamlin swept both events at Pocono.
There have been several drivers who have earned their first win since then, but none went on to win a second time during the same year. Not Brad Keselowski or Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in ’09. Not Martin Truex Jr. or Clint Bowyer in ’07.
The Talladega victory earned Stenhouse a spot in the 16-team playoffs, provided he doesn’t fall off the face of the planet, and who would have thought that after 17 races Stenhouse would have a pair of victories and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers would have none?
The expectation is that JGR’s veterans Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Hamlin will eventually find the winner’s circle, but only nine races remain before the start of the postseason. Opportunities will soon be in short supply.
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Stenhouse is a two-time XFINITY Series champion, capturing titles in 2011 and ’12. But of his eight career wins in that series, none came on anything larger than 1.54-mile Atlanta. It was, in fact, the mile and a halves where he prospered, winning at places such as Texas and Las Vegas and Chicago and Kansas.
Iowa, a 7/8th-mile layout, was the scene of three wins as well and Stenhouse has been competitive even through the lean times on the shorter tracks on the schedule.
Back then, Roush Fenway was a different organization, fielding title-contending entries for the likes of Carl Edwards and Kenseth in the Monster Energy Series in addition to its solid XFINITY effort.
Then the Monster Energy Series teams went winless in ’15-16, drivers moved on and folks began to wonder if RFR could or would win again.
Now the victories by Stenhouse seem to validate the direction of the organization, the personnel moves and the innumerable details that we’re told have been addressed.
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To get his first win this season was big. To get a second victory was no less memorable or meaningful for Stenhouse.
“I think it’s something that after you win the first one, it was awesome for a week, but then somebody else wins the next week, so it makes you want to continue to win and get back … in Victory Lane, and get everybody talking about your team,” he said.
They’ll talk about him for a least a couple more days and then it’s off to Kentucky and another race and another opportunity. Kentucky’s a 1.5-mile track and maybe Stenhouse and his team, led by crew chief Brian Pattie, will make some headway in attempting to tune up the program where those tracks are concerned.
There’s plenty of them ahead — two before the playoffs then five of 10 down the stretch.
But only one plate race. Much to the regret of Stenhouse, no doubt.