Stenhouse capitalizes on stage points to advance to Round of 12

RELATED: Race results | Playoff standings DOVER, Del. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. proved to be prescient. The Roush Fenway Racing driver indicated on Friday that getting stage points could be a difference-making strategy play and he was, indeed, correct. A timely caution on Lap 86 of the Apache Warrior 400 presented by Lucas Oil at Dover International Speedway set the stage for Stenhouse to snag stage points in Sunday's opening 120-lap stage. At the time, green flag stops were underway and Stenhouse was one of five cars yet to pit. But then Jeffrey Earnhardt had a run-in with the pit road sand barriers, and everything changed. Before the flurry of pit road activity, the Mississippi native had been running in the low 20s. Stenhouse restarted third on Lap 93 and would finish the stage on Lap 120 in fourth. Those seven stage points ended up being the difference in advancing to the Round of 12. Stenhouse, who turns 30 years old on Monday, ended the day two points to the good on Ryan Newman for the last transfer spot into the next round -- and even received a hug of congratulations from friend Tony Stewart. “We got really, really lucky on that caution,” Stenhouse said on pit road after the race. “We were getting ready to pit and that was really the turning point of our race. Gave us a big buffer when we came in. We needed all of it.” WATCH: Earnhardt crashes into pit road barriers Stenhouse entered the elimination race in a tie with Austin Dillon for the last spot to advance, and he held the tiebreaker over the Richard Childress Racing driver. Dillon gave Stenhouse credit for the strategy play working out just right to help him advance. “The No. 17 played the strategy right and got the stage points and we were racing him pretty much the rest of the day,” Stenhouse said. “So, we tried some more strategy stuff by staying out there at the end on older tires and we didn’t get the caution. So, congratulations to the No. 17 team for moving on.” RELATED: Dillon reflects on missing out on advancing Still, Stenhouse's position remained precarious as Newman made his way up to 13th -- and two points behind the final spot -- while Stenhouse was trapped a lap down. “Right there at the end, it’s hard knowing where everybody is,” Stenhouse said. “My spotter was keeping me up-to-date that we were two to the good, but you never know if the 31 or 3 is getting ready to pass a couple cars. It was nerve-racking there at the end. I felt like it was pretty smooth until the last two runs when we just didn’t have a good handle on the car. That was probably the worst two runs and that made me a little nervous.” With two restrictor-plate wins this season -- one each at Daytona and Talladega -- and a points reset that drops him in eighth in the standings, Stenhouse is carrying a little extra spring in his step since the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway is in the Round of 12. “Talladega is our best track to grab a win,” Stenhouse said. “We knew coming into Dover, we probably didn’t have a car capable of winning. But Talladega, we feel confident going in that we got that car. Jimmy Fennig has been working hard on our speedway program. ... “We restart this round ahead of a few others and that’s a positive.”