Loudon, N.H (July 15, 2012) – Despite being slightly under the weather, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove his No. 6 Cargill to a solid fifth-place finish in NASCAR Nationwide Series F.W. Webb 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. Stenhouse was reeling in Austin Dillon who he needed to pass to win the Nationwide Dash4Cash $100,000 incentive, but came up 50-yards short. The stout finish qualified the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide champion for the next Dash4Cash race at Chicagoland next weekend.
“It was a good points day, but we wanted to win that $100,000” said Stenhouse. “We got our Cargill Beef Mustang back in the top-five, which is important for us. We’ve got to keep that going for us throughout the rest of the year, but that was a tough race. Austin (Dillon) was fast. We weren’t faster than he was, and I was trying to get up there to try and get him to make a mistake but it didn’t quite work out.”
The 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Champion qualified third for the 200-lap race. When the green flag waved, the inside lane stacked up, shuffling the Olive Branch, Miss. native back to the fifth position. Stenhouse quickly inched his way forward, moving into fourth-place by lap 37 when the first yellow flag was displayed.
Stenhouse stayed in the top-10 for a majority of the race. At one point Stenhouse was the fastest car on the track, but his forward progress was stalled by a hard fought battle for position with the No. 31 machine. On lap 160, Stenhouse passed Austin Dillon to take over the lead in the Dash4Cash challenge. The No. 6 Cargill Beef Ford Mustang was a tad loose on entry and snappy free on exit allowing Dillon to retake the spot.
When the leaders caught lapped traffic, Stenhouse closed in on Dillion but came up 50-yards shy of winning the first of four races in the Nationwide Dash4Cash challenge. Stenhouse finished the race in the fifth position.
Stenhouse and the No. 6 team travel to Chicago next weekend for the STP 300. The race will be Sunday, July 22 at Chicagoland Speedway. Coverage will begin at 2:00 p.m. (EST) on ESPN. The race can also be heard on PRN as well as Sirius channel 90.
