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| Stenhouse hits the Jack pot. |
Stenhouse’s dominating victory made him RFR’s fourth Nationwide
winner at the 1.5-mile tri-oval – joining Martin, Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle –
and the eighth NASCAR winner for the team overall. Ironically, Martin won the team’s
first Sprint Cup Series event at Las Vegas 1998, in addition to a pair of Nationwide
scores in 1999 and 2005. He had nothing for Stenhouse Saturday, however, as the
youngster applied what Martin called “a beatdown” in the final laps en route to
a comfortable margin of victory.
“It was really cool,”
said Stenhouse in Victory Lane. “Looking at all the fans in the stands was
pretty cool before the race, and to win here was great. Our Ford EcoBoost
Mustang was not as good as we wanted at the start of the race. If you would
have listened to our radio, I’m sure (crew chief) Mike (Kelly) was tired of
listening to me. But he kept taking notes of what I was saying and made it
better. The guys on pit road did an awesome job to get us out first and that
really helped to win us that race.”
Roush Fenway’s Trevor Bayne may have had the fastest car in the
final laps of the race, slashing through the field for a fourth-place finish in
one of his limited Nationwide starts for RFR this season. Point leader Elliott
Sadler finished third – his third consecutive Top-5 finish to start the season –
followed by Bayne and Brendan Gaughan.
Stenhouse’s win was the third of his Nationwide career and the
125th lifetime for Roush Fenway Racing. RFR has now visited Victory
Lane in 12 of the last 16 seasons at LVMS. It was also the team’s record-extending
301st overall NASCAR victory.
The team will seek its next Las Vegas win in Sunday’s Sprint Cup
Series event, with Greg Biffle their top qualifier in ninth place.
its amazing how this kid turned his racing career around after Jack parked him a couple years ago.
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