AVONDALE, Ariz. – In his opening lap of practice at ISM (formerly Phoenix) Raceway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crashed his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion and will go to a backup car after hitting the outside wall entering Turn 3 Friday morning.
Seconds before the crash, smoke could be seen trailing from underneath Stenhouse’s car. The accident came with just over a half-hour left in the session.
NASCAR’s new rules this season implement that any driver who goes to a backup car before the race must start at the rear of the field.
“I was really having issues with the brakes going down the front straightaway getting up to speed,” Stenhouse said. “I felt OK going into Turn 1 and then going into Turn 3 something in the left front just kept locking up.
“Hopefully, we’ll go back and see what was wrong with it. Definitely not the way we wanted to start our weekend. We’ve had issues here in the past in practice and qualifying. We tend to race pretty well.”
Entering Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at Phoenix, Stenhouse had qualified inside the top-10 in the first three race at Daytona (ninth), Atlanta (sixth) and Las Vegas (seventh) respectively.
Phoenix was a strong track for the Olive Branch, Miss. native last season as he earned fourth and eighth accumulating two of his nine top-10 runs overall in 2017.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
