DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. returns to Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway is the site of Saturday night’s regular NASCAR Cup Series season finale in a much better position than most of the field.
That scenario leads to confidence for Stenhouse and his JTG-Daugherty Racing team as they hope to not only sweep Daytona – but also give them a boost for their championship run, which begins with the Round of 16 from Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023.
“I mean, that’s what we’re here for is to be back in Victory Lane; get my second Summer race win here,” said Stenhouse Friday afternoon at the World Center of Racing. “For us, we’re looking at the playoff points that we could take to the playoffs – either by stage wins or obviously another five points winning the race. Those are the benefits that we can take out of Daytona and the things that we’re looking for.
“How do we do that? I’m not sure yet. On one hand, this race generally is kind of crazy. Obviously, last year was a little bit different, with kind of one incident taking everybody out of the race, but not really anybody’s fault.
“I don’t know. I know the cars that have to win have to make it to the end of the race, right? So, they don’t really care about stage points. I mean there’s a couple that care about stage points, so hopefully, that leaves us racing the ones that are already locked in for maybe some stage wins or something. Just going to see how it plays out and kind of adjust our race lap-by-lap, stage-by-stage, and see where we shake out.”
With the Playoff on deck, Stenhouse looks at Daytona for his second triumph of the season and the opportunity to earn additional stage points and even a crucial Playoff point if he can lead Stage 1 or Stage 2 of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Both sets of points help the overall picture towards the Playoff run as the seed is reset following Saturday night’s race, with Stenhouse looking for any advantage in terms of numbers.
“You look at the cautions in this race, and you look at how many finish this race, and it’s not near as many as other speedway races, it seems like. But again, kind of like I said earlier, I feel like there’s a lot of guys that know that they have to make it to the end of the race to have an opportunity to make the playoffs,” added Stenhouse.
“I’m hoping that gives us a way to kind of get some track position – stay upfront, battle for those stage wins. Seven points would go a long ways for us in the Round of 16 and so on.
“For me, that’s really what we’re focused on, and I hope that’s how it plays out – that it won’t be so chaotic at the end of those stages and we’re battling for those stage wins and ultimately the win at the end of the day.”
No matter how Saturday night pans out for Stenhouse, he does not have to worry about whether or not he’ll be a part of the Playoff field. His Daytona 500 victory in February – vaulted him and his single-car team as the first driver and team eligible for the Playoffs.
Since Daytona, JTG-Daughtery Racing has held steady with an average finish of 16.0 in the first 25 races, with Stenhouse delivering one top-five and seven top-10 finishes overall. While that solid pace may sneak him out of the Round of 16, the Olive Branch, Mississippi native knows his team has to bring it starting at Darlington next weekend.
“Yeah, I think going into the first Round, I really like all of the racetracks. I love Darlington, Kansas and Bristol. I still feel like we’ve been so close at Bristol so many times, and I would love to get my first win there this year and then obviously move on.
“I’m focused on the first round,” continued Stenhouse. “I did not know Talladega was in the second Round, honestly. I have no idea what’s in the second Round (laughs). But for us, just really kind of honed in on Darlington right now. I feel good about where our car is for Daytona. My guys have been kind of looking at Darlington this week and trying to prepare for that.
“We were good at Darlington earlier in the year. We had kind of a misfortune with a flat left-rear tire that we lost time under green pitting. I feel really good about where we are as a team. I don’t think we have to win in the first Round to make it through by any means, so we’ll go do our jobs each and every week – try to be perfect and let others make mistakes to move on through that Round.”
Stenhouse was open that his team has not been perfect in 2023. Mistakes by the driver and team have hindered them at some points and throughout the season – they have made steady gains, but the three-time Cup Series winner knows there is more work to be accomplished.
The Playoffs will arrive whether the team is mistake-free or not, but Stenhouse believes as long as his team can continue to limit their mistakes and carry strong finishes, anything is possible over the next 10 weeks.
“It’s going to be real in a week, right? Or I should say after tomorrow, it’s real. I feel like we’ve grown a lot as a team.
We’ve gotten better in certain areas of our race team throughout the year, and really, things have stuck out where we need to be better, and I feel like we’ve corrected some of that.
“I still feel like we have some issues that we’re still working on and trying to clean up. Some of that is me as a racecar driver – getting to pit road, things on pit road, some race strategy calls that we’ve probably been a little bit off on. And then car speed, we’ve struggled on that at some racetracks.
“I like the information that we have and the things that we’ve learned lately, and I feel like that’ll put us in a good spot going forward. But I like where we are. It’s real now. We’ve made the playoffs. We have one more kind of relaxed, kind of freebee race, and then it’s game time.”
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