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JTG Daugherty Racing driver and winner of the 2023 Daytona 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is often seen quietly scrapping away during races, except for the 2023 season opener.
The NASCAR Cup Series headed to the Circuit of the Americas last weekend. Stenhouse Jr. was certainly not in front of drivers expected to dominate road courses, affectionately called road course ringers.
Hailing from a background of racing on dirt, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s outing at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix last Sunday was a pleasant surprise. The Olive Branch, Mississippi native clinched his first top-10 finish on a road course in the highest echelon of the sport.
The #47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver went through his fair share of issues in the 68-lap-long race in Austin, Texas before finishing in ultimate seventh place. The early stages of the 231-mile-long race saw Stenhouse Jr. lose out. He got into the oil spilled by Bubba Wallace Jr.'s #23 Toyota Camry TRD after making contact with Kyle Larson.
Stenhouse Jr. was also on the short end of the stick when Denny Hamlin made contact with the JTG Daugherty Racing driver.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also had numerous run-ins with other cars and flat tires. However, he managed to overtake cars on one of the three overtime restarts that decided the ultimate finishing order of the race. Driving his #47 Chevy deep and wide into Turn 1 on top of the hill at COTA, Stenhouse Jr. managed to hold onto P7 at the end.
In 31 previous tries, the Mississippi native managed to finish in the top 20 18 times, along with five finishes between P11 and P15. The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix marked his first top-10 on a road course at the Cup level of the sport.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. elaborates on his top-10 finish at COTA
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opened up about his first top-10 appearance at a road course in the Cup Series after last Sunday's race in Austin, Texas. The 35-year-old spoke about how he and the team went about achieving the result and said:
“I had a good game plan for Turn 1 most of the time. I knew when I was restarting 12th that I felt like they were all going to slow it way down, so I blitzed the outside and had a really good Turn 1."
NASCAR heads to Virginia next weekend for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway next weekend.
