"We weren’t very good, but we made something out of it" - Ricky Stenhouse Jr calls it 'a battle' to finish P8 at Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway

It was the second straight top ten finish for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as he finished in eighth place this week in Darlington. This will give JTG Daugherty Racing some momentum heading into Kansas Speedway.

It was a climb for most of the day as he started from the 26th position. He was at the back of the pack and avoided being involved in a wreck caused by Brad Keselowski spinning on the backstretch.

He almost ran into Denny Hamlin as well. He finished 25th in stage one. The second stage saw improvement as he got up into the top 15. He went through the pit cycle and then spent the second stage in 12th.

The final stage showed that his car was solid and he got the best performance out of it. He battled in the top ten for most of the stage. He avoided another wreck in the final moments of the race that happened after a restart on turn one. It was a multi-car pile-up.

But after clearing that, he finished his day with an eighth place finish. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spoke about his day after the race to the Chevy team media, stating:

“It was a battle. We weren’t very good to start. I think the track conditions got a little better for us as it cooled off. But we battled all day. My No. 47 Kroger / Nature Valley Chevrolet team made good adjustments and the cautions fell the right way.

I felt like we had really good strategy on that last long run, which put us in the top-five when the caution came out. I felt like we were in a really good spot to run top-five; and then the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) got us in the fence there and I was really tight after that.

He continued to talk about the grind he went through at Darlington and how his finish went, stating:

Two top-10’s in a row is nothing to be too bummed about. That was a battle. We weren’t very good, but we made something out of it.”

Will Ricky Stenhouse Jr contend in Kansas?

Duramax Drydene 400 presented by RelaDyne - Qualifying.

After Ricky Stenhouse Jr left Darlington with his second straight top ten finish, he looks ahead to the 1.5 mile Kansas Speedway.

So far this season, the Chevy's have been excellent on 1.5 tracks, which will favor Stenhouse Jr. Watch for him to bring home a clean race with a good finish.

His last four races at Kansas have resulted in 24th, 34th,16th, and 40th place finishes, respectively. Hopefully, the past two races will start a trend of a good fortune that continues this upcoming week for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.