Stenhouse does Rowdy justice with fourth place finish in NOS Energy throwback

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scored his third top ten finish of the year in the No. 47 Chevrolet for Hyak Motorsports with a fourth place finish at Nashville.

This week he ran a special NOS Energy Drink throwback to a scheme Kyle Busch ran in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2016.

While not the same scheme, Busch previously won with NOS at Nashville before in the O’Reilly Series in 2009. After winning, he famously smashed a guitar he was awarded with in victory lane.

Stenhouse started the race in 15th due to qualifying being cancelled. He was also 17th fastest in practice.

Stenhouse ran in the 20s for most of stages one and two, but after a late caution for A.J. Allmendinger, he and crew chief Mike Kelley played strategy. Stenhouse would finish third in stage two picking up eight points.

In stage three, Stenhouse made it up to 13th after the last pit cycle, before the last caution came out for Chris Buescher.

Stenhouse restarted in 13th after taking four tires and jumped all the way up to sixth after turns one and two. He took it five wide with Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Zane Smith, and Kyle Larson.

Stenhouse then ran down Shane Van Gisbergen and Chase Elliott on the last lap to take over fourth. He gave himself his best ever finish at Nashville, beating a sixth place run in 2021.

Stenhouse moves up to 23rd in points and is looking to build momentum and aim to point into the Chase. He is 43 points below the cutline.

His run going from 13th to fourth in four laps is something Busch would’ve been proud of.