Stenhouse Jr sets new career-high mark with second top 5 finish of 2020
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s fourth-place finish in Thursday night’s Alsco Uniforms 500k at Charlotte marked a new career-high for the driver of the no. 47 Kroger JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet Camaro.
Stenhouse’s fourth-place finish was his second top 5 in the eight races run so far this season, which is the most top 5s that he has scored at this point in a season in his career.
Stenhouse’s other top 5 finish this season came in race no. 2 at Las Vegas where he finished third after leading 30 laps.
Stenhouse’s fourth-place finish was also third top 10 finish in the last four races at the Charlotte oval, but he started the race 24th which reflected his finish in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. By lap 55, however, Stenhouse moved up to finish sixth in stage 1, marking his first time scoring stage points since the Daytona 500.
Stenhouse backed up his solid stage 1 performance with running as high as eighth in the stage, even passing eventual race winner no. 9 Chase Elliott to earn the position, but did not earn any points in stage 2.
Stenhouse had an 11th-place average running position throughout the race and made the most green-flag passes (103) of any driver in the field, which was reflected by Stenhouse restarting in ninth place on lap 150 of 208.
Stenhouse moved up to third and had closed to within a half a second of no. 12 Ryan Blaney before being passed by no. 11 Denny Hamlin with three laps to go, dropping Stenhouse back to fourth.
After Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s fourth-place finish in the Alsco Uniforms 500k, he sits 20th in the NASCAR Cup Series points, 36 points behind 16th place no. 48 Jimmie Johnson, as the series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for May 31’s Food City presents The Supermarket Heroes 500 (TV: FS1; 3:30pm EST).
Bristol is Stenhouse’s second-best track statistically, with four top 5s, six top 10s and an 14.4 average finish, but no laps led, in 14 races at the 0.533-mile oval.
SOURCES:
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.Info
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com