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