NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: GEICO 400

Topics:  GEICO 400

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
September 15, 2013

JOLIET, ILLINOIS

KERRY THARP: We'll roll into our post race press conference with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Ricky, congratulations. Talk about your race, if you would.
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR: We didn't start off near like we wanted. We thought we had a better car throughout the weekend. We started the race and thought we were in big trouble.
Luckily after the rain delay, getting back out there at night, it kind of helped our car turn a little bit better. I stayed out there on that last caution, thought we were going to be in trouble with those guys behind us on tires, but we were able to hold them off, get an eighth‑place finish.
KERRY THARP: Questions for Ricky.

Q. Talk about your drive‑through during your rain delay.
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR: Went to Sonic. Gave me a little bit of energy. Took a nap and really played it out well.

Q. Ricky, two straight top 10s on the heels of the pole at Atlanta, what has been the difference for you guys the last three weeks?
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR.: I wish I knew. I feel like our cars still don't drive very good. I think Scott is making good calls to get us track position at the end of these races and we're able to hang on to it. We still got a lot of work to do.
It's good to carry that momentum from that pole in Atlanta, two top 10s now. We were looking forward to carrying that on the rest of the year. We still got a lot of work to do.
I think just good pit calls there at the end keeping us out on the track and getting track position has been the best for us lately.

Q. Did you notice anything different with the new rules? Did it feel any different from the cockpit?
RICKEY STENHOUSE, JR.: No, I give it 110% all race. Felt really good. My spotter told me there was 20 to go when there was 30 to go. He might need a little help because I think a crew chief is normally talking to him, telling him how many to go. He missed that by 10.
Then I stayed out there under that last caution. They said we had 25 to go. I was like, I thought you said we had 20 to go five laps to go. That threw us off a little bit.
I thought the restarts went well. I didn't ever start on the front row. I guess you'll have to ask Kyle how the restarts were. Seemed like everything went pretty smooth tonight.