NEWTON, Iowa\u2014Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won Sunday\u2019s John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway for his first career victory in the Nationwide Series.<\/p>\n
Making his 51st start, Stenhouse, 23, outdueled Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, the only Sprint Cup Series regulars in the race, for the win.
\n
\n\u201cWe had a shot at a few races earlier this year, but they would get away from us at the end,\u201d Stenhouse said. \u201cToday we stayed strong all day long. In other races we have started fast but didn\u2019t finish. It was good to get that done here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stenhouse\u2019s win also was the first by a full-time Nationwide-only driver since Justin Allgaier\u2019s victory at Bristol in March 2010.<\/p>\n
Edwards, who won Saturday night\u2019s Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte, finished second. Keselowski, Reed Sorenson and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top five. Kenny Wallace, making his 500th Nationwide Series start, finished sixth, followed by Michael McDowell, Allgaier, James Buescher and Austin Dillon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy for (Stenhouse), but I\u2019m also a little frustrated,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI asked for some adjustments I shouldn\u2019t have, and we got dialed out. I was too busy driving and should have paid more attention to what the car was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stenhouse took the lead for the first time on Lap 165 of 250, and the lead went back and forth between Stenhouse and Edwards, his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, seven times before Drew Herring took the lead on Lap 208 during green-flag pit stops.<\/p>\n
Although Stenhouse, Edwards and Keselowski pitted together, Stenhouse returned to the track in the seventh position. But he made up ground over the final 40 laps, recapturing the lead with 18 laps to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I drove the car hard, it could take it,\u201d Stenhouse said. \u201cIt felt good having past champions (Edwards and Keselowski) behind me, but you also know you can\u2019t make a mistake because they will take advantage of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good that a Nationwide regular won this race. I don\u2019t think we will be the only Nationwide driver to win this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
With qualifying cancelled Saturday because of weather, the race lined up according to owner points. Herring, driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, started on the pole and led the first 37 laps. McDowell, in JGR\u2019s No. 18, then took the point for 18 laps.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until after Sorenson led the next 77 laps that Keselowski and Edwards would take the point, with Keselowski leading 30 of the 31 laps before Stenhouse grabbed the lead for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really good race from where I sat,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cIt is a great track to race, and it was good to see a Nationwide regular win it. We had a decent run, and I\u2019m proud of my team and our results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stenhouse moved up a spot in the points standings to third, one behind second-place Sorenson and eight behind leader Sadler.<\/p>\n
Stenhouse is the seventh driver to win a Nationwide race for owner Jack Roush, who picked up his 116th win in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to be here with Ricky and Mike (crew chief Mike Kelley) knowing how hard they have worked to get here,\u201d Roush said. \u201cYou will be hearing about them for years to come. I won\u2019t be here in the end, but I was here for Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEWTON, Iowa\u2014Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won Sunday\u2019s John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway for his first career victory in the Nationwide Series. Making his 51st start, Stenhouse, 23, outdueled Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, the only Sprint Cup Series regulars in the race, for the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775],"class_list":["post-5287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}