Ricky Stenhouse fought back from a two-lap deficit to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway.
And, he had a little luck when the late race dominant driver, Kyle Busch ran out of fuel on the final lap of a race extended by six laps in a green-white-checkered finish. Austin Dillon finished second followed by Joey Logano.
"That's our year, man. Nothing else to it than that," said Busch, who finished sixth. "What a frustrating defeat."
Stenhouse’s problems began early in the scheduled 300-miler. First there was overheating then a collision with polesitter, Logano.
"We had a lot of debris on the grill, and we were 300 (degrees) on water and oil, and I thought we would have to pit to come get that off before we blew up," Stenhouse said. "I was trying to get behind him to get the debris off and he checked up at the last second and I turned and just drove right into the side of him.
"There wasn't much he could do about it, and I thought it ruined our day, but we were able to bounce back from it."
"I just got put in the fence," said Logano.
"What are you going to do? That's a racing thing. It's just a little early in the race for fencing each other and I know he's behind me trying to clean his grill off, so I didn't know what he's trying to do and then he got underneath me and started running me up the race track and then we ran out of real estate and he just 'smushed' us in the fence.
"To come back and finish third after that -- I'm proud of my guys."
"I thought the race was over for us. I thought I had killed it for us," Stenhouse added. "I knew we would try to salvage as many points as we could. To be honest I was thinking top-15 and to try to get back one lap down and it was one thing at a time and we were able to do that."
It took Stenhouse 60 laps to return to the lead lap. Ironically, being out of sequence put him in a favourite fuel condition to take advantage of the extended race.
With points leader, Elliott Sadler, finishing fourth Stenhouse closed to within six points of the lead. Dillon remains third 26 points back.
And, he had a little luck when the late race dominant driver, Kyle Busch ran out of fuel on the final lap of a race extended by six laps in a green-white-checkered finish. Austin Dillon finished second followed by Joey Logano.
"That's our year, man. Nothing else to it than that," said Busch, who finished sixth. "What a frustrating defeat."
Stenhouse’s problems began early in the scheduled 300-miler. First there was overheating then a collision with polesitter, Logano.
"We had a lot of debris on the grill, and we were 300 (degrees) on water and oil, and I thought we would have to pit to come get that off before we blew up," Stenhouse said. "I was trying to get behind him to get the debris off and he checked up at the last second and I turned and just drove right into the side of him.
"There wasn't much he could do about it, and I thought it ruined our day, but we were able to bounce back from it."
"I just got put in the fence," said Logano.
"What are you going to do? That's a racing thing. It's just a little early in the race for fencing each other and I know he's behind me trying to clean his grill off, so I didn't know what he's trying to do and then he got underneath me and started running me up the race track and then we ran out of real estate and he just 'smushed' us in the fence.
"To come back and finish third after that -- I'm proud of my guys."
"I thought the race was over for us. I thought I had killed it for us," Stenhouse added. "I knew we would try to salvage as many points as we could. To be honest I was thinking top-15 and to try to get back one lap down and it was one thing at a time and we were able to do that."
It took Stenhouse 60 laps to return to the lead lap. Ironically, being out of sequence put him in a favourite fuel condition to take advantage of the extended race.
With points leader, Elliott Sadler, finishing fourth Stenhouse closed to within six points of the lead. Dillon remains third 26 points back.