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Stenhouse Uses Late Charge To Win Dollar General 300

Joliet, Ill. Sept. 15 – After struggling early, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s car came to life when it mattered most as he used an outside pass to claim the lead from Kyle Busch and then paced the final twenty laps en route to victory in the Dollar General 300 powered by Coca-Cola NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at the Chicagoland Speedway.

“This was about never giving up,” Stenhouse stated from victory lane, “it was a total team effort for sure as the guys made great pit stops and we worked on the car quite a bit. I put them behind when I stalled it once but we drove back up through the field.”

“The last run the car was the best it was and that’s when it counted,” Stenhouse continued after capturing his fifth victory of the season and wrestling the championship points lead away from Elliott Sadler, “it was a lot of fun and to get Jack’s (Roush) first win at Chicago was pretty cool.”

Kyle Busch led the race four times for a total of 50 laps and appeared to be on his way to victory in the closing stages until Stenhouse made his charge.

“We had a good car and ran well throughout the race,” Busch said, “the car was fast and I thought there wasn’t anybody to deal with but then the #6 car came out of nowhere I don’t know where they came from.”

“The guys gave me a perfect car on the last run and I can’t ask for more,” Busch continued after finishing second 2.402 seconds behind Stenhouse, “the only disappointment today was seeing the #6 car catch us and drive away.”

Austin Dillon had the dominant car in the middle stages of the race, leading four times for a total of 52 laps before having to settle for a third place finish.

“We had a good car but we fought things like trash on the grille all day and that hurt us,” Dillon explained afterwards, “the #6 car just out-adjusted us today.”

Dillon was involved in a bit of controversy when he was informed over the team’s radio not to help his Richard Childress Racing teammate Elliott Sadler while they raced hard in traffic, but Dillon dismissed the situation as nothing more than a heat of the moment exchange.

“We were just racing hard by Sam (Hornish) , or whoever it was, and the #2 car (Sadler) went with the other guy when we could have used a push” Dillon said, “that’s all it was racing hard for a championship.”

Brad Keselowski spent most of the afternoon keeping the leaders in sight and in the end, took the checkered flag with a respectable fourth place finish.

“We didn’t quite have what we needed today,” Keselowski stated, “but we didn’t give up on it and our fourth place finish was a result of that.”

Paul Menard crossed the finish line in the fifth position followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and Michael Annett in sixth and seventh place respectively. Elliott Sadler led briefly for three laps late in the race but faded to eighth at the finish and now trails Stenhouse by nine points in the championship standings. Joey Logano paced the event for 62 laps, the most of any driver in the field but fell back to ninth place in the end just ahead of Brian Scott who completed the top ten finishers.

The Dollar General 300 powered by Coca-Cola featured a competitive seventeen lead changes among nine drivers and was slowed five times under the caution flag for a total of twenty laps. The race was completed in just over two hours and ten minutes at an average speed of 138.373 mph.

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