Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entered the Nashville Cup race 13th in the regular season standings and 10 points above the cut-line in the provisional playoff grid. Stenhouse hasn’t been very fast this year, but he and his single-car team have been a model of consistency, making the most of what they have. With an average finish of 16.8, he was second of all drivers with laps completed.
Unfortunately, he will lose a lot of those gains at Nashville. During Stage 2, he was running 17th when Carson Hocevar hit him from behind, sending Stenhouse’s No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet into the outside wall. Stenhouse’s race was over. He will finish 39th — last of all drivers and scoring just one point.
“A lap or two before, he [Hocevar] tried to dive in there from about ten car lengths back and then that time, I just opened my entry a little bit and he over-charged the corner and drilled us in the rear bumper.
“I’d say it’s not out of the norm from him, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that at that point of the race. It’s just a bummer for us. The No. 47 Chevrolet wasn’t great, but we were making changes. I felt like after that restart, I was a little bit better than I was the run before. We were just burning our right-rear tire off there throughout the run.
Stenhouse ended his NASCAR on Prime interview with what sounded like a warning for Hocevar, adding: “Bummed our day ended like that, definitely will have something to do about it at one point.
Stenhouse’s last DNF came last September at Watkins Glen. Entering this race, that 16.8 average finish for the season was his best since 2019.
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