Ricky Stenhouse Jr Probably Needs Strategy to Contend at Nashville
6 months agoAlthough Ricky Stenhouse Jr has his career-worst speed percentile in the NASCAR Cup Series at 33.84 at the season's halfway point and is arguably having his most invisible season, he unexpectedly scored back-to-back top tens at Iowa and Loudon in the last two races. However, both finishes were primarily due to strategy rather than Stenhouse's speed. At Loudon last week, he ranked 30th in speed despite finishing 7th. His performance hasn't really improved but Mike Kelley's strategies are currently masking that. Stenhouse qualified a fairly typical 23rd for this weekend's Nashville race. He did finish sixth here in 2021 but has finished worse each year since. Given his heavy reliance on strategy in recent weeks, it seems like Stenhouse has a chance for a good result if there are many pit strategy reshuffles, but probably doesn't if the race primarily consists of green flag runs.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference