{"id":21751,"date":"2018-09-08T15:07:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T20:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21751"},"modified":"2018-09-09T20:17:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T01:17:41","slug":"nascar-saturday-indianapolis-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/08\/nascar-saturday-indianapolis-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Indianapolis Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. faces all-or-nothing race on Sunday<\/b><\/p>\n

SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Roush Fenway Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knows both ends of the spectrum.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Fastenal Ford. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year, with breakthrough victories at Talladega and Daytona, he locked himself into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs long before the final regular-season race at Richmond.<\/p>\n

This year, with the regular-season finale contested at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stenhouse is winless, but he needs to change that status in order to compete in the Playoffs again. Currently 16th in the standings, Stenhouse can\u2019t catch 15th-place Alex Bowman on points, and Bowman is the last driver currently in a Playoff-eligible position.<\/p>\n

Having to win Sunday\u2019s Machine Vodka 400 (1 p.m. ET on NBCSN, IMS and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) isn\u2019t without its advantages. Certainly, it has simplified Stenhouse\u2019s approach to the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor one, it\u2019s clear-cut what we\u2019ve got to do, so throughout the race we\u2019re not really worried about each stage,\u201d Stenhouse said on Saturday at the Brickyard, where rain washed out all practice and qualifying sessions. \u201cWe\u2019re only worried about setting ourselves up for the end of the race, because that\u2019s all that really matters for us in this particular race.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it doesn\u2019t all work out we still have a tight race for trying to be 17th in points (because Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, currently 18th, secured one of the top 16 spots with the victory), and I think 17th in points would still be probably my second-best in points since I\u2019ve been in Cup, so that\u2019s something that I strive for to continually get better and make our stats look better\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t run as well as what we wanted, but we still kept ourselves in contention to battle to get in on points, but definitely enjoyed it a lot more last year being locked in at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

DALE JARRETT REMEMBERS BRICKYARD 400 HE SHOULD\u2019VE WON<\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett won his first Brickyard 400 in 1996 and his second during his 1999 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship season in 1999, but he still remembers the one that got away.<\/p>\n

Jarrett\u2019s No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford was the fastest car in the 1998 race at Indianapolis, qualifying second and at one point building a 16-second lead. The payout for winning the race was $637,000, but crew chief Brad Parrott and owner Robert Yates wanted to collect every dollar that was up for grabs in the event.<\/p>\n

That included a $10,000 prize for leading Lap 80, the halfway point.<\/p>\n

Parrott told Jarrett he would be able to stretch his fuel to Lap 80 and make it back around to pit road, thanks to the 16-second lead. Unfortunately, the fuel mileage calculations weren\u2019t entirely accurate, and Jarrett ran out of gas in Turn 1.<\/p>\n

The race stayed green, and Jarrett lost four laps before he got to his pit stall to refuel. In the second half of the race, he got those four laps back under a format where lapped cars restarted in the bottom lane with lead-lap cars to the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finished (16th) on the lead lap,\u201d Jarrett said on Friday during an appearance for Mobil 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum. \u201cI passed the leader every time \u2013 we were that fast\u2026 Drove back to North Carolina, still pissed, and Monday morning at about 10:15, I got a call from one of the guys who worked on the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I know you\u2019re still not happy. None of us are. We should have won that race, not trying to win $10,000, but just I thought this might make you laugh. We just got a call from Todd Parrott, who was driving to the race shop. He only lives about 12 miles from the race shop. He ran out of gas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

MATT DIBENEDETTO TAKES A MAJOR LEAP OF FAITH \u2013 IN HIMSELF<\/b><\/p>\n

When Matt DiBenedetto told the world on Twitter that he was leaving Go Fas Racing and scheduled a media availability for Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the natural assumption was that the driver of the No. 32 Ford already had something lined up for next year.<\/p>\n

Not so, said DiBenedetto, who is leaving his current ride at the end of the season with no specific backup plan. When Go Fas team owners Archie and Mason St. Hilaire asked DiBenedetto for a decision on 2019, it crystallized the driver\u2019s desire to prove himself.<\/p>\n

To do so, DiBenedetto felt he had to make it known he was available for a more competitive ride, even if that means competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series instead of Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (team owners) came and talked to me a couple of weeks ago and said they\u2019d like to know what direction I was taking by September 15,\u201d DiBenedetto said. \u201cI was already thinking about it. And, honest to God, I woke up about a week-and-a-half ago \u2013 I\u2019d been thinking about what I wanted to do \u2013 and it just became clear to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what made me feel that way. I believe in fate and things happen for a reason. But I woke up one morning, and it became clear to me that I needed to take a bold move, and I needed to show everybody what I got.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiBenedetto has developed the reputation for overachieving in less than winning equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make the most out of what we\u2019ve got here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been great to get the support a lot of people, but it was time to take that chance. It was clear that I needed to take a step back and put myself in a position or make myself available to have a shot like (Alex) Bowman did and getting in a car that I can win in and show that I can prove it to everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody knows that I make the most of what I get in. We all do as a team. But until they see it \u2013 and winning in winning equipment, I want to show them so they will see it first-hand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Ricky Stenhouse Jr. faces all-or-nothing race on Sunday SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Roush Fenway Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knows both ends of the spectrum. Last year, with breakthrough victories at Talladega and Daytona, he locked himself into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs long before the final regular-season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":16480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[303,421,16],"class_list":["post-21751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brickyard-400","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/StenhouseJr-2018MENCS-CarShot-2.jpg?fit=4103%2C2731&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5EP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21751"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21759,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21751\/revisions\/21759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}