Stenhouse Jr. captures Sam’s Town 300 in front of 70,000

In typical NASCAR fashion, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spent a great deal of time thanking his crew chief and sponsors after logging his third career Nationwide Series victory Saturday.

Perhaps he should have given T.J. Bell some credit, too.

Stenhouse was running second with 55 laps left when Bell brought out a caution flag by dropping debris onto the track. Stenhouse's No. 6 Ford emerged from the resulting pit stop in first place, and the defending series champion never looked back en route to winning the Sam's Town 300 before an estimated 70,000 fans at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"The guys on pit road did an awesome job to get us out first," said Stenhouse, who held off Mark Martin's No. 18 Toyota over the final 83 miles. "Obviously, we showed today that we're here to win."

Martin, who led 44 laps and dominated the middle of the race, finished second. Pole sitter Elliott Sadler was third, Trevor Bayne was fourth, and Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top five. Danica Patrick was 12th.

"That was one serious beat-down Ricky Stenhouse Jr. just put on me at the end there," said Martin, who posted his seventh top-10 finish in as many tries in Nationwide events at LVMS. "I kept up with him for a while, about wrecked five times, and that was it. That last run, he seemed to be stronger. He just had that thing rolling."

Stenhouse started from the sixth position and was strong throughout but never led until exiting the day's sixth pit stop.

Though he fell back a few spots early, Stenhouse was back to third place following a caution on lap 69. By the midway point, it was a battle between the sophomore Stenhouse and the veteran Martin.

"To be up there alongside of (Martin), it was cool," Stenhouse said. "He races really clean, and we had a lot of fun with him."

Stenhouse shared key information with crew chief Mike Kelley on the radio as he remained near the front the rest of the way.

"Ricky's really good about giving us feedback," Kelley said. "He talks, and he explains to us everything that the car's doing."

Once Stenhouse took the lead, he knew he was in good shape.

"It was good out front," he said. "We stretched the lead out to four to five seconds, and I just kind of rode around trying to save the tires."

The car was so good, Stenhouse said, that he might have won even without the late caution.

"I definitely think we had the car to beat," he said. "I feel like we could have started sixth and come out ahead there at the end."

As Martin dropped back, Sadler made a charge.

"We just ran out of time, but we didn't quit today," said Sadler, whose car needed multiple adjustments early in the race. "We showed a lot of guts and a lot of effort. Any time you go through what we went through today and get a third-place finish, that's a good day."

Sadler maintained the series points lead, while rookie Austin Dillon remained second, 15 points back. Stenhouse moved into third, 17 points behind the leader.

Gaughan, who started ninth, spent most of the day in the top 10 and made his move toward the front late.

Fellow Las Vegas native Kyle Busch struggled with severe handling problems in the early laps, finally crashing on lap 26 after tangling with Sam Hornish Jr. coming out of Turn 2. Busch returned but was not a factor, placing 33rd.

Jeff Wollard is a freelance reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. he can be reached at jwolly@aol.com.