Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Wins First Career Race At Iowa

Early last week, I posted an article on my views of Cup Drivers in the Nationwide Series. What we saw today is what we need in stand-alone races for the Nationwide Series.

Last year, everyone thought Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was going to lose his ride at some point during the 2010 Nationwide Season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had only 8 Top 10 finishes, 5 of which came in the last 10 races, and one DNQ (Nashville).

This year, Stenhouse Jr. turned his career around, having 8 Top 10 finishes in 11 races. And today, he won the John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway. On the last restart, Ricky passed his teammate, Carl Edwards, for the lead. Stenhouse stayed in the lead for the rest of the race, later picking up his first NASCAR career win. This is also the first Nationwide Regular to win a Nationwide race since Justin Allgaier at the Spring race at Bristol last year. Ricky is also the first driver to pick up his first career win in the Nationwide Series at Iowa.

This race seemed to went into segments. First it was the Drew Herring show, then it was the Michael McDowell show, then it was the Reed Sorenson show, and finally it was the Ricky Stenhouse Jr. / Carl Edwards / Brad Keselowski show for the end.

There were 5 cautions for 28 laps. 7 different leaders with 28 lead changes.

The Nationwide Series will be at Charlotte Motor Speedway this Saturday for the Top Gear 300.

(Because of plans, I probably will only post a very brief article on who won)