Through the first 10 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, Stenhouse had wrecked out of three races and his best finish was 10th at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
In fact, in the other nine races, Stenhouse hadn’t manage a finish better than 21st.
Until Monday.
By the end of Stage 2 of Monday’s rain-delayed race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, Stenhouse and his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet had made his way to fifth.
By a restart on Lap 348 of 400, Stenhouse had moved up to fourth. When Elliott got around Ross Chastain for the lead on the restart, Stenhouse grabbed third.
On Lap 351, Stenhouse moved into second behind Elliott. After getting close a couple times when Elliott battled lapped traffic, Stenhouse ended up settling for second as Elliott earned his first win of the 2022 season.
“We needed it, bad,” Stenhouse said of his run. “Man, it’s been a rough start to the season. Our short track program has been off. All our other good races that we’ve had good runs going, something has always happened.
“I felt like we had a car capable of winning. Obviously, getting off pit road at different times. My pit crew did a great job keeping us up front all day.
“That was a lot of fun. A lot of battling. It was tough to pass, but it was fun running through lapped traffic. I really wish we had like a 70-lap run to end (the race).”
Stenhouse said his team has struggled with performance at the series’ shorter tracks this season, but has been very competitive at the bigger, faster tracks.
Having a clean race – on the track and on pit road – is exactly what the team needed to demonstrate its ability, Stenhouse said.
“We feel like we’ve been better than where we are right now as a race team. We’ve put a lot of fast race cars together, just haven’t had much to show for it.
“I’m really happy with this performance today. It was a tough battle out there. The track was tough. The cars were tough to drive. Our car was dialed in and our pit crew did a fabulous job on pit road.
“Just came up one spot short.”
