NNS: Stenhouse On Chicagoland Pole

Nationwide

NNS: Stenhouse On Chicagoland Pole

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won his seventh career pole in 91 NASCAR Nationwide Series starts…

Tom Jensen | Posted July 22, 2012 Joliet, IL

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will lead the field to the green flag today at Chicagoland Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the pole for this afternoon’s STP 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Stenhouse, who went out 33rd of 43 cars, ran 176.916 miles per hour in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang to claim his third pole of the season and seventh in 91 career Nationwide Series starts.

Austin Dillon had a great lap in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, running 176.783 mph. That was good enough for second place.

Sam Hornish Jr. was third at 176.367 mph in the first of the two Penske Racing Dodges, followed by Kyle Busch in his own Toyota and Parker Kligerman in a second Penske entry.

The second five was Brian Scott, Mike Bliss, Cole Whitt, Ryan Truex and Brendan Gaughan.

With 17 races in the books, Elliott Sadler leads Dillon by three points and defending series champion Stenhouse by 16. If Sadler, Dillon, Stenhouse or Hornish wins today’s race, they will claim a $100,000 bonus as part of Nationwide’s Dash 4 Cash program.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

CUP: Monday NASCAR Notebook
Jimmie Johnson has the most victories of any active driver at Charlotte…
CUP: EXCLUSIVE - No Crew Chief Changes At SHR
Ryan Newman had the best finish of any of the Stewart-Haas drivers…
CUP: More All-Star Frustration For JGR
Matt Kenseth had a disappointing Sprint All-Star Race finish……