NASCAR Kansas preview: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing confident after Talladega win

There were national media interviews, an evening out reveling with friends (which included singing karaoke and a late-night stop at a Waffle House), a celebratory photo in front of the team shop with company employees, even a lunch invitation from the governor of his home state.

This is what happens when someone wins a Monster Energy Cup Series race for the first time, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. did last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. The significance was not lost on the driver, whose 157-race winless streak is now over.

“I saw some old teachers send out some things on social media, teachers of mine in classes when I was growing up,” Stenhouse said Friday at Kansas Speedway, site of Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1). “Just to have all your friends, people you race with at home, super proud of you. It was really cool. They know this was my biggest win of my career and toughest one. It was cool to see the response and made me feel really good.”

But the importance extended beyond just Stenhouse. For Roush Fenway Racing, a once powerhouse team, Talladega snapped its nearly three-year winless drought spanning 101 races. It served as proof that, after a trying few seasons where its cars were slow and its place in the NASCAR pecking order was repeatedly questioned, relevance had been found.

Optimism abounds within RFF that it is truly on the path back to being consistently competitive. That watching Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, and Stewart-Haas Racing make repeated trips to victory lane, all while it struggled to squeeze out a mediocre result, is a thing of the past. That returning to being an elite organization like it had been for so many years — such as when it won consecutive Cup championships in 2003-04, or its five drivers constituted half of the then-10-driver playoff field in 2005 — is a realistic scenario again.

“I knew that we had the right mix of people in the right places this year, and if it would gel and we’d have a little bit of good fortune that we would win races,” team owner Jack Roush said at Talladega. “And we’ll win a race with Trevor before the year is over unless I miss my guess.

“Hopefully we can get ourselves ready for this last 10 races to make a championship run. That’s what I’m thinking.”

But does one Talladega win really signify anything? Fluky winners occur regularly in restrictor-plate races, with no shortage of drivers who won at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway and nowhere else. Four times a year these two tracks narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots, giving hope to those who are largely uncompetitive every other week.

So was Sunday RFF’s coming out party? Or merely a team taking advantage of the unusual circumstances brought about anytime NASCAR employs restrictor plates, which clump drivers together in packs just inches apart and can make racing at Talladega and Daytona more about luck than anything else?

Stenhouse and Roush are adamant the answer is the former. The evidence they offer includes that Stenhouse had finished 10th or better in four of six races prior to Talladega, while teammate Trevor Bayne currently sits 16th in points and provisionally occupies the final playoff transfer position.

“I was feeling really good about our season before the win,” Stenhouse said. “That win just put us over the top of how we feel, but we know that we still have a job to do and that is to continue to make this organization better and our cars better and not make mistakes.”

On Friday, Stenhouse validated his assertion by posting the fourth-fastest time in qualifying, the third straight week he’ll start fourth or better. (Bayne qualified 16th.)

If Stenhouse can carry that speed into the race, it would give further credence that bigger things are ahead, following an offseason in which the team overhauled its operation with several sweeping personnel changes.

At a mile-and-a-half in length, Kansas epitomizes the kind of track that is the backbone of the schedule. That means a strong run Saturday night likely bodes well elsewhere — especially come the playoffs (which Stenhouse is now virtually assured of making), as five of the 10 tracks are similarly sized (including a return trip to Kansas).

“We know where we need to get better,” Stenhouse said. “The short tracks have been really good to us this year and we feel really good there. The speedways, we showed last week we had a lot of speed in qualifying and the race. We know we need to get better on the fast, smooth tracks like Las Vegas, Texas and here.”