Ricky Stenhouse Jr. talks in Victory Lane with NASCAR.com's Alex Weaver about his photo-finish victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
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00:00Here in victory lane at talladega for the second time with Ricky stenhouse jr.
00:04You survived the chaos.
00:06Not only did you make it to victory lane but some aggressive moves.
00:08How were you able to survive all three stages of talladega?
00:10I don't know.
00:11We put ourselves in great position there to win the first stage.
00:1517 had a huge run.
00:17If that would have been the end of the race I would have tried to block it but I felt
00:20like it was way too early in the race to do that and hopefully probably cause a wreck.
00:24So I opted to finish second in that stage.
00:28The green flag pit cycle in the second stage, we kind of got on the bad end of it there
00:32just the way it all played out.
00:34But I thought we executed that final pit stop to perfection.
00:38We put the perfect amount of fuel in.
00:40We got to pit road.
00:42We were late towards the front when we pitted and that let us come back out in the lead
00:47with our chevy teammates behind us.
00:49So if I would have been one row behind where the 9 was then we got caught in that wreck.
00:55If you get towards the end of these races, the wrecks go from the middle of the pack
00:59to the front of the pack and I got drilled in the door there and I was a little nervous
01:03that they hit us in the left rear but luckily it was just the door and then restart and
01:07we had a ton of chevys around us.
01:09So I felt good about that.
01:10I was hoping Kyle wasn't going to push the 6 that hard.
01:13It was a lot closer than I wanted it to be.
01:16I was hoping he was going to hit the brake and let the 6 fall back there.
01:21But it was really close at the line.
01:22We've lost a few here by inches at the line so it's really cool to win and our team needed
01:27this for sure.
01:28How special is it to win at a place like talladega?
01:31It's always good.
01:32When it's your home racetrack, your first win was here.
01:34I got so many friends on the back straightaway here and a lot of people that come from Mississippi
01:40that I've seen throughout the weekend here.
01:43So it's huge to win at talladega.
01:45Such a historic place and for me it's no better place.
01:50My birthday week.
01:51So it all worked out great.
01:53I'm a little sad that one person is not here.
01:55He's a tiny person.
01:56Stetson is not in victory lane.
01:57Your son.
01:58How much do you wish Stetson could be here to celebrate?
02:01That's the first thing I thought about.
02:04On the back straightaway under the red flag, I was like, man, Stetson's not here.
02:08Madison's not here.
02:09This is a bummer.
02:10My parents aren't here.
02:11They normally come to this racetrack all the time.
02:13But then I was like, all right, I got to get back focused because I don't want to get too
02:17far ahead of myself.
02:19But I felt confident when we restarted there at the end.
02:21And that was the first thing I thought about as soon as they told us we won is Madison
02:26and Stetson back home.
02:27So I got to FaceTime him, which was cool.
02:29And I can't wait to get home.
02:30OK.
02:31Well, he'll remember this when he's little.
02:32What do you want to say to him?
02:33Yes.
02:34Stetson.
02:35Next time you're going to be here in victory lane.
02:36I'm bummed that you missed it, but I'm looking forward to the best part of my day, which
02:41is always laying in bed at night, feeding them and holding them.
02:44So I can't wait to do that tonight.
02:46With a trophy from Talladega.
02:47Congratulations.