Stenhouse Ready to Fight for Final Transfer Spot at Dover

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the driver of the #17 Fifth Third Bank Ford,  during pre-race ceremonies for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 24, 2017, in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images

In the NASCAR Playoffs, there’s often more than one winner in a race.

That’s the case this weekend in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16 cutoff event – Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 at Dover International Speedway at 2 pm ET on NBCSN.

There will be races within the race as drivers fight for the final points spot to transfer to the Round of 12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. currently holds the last points berth. He’s 12th on the Playoff Grid and has the same amount of points as Austin Dillon. He holds the tiebreaker over Dillon right now because his Round of 16 high finish of 15th beats Dillon’s high finish of 16th. Ryan Newman – currently 14th on the Playoff Grid – sits only one point behind Stenhouse and Dillon.

“We have fought back and are currently in the final transfer spot to move on,” Stenhouse said. “We need to make sure we have a mistake-free weekend and execute on pit-road. I think if we can do that then we have a great shot at moving on to the next round.”

In his last four races at Dover, Stenhouse has placed 39th, 11th, 14th and eighth. In comparison, Dillon has finished 13th, eighth, 33rd and 23rd, while Newman has posted showings of fourth, 17th, 16th and 19th.

“I’m really looking forward to Dover this weekend,” Stenhouse said. “We had a strong car there earlier this year but blew a right front tire, which ultimately ended our day.”