Stenhouse wins Dollar General 300

It was a statement victory for defending Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won Saturday's Dollar General 300 Powered by Coca-Cola at Chicagoland Speedway and simultaneously wrestled the series lead from Elliott Sadler.

The victory was Stenhouse's fifth of the season and the seventh of his career. He crossed the finish line 2.402 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch, who fell one spot short of posting his first victory in the Nationwide car he owns.

Austin Dillon ran third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard. Sadler finished eighth and fell from the top spot in the standings after holding it for a total of 21 weeks in two different stretches this season, including the last 14. With seven races left, Stenhouse leads Sadler by nine points.

Stenhouse's No. 6 Ford came to life over the final 29-lap green-flag run, giving team owner Jack Roush his first victory at the 1.5-mile track in any of NASCAR's top three touring series. In winning the race, Stenhouse overcame two mistakes: stalling the car on pit road and an adjustment that adversely affected the handling.

Stenhouse, however, was cautious in claiming the upper hand toward a second consecutive title.

"The last four races, I think, we've finished second, first, second and first, so I think we've got good momentum," Stenhouse said. "But in this business, in this sport, anything can change at any time. You've got to keep your guard up, and you've got to keep not making mistakes.

"We're very fortunate that we overcame the mistakes that we had today, both on pit road — a wrong adjustment and a stalled car. We overcame that today, and that's what we need to keep doing. But as we keep going, we've got to make sure we don't make those mistakes. I feel like the 2 car [Sadler] is not done winning, and I don't feel like we're done winning either. We're just going to have to stay on our 'A' game."

Results

* Denotes Rookie