The No. 47 car belonging to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. encountered significant damage as it broke a part of the door and took out a part of the door foam. The incident happened when a huge crash occurred at Talladega involving 28 cars. Despite the challenges, Stenhouse went on to win the YellaWood 500, his first victory since the 2023 Daytona 500.
NASCAR experts Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed the unusual issue on The Teardown podcast, also talking about a rule pertaining to the loss of door foam. Gluck said:
“Stenhouse got crushed in the side during ‘The Big One.’ He was leading but he got some significant damage.
“It broke part of the door and it knocked out part of the door foam. I wasn’t aware of this at the time at all."
Bianchi added:
“The 47 car of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. cleared inspection and I specifically asked was there any issue with the foam that could have prevented like a DQ or anything of that.
“And the answer was no.”
Gluck explained:
“That’s irrelevant. That wouldn’t be an inspection thing. It’s not like they cheated. …That’s an in-race call where you have to come down pit road and fix it. So what the crew chiefs and crew members are telling you is hey, he should have been at least made to come fix it which would taken him out of the lead and he wouldn’t have won this race."
Stenhouse’s crew chief, Mike Kelley, was questioned after the race about the door damage and whether it should have been repaired on the pit road. He told the media during a press conference:
“I didn’t see no foam missing. Yeah, we did.
“We took a direct shot really hard, and on this car if you want to take it somewhere, it’s definitely not in one of the wheels with the toe links. They bend for a reason, and your day would pretty much be done if you bent a toe link. So, yeah, it did. It took a big shot. If they were going to pull us down for that, it probably would have been hard to get that car off the racetrack.”
Talladega witnessed its largest crash of the season on Sunday, nearly wiping out the entire field. The chaos began when Brad Keselowski bumped Austin Cindric, sending him spinning at the front of the pack, triggering a massive 28-car pileup that left only 12 cars unharmed. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, and Chase Briscoe saw their playoff chances take a hit, while Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Denny Hamlin were the only contenders to avoid the carnage.
