You know what they say, finishing second is like kissing your sister. What about finishing second in the third closest finish in a race track’s history?

“Yeah, it’s disappointing for sure,” said second place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. “You work all day long, playing different scenarios out in your head, how you’re going to be the first one across the start/finish line.  It does have a lot to do with all the other cars that are racing, who is pushing you, how they can push you, what moves they make.

“A lot is in your control, a lot is circumstantial.  You just got to keep putting yourself in those positions every race, especially on the speedways, to eventually get them to click off.

“People that I worked with all race, if I had them behind me there at the end I would have felt a little more comfortable because we worked really well together.  When you got all the Fords there lined up, it was kind of tough.  I didn’t feel like anybody was going to go with me.

“We ended up in the bottom lane by ourselves.  It ended up working out to get back to second.  But definitely frustrating not to win.  All in all, man, it’s still a good run for our team.  We carried a lot of momentum from Daytona, bringing the same racecar down here to Talladega, it still being fast.  That’s a positive.  We got more speedway races to go.

That’s what happened to Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished just .007-seconds off of the win in a thrilling photo finish in the GEICO 500 at the 2.66-mile Alabama race track. He says a not so good final restart is what kept him out of the victory circle in the end though.

“We didn’t get a great restart,” Stenhouse said of the final green flag sequence. “(Ryan) Blaney and I didn’t get hooked up good enough.  That seemed to let the outside lane get a run.  It let the 4 and the 17 out front.

“But what that intended to do was let me and the 12 get hooked up and get a draft from those two cars that were out front.  I pushed Blaney really hard down the back straightaway.  When we went into three and four, wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to go.  We ended up going low.  Then I thought I was done.  Thought I was a sitting duck.  The outside lanes were coming.  The 20 had a good run.

“Then they started banging fenders, slowing each other down.  I just kept on the throttle, was able to get close to the nose of the 12 there coming across the line.

“All in all it was a solid day for us.  Our NOS Energy Drink Camaro was really fast.  We lost track position, but seemed to be able to get that back pretty fast.  Our car was fast.  Worked well with others.  I think all the blue ovals there together at the end were really tough to beat.

Stenhouse knows, that if he is going to make the postseason this year, that the three superspeedway regular season races are his best shot. After all, the Mississippi native has two career Cup wins, both coming in these races.

Now that he’s 2/3’s of his way through them, he’s close.

Stenhouse, earned the pole for the season opening Daytona 500 back in February. His No. 47 Chevrolet undoubtedly had the most speed in it. Unfortunately, he was hit with a questionable penalty which in directly cost him a chance at the win.

On Monday, Stenhouse was strong. In just a couple of laps after the drop of the green flag, he was up in the top five. He even won Stage 2.

Then, there he was at the end vying for the win but he narrowly missed out  from earning his third career win and a trip to the playoffs.

Still, it was his third top five finish in his last four Talladega spring races and sixth top 10 in his last eight starts on the 2.66-mile Alabama oval overall.