Ricky Stenhouse places 11th at Charlotte race on Sunday driving for Wood Brothers Racing, substituting for Trevor Bayne who has been sick

STENHOUSE 11th IN DEBUT Olive Branch native Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in 11th-place in his Sprint Cup debut Saturday night in the Coca-Cola 600. Stenhouse, a member of Roush Fenway Racing, qualified ninth for the annual NASCAR event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 23-year-old Stenhouse, a regular in NASCAR's Nationwide Series, earned his first career victory in that series last week at Iowa Speedway. He was quoted earlier in the year as follows: “It’s tough being a racecar driver and being a Christian and going to church,� Stenhouse said. “We’re traveling a lot. We have the MRO chapel service here but it has to be quick and to the point. Being in the Nationwide Series (which usually races on Saturday), we can get home sometimes and still go to church. If we make it to the Sprint Cup level, it’ll be a little tougher yet. I take [my faith] pretty serious, so our study group has helped out a tremendous amount.� His roots as a Christian and a race car driver were planted deeply in Olive Branch, Miss., where he grew up in a Christian family with a father who was a Sprint Car racer.