Full Throttle

Roush Racing’s Development drover Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is running out of races to catch Scott Speed at the top of the ARCA RE/MAX Series standings in a championship battle with NASCAR connections.

Stenhouse, the driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford for NASCAR team owner Jack Roush, trails Speed, in the #2 Red Bull Toyota, by 65 points with two races remaining — today’s ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway and next week’s season-ending event at ARCA’s home track in Toledo.

Speed had a 140-point lead after he won at Nashville five races ago. With three second-place finishes in five races, Stenhouse has eaten into the lead, even though Speed didn’t finish outside the top eight in any of the events.

Stenhouse, who turned 21 Thursday, will make his Talladega debut today, although he tested here in September.

“There’s still two races to go in the championship battle and we’re doing everything we can to win it,” Stenhouse said. “We just need to stay out of trouble and run up front, and we should be OK. We had a good test and I think I learned a few things, so I’m ready to go.”

A former Formula One hopeful washout, Speed started transitioning to stock cars with a seventh-place finish in last year’s ARCA race at Talladega. He won a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race earlier this year at Dover and is scheduled to make his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut next week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Red Bull Racing’s #82 Toyota.

Stenhouse will start third and Speed seventh in ARCA’s longest race of the season.

James Buescher took the pole position in Thursday’s qualifying with a lap of 185.967 mph. The 18-year-old became the youngest winner in ARCA history when he won at Lakeland, Fla., when he was 16. He’s run in five NASCAR Nationwide Series races this season, but Talladega will be his superspeedway debut.