Two Nationwide titles, a Cup rookie crown and a Daytona 500 win that came after years of mixed results and a sprint car start.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is an American Cup Series driver who took Nationwide titles in 2011 and 2012 and the 2013 Cup Rookie of the Year award. He won at Talladega and Daytona in 2017 and the 2023 Daytona 500, and he races full-time for Hyak Motorsports.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is an American stock car driver who has competed at the top of NASCAR for more than a decade. The Nationwide title came to him in 2011 and 2012, the Cup rookie crown in 2013, and the Daytona 500 in 2023. His career has also included sprint car and midget racing.
Who is Ricky Stenhouse Jr.?
Richard Lynn Stenhouse Jr. was born on 2 October 1987 and races full-time in NASCAR's Cup Series for Hyak Motorsports. He won the 2023 Daytona 500, and he took the Nationwide Series title in both 2011 and 2012. He has been a full-time Cup driver since 2013.
His Cup career has two clear stages: the Roush Fenway years from 2013 to 2019, and the JTG Daugherty and Hyak years from 2020 onward.
He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Olive Branch, Mississippi. No driver from the state had attempted a full-season NASCAR run since Lake Speed in 1997, until Stenhouse did.
Beyond NASCAR he owns sprint cars and races them part-time, alongside occasional midget starts. That mix has put him among only eight drivers with wins in both the Cup Series and the sprint and midget ranks.
Two Nationwide titles, a Cup rookie crown and a Daytona 500 win that came after years of mixed results.
How did Stenhouse start racing?
Kart racing started for him at six, and by the time he switched to sprint cars in 2003 he had 47 wins and ninety podiums. That season he took the Hall of Fame driver poll and was named the top rookie of the winged dirt sprint car division.
In 2004 USAC sprint cars became his arena. In 2007 he took dual Rookie of the Year honours, finishing sixth in the USAC sprint car standings and third in the midget series.
His stock car career started in 2008 in the ARCA Racing Series with Roush Fenway Racing. Kentucky Speedway gave him a win on 10 May 2008, his sixth stock car start. He finished fourth in the season ranking with two wins in 21 races.
How did Stenhouse break into the Nationwide Series?
Stenhouse ran a partial Nationwide schedule in 2009 around his Sprint Cup commitments, with a ninth at Kentucky and a fifth at Milwaukee. His 2010 season started badly, but he finished it as Rookie of the Year after a strong run under crew chief Mike Kelley.
The 2010 season opened with crashes in four of the first ten races, and Brian Ickler drove for him in three events. Kelley's arrival as crew chief coincided with a third at Daytona, and seven top-tens followed. He edged out Brian Scott for the award after a fourth at Homestead.
His first Nationwide win came at Iowa Speedway on 22 May 2011, in his 51st start. He held off Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski over the final eighteen laps. He took a second Iowa win in August, holding off teammate Edwards, but his engine blew off turn four, and Edwards pushed him across the line to the win.
He finished the 2011 season with sixteen top-five finishes and won the title by 45 points over Elliott Sadler.
What were his early Cup years at Roush Fenway like?
Stenhouse made his Sprint Cup debut in 2011 at the Coca-Cola 600, substituting for Trevor Bayne in the Wood Brothers car and finishing eleventh. He ran the 2012 Daytona 500 for Roush Fenway Racing in the No. 6 Ford and finished 20th, and he won his second straight Nationwide title that season.
The 2012 Nationwide campaign was his most productive yet. Las Vegas came first, with Mark Martin held off at the flag, followed by wins at Texas and Iowa. A spell of misfortune around Charlotte followed, but Atlanta, Charlotte and Kansas gave him three more victories before the title was settled against Elliott Sadler.
In June 2012 Roush Fenway confirmed a full-time 2013 seat in the No. 17 Ford Fusion, succeeding Matt Kenseth. Trevor Bayne took over his Nationwide car that year.
He worked with rookie crew chief Scott Graves, a former Roush Fenway engineer. At Daytona that February he finished twelfth in his second 500, despite crash damage on lap 134. The 2013 season then brought his breakout. He qualified third at Kansas and led 26 laps, and at Atlanta he won the pole with a lap of 29.227 seconds. He recorded his first top-ten at Richmond and followed it with an eighth at Chicagoland. His best finish was a third at Talladega, with Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ahead of him, and he was named Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
What were the mixed years at Roush?
The Roush years were mixed. In 2014 he was second at Bristol behind teammate Carl Edwards, but he finished 27th in points. In 2015 he nearly won the Food City 500 and finished fourth, but he ended the year 25th in points.
At Phoenix in 2016 he stayed out on a gamble, then restarted second with two laps to go on the green-white-checkered finish, and he left Ryan Newman to cruise away. Later that year he recorded a then-career-best second place at the Bristol night race in August, and he carried Sunny D sponsorship on select Cup and Xfinity races. In 2018 he finished 18th in points without a win and missed the playoffs.
In August 2019 Roush extended his contract through 2021. In September the team announced that Chris Buescher would replace him for 2020. Roush's president, Steve Newmark, said the relationship had run its course after ten years with the team.
Did Stenhouse win at Talladega in 2017?
Yes. In May 2017 he won the GEICO 500 at Talladega, passing Kyle Busch on the final lap after avoiding an eighteen-car pileup. It was his first Cup win, and it ended a 101-race winless run for Roush Fenway Racing that dated to Carl Edwards's 2014 win at Sonoma.
A second win came at Daytona that July, when he got past David Ragan with two laps left. He qualified for the playoffs on the strength of those wins, but he was eliminated in the second round.
How did the JTG Daugherty years go?
The move to JTG Daugherty came after a difficult stretch at Roush. In December 2019 the JTG Daugherty team put Stenhouse into its No. 47 car for 2020, moving Ryan Preece to the 37. He took the Daytona 500 pole on 9 February 2020, showing the new team's early pace.
In 2020 he narrowly lost the GEICO 500 to Ryan Blaney. Near the line he spun Aric Almirola roughly a hundred yards out, leaving him .007 seconds short of the win. The season produced three top-fives and four top-tens, and all of those top-fives came before mid-season.
His biggest win came in the 2023 Daytona 500, which was career win number three. That was his first playoff berth since 2017, and he was eliminated after the Round of 16.
The 2024 season was turbulent. The Daytona 500 opener ended in a 31st-place DNF for him. At the All-Star Race Kyle Busch pushed him into the outside wall on lap two, and afterwards Stenhouse went after Busch in the garage, which turned into a melee involving both drivers and their crews. NASCAR fined him US$75,000, and his father was sidelined by an indefinite suspension.
Results were thin and playoff hopes faded, but he still won at Talladega in 2024, edging Brad Keselowski by .006 seconds.
In 2018 the Daytona 500 was another hard day. He was caught up in three crashes and finished 17th, even though he had won the first two stages, and he received a security escort after the race.
In October 2014 he failed to qualify at Talladega, a rare setback in a season that also brought a second at Bristol.
Away from the track, Stenhouse is a fan of the Ole Miss Rebels. In 2014 he was the one leading the Rebels onto the field before their Egg Bowl meeting with Mississippi State. He describes himself as a devout Baptist and enjoys classic country music, and he has also appeared on television outside racing, including American Ninja Warrior in 2016, where he did not get past the second obstacle.
Career highlights by season
| Season | Series and team | Headline result |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | ARCA, Roush Fenway | Two wins in 21 races, fourth in the standings |
| 2010 | Nationwide, Roush Fenway | Rookie of the Year over Brian Scott |
| 2011 | Nationwide, Roush Fenway | Champion; first win at Iowa on 22 May |
| 2011 | Cup, Wood Brothers | Eleventh at the Coca-Cola 600 on debut |
| 2012 | Nationwide, Roush Fenway | Second straight title; Las Vegas and Texas wins |
| 2013 | Cup, Roush Fenway No. 17 | Rookie of the Year; third at Talladega |
| 2015 | Cup, Roush Fenway | Fourth at the Food City 500; 25th in points |
| 2017 | Cup, Roush Fenway | Talladega and Daytona wins |
| 2020 | Cup, JTG Daugherty | Daytona 500 pole; lost GEICO 500 by .007 seconds |
| 2023 | Cup, JTG Daugherty | Daytona 500 win; eliminated after the Round of 16 |
| 2024 | Cup, JTG Daugherty | Talladega win by .006 seconds |
| 2025 | Cup, Hyak Motorsports | Thirtieth in points; three top-tens |
| 2026 | Cup, Hyak Motorsports | Second place at the Daytona 500 |
Where does Stenhouse race now?
In 2025 JTG Daugherty Racing became Hyak Motorsports, and Stenhouse stayed in the No. 47 car. The season opened with an 18th at Daytona, and he recorded ten top-20 results in the opening fifteen races, climbing as high as 13th in the standings.
The second half of 2025 was harder: he ended the year thirtieth, with three top-tens and no playoff place. He began 2026 with a second at the Daytona 500, and in May he agreed a new contract with Hyak.
Stenhouse also raced part-time in the Craftsman Truck Series for Niece Motorsports in recent seasons, in the No. 4, 42 and 45 Chevrolet Silverado RST.
