Ricky Stenhouse Jr. gets honest about 'not a great' P20 finish at Martinsville  

Hyak Motorsports driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reflected on a tough weekend at the Cookout 400 in Martinsville Motor Speedway. After the race, the #47 driver commented on his performance and expressed his thoughts on the result.

Stenhouse Jr. had a poor run at qualifying, lining up among the backmarkers in 34th. He failed to make up places after the race start, retaining his starting position across both stages. However, the Mississippi native managed to find pace and climbed the order in stage three, finishing fourteen spots above his starting position at 20th.

Opening up on the results, Stenhouse Jr. uploaded an Instagram post with the following caption :

"Not a great weekend for us speed wise, but we found the handling the last run and ran up to P20. See y’all at Darlington!"

Martinsville marks Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s fifth top-twenty result after seven starts this season. In November 2024, he posted a similar 20th-place finish at the track for the Xfinity 500.

Coincidentally, he has maintained an average finish of 20.7 at Martinsville over seven starts in the Next Gen era.

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"We're kind of scratching our heads": Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opens up about team's struggles

12 seasons into his Cup Series career, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opened up on facing fluctuating results in the past two years. Driving the No. 47 Chevrolet, Jr. is in his sixth season with Hyak Racing, previously JTG Daugherty Racing.

Stenhouse Jr. began his bid for the 2023 championship with a win at the inaugural Daytona 500, securing his first victory since 2017. He went on to record two top-five and nine top-ten finishes throughout the season. However, a first-round cut short the Superspeedway elimination at the playoffs, cutting short his title hopes.

The 2024 season was a mixed bag with three top-five finishes, including a win at Talladega Superspeedway along with seven DNFs. He ultimately finished the season ranked 25th.

Speaking during an episode of the "Gypsy Tales Podcast" uploaded on March 11 this year, Stenhouse Jr. reflected on the same and said (via YouTube),

"2023 we had a great season, we averaged like a 14th place finish throughout the whole season and then 2024 we averaged a 24th Place finish. It's like seasons just change and you know it's like I didn't feel like we did anything different, but we didn't get the good results that we had the year before. So then you know we're kind of scratching our head and kind of restarting for for 2025," Jr. said (19:27 onwards).

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s best result of the 2025 season came from Atlanta, where he qualified at 34th but ended up finishing at an impressive fifth. In a race marked by 11 caution periods and 50 lead changes among 63 drivers, the 37-year-old managed to find his pace at the superspeedway, posting his only top-ten finish so far.

Stenhouse Jr. currently ranks 20th in the standings with 146 points heading into the next round at Darlington Raceway.