Ricky Stenhouse Jr. makes his feelings known as he cherishes his NASCAR feat that materialized after a ‘rough’ patch

It was an absolute overkill by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Iowa Speedway in 2011 and 2012. The Chevy star used to drive the No. 6 Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Racing at the time, which later got rebranded as RFK Racing in 2022.

Stenhouse Jr. won three consecutive races at the 0.875-mile racetrack. The Hyak Motorsports driver clinched his maiden Xfinity Series championship (then known as the Nationwide Series) over Elliott Saddler in 2011. He bagged another titular victory the following year, winning six races including the Pioneer Hi-Bred 250.

A user on X (formerly known as Twitter), recently shared a throwback video of Stenhouse Jr. speaking with reporter Mike Massaro after picking his first series triumph at Iowa. Stenhouse Jr. reshared the post and wrote,

“Dang cool to see this again.”

Stenhouse then tagged his crew chief, Mike Kelley, who reacted to the win saying:

“For an old guy who’s been in this sport along time, that day was the best of them all! Done alot before that and since then. That day we knew we had something special!”

2010 was a rough patch for Stenhouse Jr. In 32 starts, he finished 20th or worse on 14 occasions. He did deliver several top-5 finishes but never visited the victory lane. The Memphis, Tennessee native needed that success perhaps more than anyone else.

“We were down in the dumps," Ricky Stenhouse Jr. admitted during an older interview (via Cleveland.com).

Today, Stenhouse Jr. is a full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. He rounded off 2024 25th on points winning one race at Talladega Superspeedway (in October), besides three top-5s and six top-10s. According to Forbes, the 37-year-old speedster will return behind the wheel of the No. 47 machine in 2025.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opens up on team rebrand

Founded in 1995 as ST Racing, JTG Daugherty Racing scored its first Cup Series victory in 2014 with A.J. Allmendinger. In 2023, the team also won the crown jewel Daytona 500 with none other than Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

As the 2023 season came to an end, Tad Geschickter, one of the two original founders, parted ways with the North Carolina-based outfit. The team was then renamed Hyak Motorsports with the current ownership group consisting of former NBA star Brad Daugherty, Gordon Smith, Mark Hughes, and Ernie Cope.

Reflecting on the revamp, Stenhouse Jr. said (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio),

“Obviously, we have a big shift in the organization. You can look at it a couple different ways and I think the way we’re looking at it is everything’s a little more consolidated, we got all the same great employees, the same crew guys and processes will stay the same.”

“I feel confident Mike and the guys will keep working hard to try to make our cars faster when it comes to the on-racetrack portion of it,” he added (0:23)

Stenhouse Jr. will make his first start of 2025 at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, February 2. The race will stream live on Fox with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.