Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the ultimate underdog, but not for those who know him

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In many ways, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. should never have celebrated a victory at the Daytona 500 on Sunday night.

In the previous 10 seasons, Stenhouse only won races in 2017, when he won two.

That’s 364 races. Just two wins. He failed to finish in 14% of the races in his career, a relatively high number. He only finished in the first round in 52% of his starts. He has a reputation for being involved in shipwrecks, especially lately.

He joined JTG Daugherty Racing in 2020 and went winless. Missed the playoffs every year, finishing no better than 22nd in the standings, including 26th last year — his worst finish since 2014.

[Ricky Stenhouse Jr. an unlikely winner in unpredictable and historic Daytona 500]

And what did he get for all that? He signed a multi-year contract extension last summer to stay on as a driver of the one-car Cup organization, a team owned by Jodi and Tad Geschickter (the JTG in the team’s name) and former NBA star Brad Daugherty.

“We didn’t give up on Ricky because personally I feel like he has a winning spirit and I like what he represents as a person,” Jodi Geschickter said. “I see flashes of genius in what he does.

“I felt like he could do it. I felt like he could do the job, and I never questioned that.”

Stenhouse, 35, got the job done on Sunday taking the lead after the first restart of extra time, then held on for more than a lap of the second restart when a wreck behind him took the biggest win of his career.

Those 10 laps he led in overtime were the only laps Stenhouse led all night, fittingly for Stenhouse, who somehow survived as a driver by winning at key moments.

Stenhouse breaks through at Daytona

Ricky Stenhouse describes his victory at the 2023 Daytona 500 and explains his state of mind throughout the race.

He knows what it’s like to hit bottoms in the race. After destroying so many cars in the Xfinity Series at Roush Fenway Racing, Stenhouse had to fix the cars in the shop.

“I remember going to meetings where Ricky’s career was almost over before it even started,” his team manager Mike Kelley said. “He had to carve up cars in Roush because he destroyed so much stuff.

“I remember sitting in meetings when they basically voted, and not a single person from that group voted to put it aside.”

He then won back-to-back Xfinity Series titles in 2011 and 2012 before moving to the Cup in 2013. He went winless for four years, then the two wins in 2017 – one at Talladega, one at Daytona (the race d’été) – came at a pivotal moment that probably extended his career, even if he didn’t think he had to worry about it.

“I kind of thought I had a contract until 2023 [with Roush]so that was kind of the crazy part of it all,” Stenhouse said.

Stenhouse then proved he could be a valuable driver even if he didn’t win consistently or finish high in the standings.

He drives for a Kroger-sponsored team, which leverages sponsorship by asking sales associates to contribute for better store space and promotion. It requires the involvement of multiple companies, and Stenhouse has sponsorship duties and appearances for more than a dozen grocery brands.

“We have 18 partner companies,” Tad Geschickter said. “There aren’t many pilots on this show who would do the work that Ricky Stenhouse does every day behind the scenes that no one sees, from appearances in front of grocery stores to trips to corporate headquarters.

“He’s a workaholic, and someone who believes so strongly in you, you’re going to keep believing in him.”

Stenhouse survives final lap carnage

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the 2023 Daytona 500 after a WILD overtime.

Geschickter said sponsors didn’t push him to get rid of Stenhouse.

“He’s a corporate spokesperson and a racing driver,” Tad Geschickter said. “Everyone can see the talent that was in there and the work it does for them.

“It’s about selling more products. We’ve never had that pressure [from sponsors] at all.”

A former sprint car driver for NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, Stenhouse was always a guy who had talent but, in some ways, couldn’t do it on his own. He drives for an organization that has only won once – with AJ Allmendinger at Watkins Glen in 2014.

Although not considered a weekly threat to win, Stenhouse is a threat on the superspeedways. It ran well on tracks where riders race in packs and use aerodynamic draft to make overtakes, where they need a strong push to get ahead.

This victory was therefore no coincidence. And his team believes in him as crew chief Mike Kelley wrote “We Believe” on a piece of tape that was placed in the car.

“Ricky’s good all over,” Kelley said. “In 2011 and 2012, when he had competitive cars in the Xfinity series, we raced against the best in that series, and that was [Kevin] Harvick and Carl [Edwards] and Joey Logano, and we’ve won a lot of races everywhere.”

The challenge for Kelley and Stenhouse is to build on the win. This is NASCAR’s Next Gen car from season two, a car where all teams get most parts and parts from the same suppliers, which should theoretically level the playing field.

“We’re building this program together,” Stenhouse said. “We were excited when we got a car that was on par with everyone else, knowing it was going to be some growing pains over the last season. … The bigger teams were able to teach a lot more to a faster pace, and I felt like that’s what got us behind.

“This offseason we’ve really focused on that, and I’m excited to go to these racetracks like Fontana, Las Vegas, and really see the potential that we’ve gained this offseason.”

Daytona 500 Highlights

The final Daytona 500 stage brought the heat as it became a caution-filled stage, especially towards the end of the race.

Reaching potential has been Stenhouse’s quest since joining the Cup Series in 2013. He will continue to try to achieve that goal, not listening to the chatter and not caring what people say. He can take his Daytona 500 trophy as confirmation of his abilities.

“I feel like I’ve put myself in tough spots throughout my career, but the quicker we get our cars the more I can take care of them and run them close to the front,” said said Stenhouse. “It’s something I’ve always tried to do, sometimes at my expense, [to] try to take a car and try to get way more out of it than what’s there.

“I feel like that’s my job as a racing driver, it’s to get as much speed as possible out of a racing car, but also in this sport you have to take care of it, and you can’t just leave it all there every race.”

Unless it’s the Daytona 500. It’s a defining moment for my career. Whoever says whoever hired Stenhouse might know what they were doing.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsport, including the last 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrassand register at FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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