DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — From karting at the age of six, to sprint cars in 2003, to USAC sprints and midgets, to ARCA in 2008, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s path to victory in the 65th Daytona 500 began on the short tracks and dirt ovals where dust and mud fly and drivers test their bravery on “The Cushion.”
On Sunday night, he became the latest driver with midget and sprint car racing experience to win the biggest prize in NASCAR Cup Series racing — the Daytona 500.
On a list that includes Mario Andretti (1967), AJ Foyt (1972), Jeff Gordon (1997, 1999 and 2005) and Ryan Newman (2008), Stenhouse is the latest to parlay a dirt track background into a Daytona 500 victory.
“It’s special to me,” said the 35-year-old from Olive Branch, Miss. “I know Kyle Larson has done a lot for dirt track racing, open wheel racing. Christopher Bell, you look at what Alex Bowman is doing now going back and forth and running sprint cars. I have a lot of fun running with my dad. We don’t run as much as everybody else does, but definitely still a short track dirt racer.
“I know how long and how important this race was when Tony Stewart, my former boss, tried to win this race for a long time. I looked up on the screen during one of those late cautions when the No. 8 was leading, and they were showing I think it was his 17th attempt, and it was our 12th. I know how hard it is for guys to win this race, and it’s nice to go ahead and get that checked off the list.”
For most of its early years, the winners of the Daytona 500 all had a distinct stock car racing background, beginning with the famed Lee Petty of Level Cross, N.C., in 1959. The legendary Junior Johnson came from the hills of Wilkes County, N.C., honed his racing skills by running Moonshine.
He was so good at the craft, he ended up in a Federal Penitentiary before he discovered he could be a racing legend in NASCAR. Johnson was already a huge star when he won the second Daytona 500 in 1960.
A few non-Southerners won the Daytona 500 including Wisconsin’s Marvin Panch in 1961, Illinois’ Fred Lorenzen in 1965, Pennsylvania’s Andretti in 1968 and Maine’s Pete Hamilton in 1970. But for the most part, it was a race where Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt shined.
These were all home-grown stock car racers.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s team pushes his car into victory lane at Daytona. (David Moulthrop Photo)
Stenhouse joined NASCAR in 2009 in what is now known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the 2011 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.)Motor Speedway. He was substituting for Trevor Bayne, as he was struggling with Lyme Disease.
In 2017, Stenhouse won the first two races of his career, both coming on high-speed superspeedways at Talladega, Ala., and the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 1, 2017.
That would be his last win for 199 races until he took the checkered flag in Sunday night’s wild finish of the 65th Daytona 500.
Stenhouse is the only entry at JTG Daugherty Racing — the first single-car team to win the Daytona 500 since Bayne drove for The Wood Brothers in 2011. Stenhouse had to have felt like the “Lone Wolf” at the end because he didn’t have any teammates to guard his flank.
“I was watching all the teammates work really well together up there,” Stenhouse recalled. “We’ve had Chevy meetings this whole week, and we preached about trying to get Chevrolet their 25th Daytona 500. We talked about working together. That was huge for us. Like you said, when I got down to it, the top four were Chevys at one point and I felt really good about that, that we could kind of control the race.
“And then when the 5 (Kyle Larson) lined up behind me, I knew that if we got a run, he would probably go with me, or I was really hoping so, and we were able to shake the 22 (Joey Logano) out and both be first and second there.
“Then the last restart, yes, you need teammates, but at that moment, as long as you had a good pusher behind you. I knew the 22 wasn’t going to just go to the outside of me because you’ve got to get the momentum going, and the momentum is in numbers, and I was confident in what Joey could do pushing me. And then it was kind of a free-for-all once you take the white flag.”
Stenhouse won the free-for-all and was able to drive to victory lane at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
There were no burnouts because he was out of fuel.
He won the biggest NASCAR race of the year, and it was one for short track racers to rejoice as one of their own was a Daytona 500 winner.
Stenhouse is still a car owner and part-time competitor in the midget and sprint car world with Stenhouse Jr. Racing, a team he formed in 2012. In 2017, he partnered with Matt Wood to form Stenhouse Jr.-Wood Racing and fielded the No. 17 car for driver Joey Saldana in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series.
After his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega in May 2017, Stenhouse became one of only eight drivers to have won in the NASCAR Cup Series as well as in the USAC Silver Crown, national sprint car and national midget series, joining Andretti, Foyt, Gordon, Larson, Newman, Ken Schrader and Stewart.
Keyword: Stenhouse Jr.’s Path To Daytona Started On The Short Track