“I Was Born Right Into It”: Ricky Stenhouse Traces How He Developed An Interest in Racing

Being born into a racing family, more often than not, means racing is in their blood, and for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., it couldn’t be truer. It’s what’s made him a successful Cup Series star, a multi-time race winner, and a Daytona champion. Now 38, he’s choosing to reflect on his early days behind the wheel of his car.

Stenhouse’s father was a sprint car racer completely dedicated to his craft. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Stenhouse was first taken to a dirt track when he was only six weeks old. Ever since, he has spent at least 42 weekends at race tracks per year on average.

Ricky began racing BMX cycles when he was only three years old, got into dirt bikes at four, and later transitioned to go-karts at five. On Donut Podcasts, said, “Now that I’m in the Cup series, I wish I would have done a little bit more of that because we do have a decent amount of road courses that we run.

“But, no, mine were all dirt oval go-karts. I did that till I was 15. I wanted to transition to a micro sprint,” Stenhouse Jr. added. 

“But my dad was like, “Man, I can’t spend the money to do that for a year or two. I’ll just wait till you’re 15 and then you can run sprint cars.”

By the time Stenhouse got into sprint cars, the years had rolled down to 2003. He started by racing 360 cubic inches winged sprint cars and won the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver Poll Dirt Winged Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in his maiden season.

How Stenhouse Jr. caught the eyes of Tony Stewart

In 2007, Stenhouse Jr. snatched two victories in three races during the Copper on Dirt showcase at the Manzanita Speedway. He proved to the world that he wasn’t just another regular driver by winning the USAC National Sprint Car and Silver Crown features, mastering heavily in the winged and non-winged divisions. These achievements turned many heads in NASCAR.

Tony Stewart was among them. The three-time Cup Series champion picked Stenhouse to replace Tracey Hines at Tony Stewart Racing, and the decision proved to be fruitful. Just after two starts with the team, Stenhouse took the No. 21 car to victory in USAC National Midget Car Series competition at Tri-State Speedway and kept the seat for the rest of the year.

At the end of 2007, he signed a contract to race for Roush Fenway Racing in the ARCA Menards Series and later moved on to the higher levels.