Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s career path is a lot similar to the one typically found in the NASCAR Cup Series. He began racing karts as a kid, moved to sprint cars, and then to stock cars. While he is one of the most well-regarded individuals in the sport today, there is still something that he struggles with due to this particular transition that he underwent over the years.
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In a recent interview with Chase Holden, Stenhouse was asked about the challenges he faced when he moved from sprint cars to stock cars. He replied, “I would say the biggest thing is just… and I still deal with it now. You overdrive the race car, right? The harder you drive a sprint car, the better it feels and the faster it goes. It fixes a lot of problems. Stock car racing’s not necessarily like that.”
He pointed out that the Bristol Motor Speedway and a few other tracks facilitated that. But for the most part, he has had to drive stock cars just under the limit to keep them in control. Stenhouse began his sprint car racing career driving 360 cubic inches winged sprint cars. In 2003, he won the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver Poll and became the Dirt Winged Rookie of the Year.
He joined the USAC sprint car series in 2004 and kept the ball rolling, grabbing multiple honorable accolades. It was only in 2008 did he began his stock car racing career by joining the ranks of Roush Fenway Racing in the ARCA Racing Series. He got to debut in the Xfinity Series a year later, and he held on to the rope that was thrown to him, making it as a full-time Cup driver in 2013.
Stenhouse’s other challenges in stock cars
One of the most shocking differences that Stenhouse noted immediately after coming over to stock cars was the intense grind that professionals went through on a daily basis. In his sprint car days, he used to help his crew with the car till late at night and then sleep till noon the next day. The race would follow at night, and the cycle would repeat again.
But in stock cars, the scene was different. He said, “I would say for me the biggest challenge when I came to stock car racing was that the test started at like 8:00 a.m. in the morning, and then you would test all day long. Dude, by the end of the test, I’d be tired.”
Fortunately, he has found the will in him to adapt to this now. In 2025, he raced the No. 47 car for Hyak Motorsports and finished 30th in the rankings.
