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Winner’s Circle: Stenhouse Jr. Earns Popular Victory at Daytona

Stenhouse Jr. was smiling long before he realized his Daytona 500 dream. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

Stenhouse Jr. was smiling long before he realized his Daytona 500 dream. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes, a bit of luck and good timing counts as much as great talents as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. can attest to following Sunday’s prolonged 65th annual Daytona 500.

Stenhouse contended with plentiful external and, in some cases, internal obstacles in his quest to win his first Cup race since July 1, 2017.

In the 2,059 days prior to Sunday, Feb. 19, Stenhouse endured endless frustrations in his final two seasons with RFK Racing, placing 18th and 23rd in the championship standings.

Rather than looking toward gains and improvements with his familiar No. 17 ride for the 2020 season, he would be displaced by Chris Buescher.

When Stenhouse was named as the driver of JTG-Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro, he was tasked with racing for a team that fought an uphill battle against the juggernaut NASCAR Cup Series powerhouses.

While JTG-Daugherty Racing has an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports’ engine department, they are one of the few one-car teams in today’s NASCAR that often sees the multi-car juggernauts dominating the headlines.

The highlights have been few and far in between for Stenhouse with a 2020 Daytona 500 pole, five top fives and 11 top 10s in 108 races.

For a driver who is capable of reeling off wins under the right circumstances and a team seeking results equivalent to its efforts and hustle, it was a matter of when a bit of fortune would find its way toward them along with minimizing unforced errors.

Admittedly, Stenhouse owned up to the criticisms levied against him and his noteworthy aggression while pointing to the big picture.

Stenhouse checked off a huge goal while realizing his more methodical approach for the 2023 season. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

Stenhouse checked off a huge goal while realizing his more methodical approach for the 2023 season. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

“You’re going to have haters everywhere, and when you have somebody at the time like Kyle Busch getting out and bashing you, that’s difficult to overcome,” Stenhouse said in Sunday night’s post-race winner’s press conference. “I feel like I’ve put myself in some bad spots throughout my career, but the faster we get our cars, the more I can take care of them and still run them close to the front.

“It’s something I’ve always tried to do, which is at some times an expense, is try and take a car and try and get way more out of it than what’s there.”

It can be hard to fault Stenhouse or any driver for pushing the limits to maximize their finish or pursue a victory in a difficult pinch. After all, the competitive gene is embedded with drivers like Stenhouse, particularly when the pressure mounts and expectations are there to win regularly in Cup.

“I feel like that’s my job to do as a race car driver, is to get the most speed out of a race car that you can, but also in this sport you’ve got to take care of it, and you can’t just leave it all out there every single race,” he said. “That’s something that I felt like this off-season we’ve kind of met, and Mike (Kelley, crew chief) is super confident in what he can do and what our engineers and team can give me, and we’ll assess each weekend after practice and after qualifying what our goals are for that given race day.”

For those pondering about Stenhouse’s approach this season, think George Carlin when he signed on and embraced the role of Mr. Conductor in the PBS show, Shining Time Station.

“I think we’ll do a better job of kind of setting our realistic expectations each week,” Stenhouse said. “If we feel like 15th is where we need to be that given week, then that’s where I’m going to try and get the car to and not try and get it to 10th or fifth like I tend to do.”

As T. Wayne Robertson reminded Jimmy Spencer prior to the 1998 NASCAR Cup Series season, the 50th anniversary of stock car’s premier league, “Sometimes, you have to go a little slower in order to go a bit faster.”

The same could be said for Stenhouse in efforts to achieve the maximum results and progress for his hardy, scrappy team.

In the meantime, with the euphoria and partying likely had on Sunday night, Stenhouse acknowledged the intangibles needed to win the crapshoot races at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta.

“Yeah, it’s circumstantial. You’ve got to catch breaks at the right time,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to make moves, and your line has got to go. But you’re also looking ahead. Your spotter is giving you all the information that he can to make sure that you have all the info to figure out which lane to be in.

“There was times where Tab (Boyd, spotter) was telling me, ‘Hey, get to the top lane, get to the top lane.’ He saw something that I couldn’t see in the front that killed the bottom lane’s momentum, and it propelled us past four or five, and then we jumped back to the bottom, things like that. Definitely a lot of strategy involved and calculated moves.”

As Stenhouse owns one of the Playoffs seeds after Daytona, it is paramount that he and his No. 47 team perform at a consistent, achievable level to gradually raise the bar.

Despite the methodical approach that Stenhouse and Kelley will embrace this year, they are cognizant of the threshold between acceptable and dire results.

Perhaps Stenhouse made a statement with his catchfence climb following his riveting win. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

Perhaps Stenhouse made a statement with his catchfence climb following his riveting win. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)

“I think everything that we’ve learned this off-season, I’ve got a lot of confidence in the cars that my guys are going to be able to give me so that I don’t have to over-drive them to get good finishes,” he said. “There will be days that we’ll finish 17th, 18th, but that might be our goal for that given weekend.

“We can’t finish above 25th. That kills you in the points.”

Rob Tiongson is a 30-something motorsports journalist who enjoys sports like baseball, basketball, football, soccer, track and field and hockey. A Boston native turned Austinite, racing was the first sport that caught his eyes. From interviews to retrospective articles, if it's about anything with an engine and four wheels, it'll be here on TPF, by him or by one of his talented columnists who have a passion for racing. Currently seeking a sports writing, public relations, or sports marketing career, particularly in motorsports. He enjoys editing and writing articles and features, as well as photography. Moreover, he enjoys time with his family and friends, traveling, cooking, working out and being a fun uncle or "funcle" to his nephew, niece and cat. Tiongson, a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, pursues his Master of Arts in Digital Journalism at St. Bonaventure University. Indeed, while Tiongson is proud to be from Massachusetts, he's an everywhere kind of man residing in Texas.

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