If you asked NASCAR fans who the elite drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series are, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.‘s name would be seldom mentioned.
That’s no disrespect to the two-time Xfinity Series champion and 2023 Daytona 500 winner, but going into Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega, Stenhouse Jr. had just three career wins and two playoff appearances to his name in 12 full-time seasons.
But at the end of 195 laps — seven more than the scheduled 188 at the 2.66-mile superspeedway — it was Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 Chevrolet that crossed the line first, earning him the fourth win of his career and his first since the 2023 Daytona 500.
The win – which came by a slim six one-thousandths of a second – broke a 66-race winless streak for Stenhouse and the No. 47 team, putting Brad Daugherty’s team in victory lane for the third time.
The victory doesn’t magically change the course of Stenhouse Jr.’s season or make the No. 47 team title favorites going into 2025, but it does serve as a reminder as to why Stenhouse Jr. has remained a fixture in the Cup Series — his superspeedway racing acumen.
Let’s not mince words: Stenhouse Jr. is no Dale Earnhardt, but his ability to consistently be in the mix and occasionally win NASCAR’s wildest races is a good reason for teams to keep him employed.
Stenhouse Jr. has caused his fair share of crashes, but causing wrecks on drafting tracks speaks more about the necessary evils of modern-day NASCAR racing than it does about Stenhouse himself.
For the most part, Stenhouse’s record on superspeedways is head and shoulders above his peers. The first three victories of his career all came at superspeedways — two at Daytona and one at Talladega.
Drafting tracks have also been the No. 47 team’s magnum opus so far in 2024, as Stenhouse finished sixth at Atlanta on Feb. 25 and fourth at Talladega on April 21.
Those are just a couple of reasons why Stenhouse Jr. felt so in control of the final two laps, in which he battled door-to-door with 2012 champion and six-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski, all while keeping an eye on a rearview mirror filled with Kyle Larson and William Byron.
Even when Byron jumped to Stenhouse’s outside over the race’s final hundred feet, he didn’t panic, keeping his Camaro tight on the door of Keselowski’s Mustang.
It was those incremental details that gave Stenhouse the edge in his second Talladega victory.
Stenhouse Jr. isn’t a threat to win on a weekly basis, nor will he likely ever be. However, his ability to step up when presented with an opportunity to win at NASCAR’s biggest and baddest track proves why he’s been able to make a solid career for himself.
