Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Best Buy, stands in the garage during NASCAR Testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on January 18, 2013 in Charlotte, NC
Photo – Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Ricky Stenhouse Jr, a two-time Nationwide Series champion, won’t be returning to defend his back-to-back championships, to make it three in a row this year. Instead, his Nationwide schedule will be partial, as he shifts his focus to the Sprint Cup series. He will be taking over the #17 at Roush-Fenway Racing, where he will be gunning for both the Rookie of the Year and the Sprint Cup series titles.
Stenhouse Jr is not the first driver and certainly not the last either, to campaign for both Rookie of the Year and the Cup title, as every driver that starts their first full season as a rookie is aiming to win both. The last driver to pull off a more successful rookie year was Denny Hamlin in 2006. Hamlin won Rookie of the Year and nearly succeeded in winning the championship before finishing 3rd in the points.
Stenhouse Jr. has called Roush-Fenway home ever since he made his first start in ARCA back in 2008. During his year in ARCA, Stenhouse Jr. amassed two wins over 21 races and finished 4th in the points. After one season in ARCA, he made the leap to the Nationwide series, and began his four-year stint by competing on a partial schedule in 2009. During his four seasons in the Nationwide series, Stenhouse Jr. competed in a total of 106 events. He had a total of 8 wins, 8 poles, 39 top-fives, and 62 top-tens. Over those four seasons, he had an average starting position of 8.9 and an average finishing position of 12.5. During his back-to-back championships, Stenhouse Jr. scored all eight of his wins and a majority of his top-fives and top-tens. Five of his eight wins came at tracks where the Cup series competes; Las Vegas, Texas, Atlanta, Chicago, and Kansas. Over the past two years, Stenhouse Jr. also made a total of five starts in the Cup series; one in 2011 and four in 2012. His average starting spot in 2012 was 23.5 and his average finish was 26.5 with his best finish being a 12th place effort at Dover and his worst being a 39th place finish as a result of a crash at Homestead.
With all the success that Stenhouse Jr. has had in the Nationwide Series and especially in the new cars, they have been running, this could translate into major success on the Sprint Cup side with their new G6 car. This could be a historic year, if Ricky Stenhouse Jr pulls off winning both Rookie of the Year and the Sprint Cup title in 2013.
But, the question remains, can he make that happen?
Man what have you been smoking? My prediction is that he will continue to be a hothead and not listen to his crew chief or spotter and will crash more than he finishes. He has so much talent but his ego and impatience will be his downfall. The Sprint cup car is another animal compared to the under powered nationwide car and he was’nt impressive at all in his sprint cup starts in 2012.He will be playing with the big boys and they will take exception to his aggressive style. He has the ego and talent to be another Bad Brad but not the patience or brains.