NASCAR: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confirmed at Roush Fenway Racing through 2021
By Asher Fair
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has confirmed that he is set to drive for Roush Fenway Racing through at least the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has only ever driven for one team on a full-time basis in NASCAR, and that team is Roush Fenway Racing.
That is not slated to change in the near future, the driver of the #17 Ford confirmed on NASCAR America’s Motor Mouths.
Stenhouse Jr., who has driven for the team on some level in either the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series or both since the 2009 season, has confirmed that he is set to continue to do so through at least the 2021 season.
NEWS: @StenhouseJr set with @roushfenway through 2021.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 1, 2019
Details: https://t.co/W0gtE2kVds pic.twitter.com/l308HzUNGb
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The 31-year-old Olive Branch, Mississippi native made his Cup Series debut in the 2011 season at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving for Wood Brothers Racing en route to a respectable 11th place finish. But in 241 career Cup Series starts and 349 career NASCAR starts, this one race is still his only race driving for a team other than Roush Fenway Racing.
Stenhouse Jr. is a two-time Cup Series race winner in 241 career starts. He has recorded 15 career top five finishes and 33 career top 10 finishes, and he has taken two pole positions. He has led 308 of the 66,657 laps that he has completed and recorded an average starting position of 18.2 and an average finishing position of 20.2.
Stenhouse Jr. has driven for Roush Fenway Racing on a full-time basis in the Cup Series since the 2013 season, and he earned both of his victories in the 2017 season, both in restrictor plate races. He won the May race at Talladega Superspeedway and the July race at Daytona International Speedway that year.
The 2017 season is the lone season of his six previous full-time seasons in the Cup Series that resulted in him qualifying for the playoffs. He was ultimately eliminated in the round of 12 and had to settle for what was still a career-high 13th place finish in the championship standings.
Through the first 21 races of the 36-race 2019 season, Stenhouse Jr. is in a position where he most assuredly needs to win one of the regular season’s final five races in order to qualify for the playoffs.
With two top 10 finishes, including a season-high fifth place finish in the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and an average finishing position of 19.29, he sits in 20th place in the championship standings, 88 points below the playoff cut line.
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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wasn’t particularly considered a Silly Season domino for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, but with him confirmed at Roush Fenway Racing for at least the next two seasons, we could start to see more big driver confirmations for next year and beyond in the near future.