Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reflects quite a bit on his NASCAR career.
Now 37, Stenhouse thinks about his dominance in the Xfinity Series driving for Jack Roush, about how the eight race wins he earned in two seasons (2011-2012) perhaps could have been more. He thinks about the drivers he went toe-to-toe with weekly, rivals who enjoyed lengthy Cup Series careers, claiming two consecutive Xfinity championships.
His short yet brilliant Xfinity Series career is quite a juxtaposition compared to his Cup Series tenure. Although Stenhouse won Rookie of the Year honors in 2013, he never felt his team could achieve the speed it was capable of. During the seven seasons he spent at Roush, he won only two races in the Cup Series.
Those results fell far short of expectations. He was projected to be a cornerstone in Roush's long-term future.
In 2020, Stenhouse moved to Hyak Motorsports. It is a small, single-car operation, vastly different to the multi-car, once-championship-winning juggernaut he left behind at Roush.
"I think the expectations are probably less [now] than when I came into the Cup Series," Stenhouse told ESPN. "There's a little bit dynamic there of what we look like and look for in success."
The most significant success for Stenhouse and Hyak came two years ago. First he pulled off an unexpected victory in the 2023 Daytona 500 to earn a spot in the postseason, then he averaged top-15 finishes late in the season. The latter makes Stenhouse almost prouder than the Daytona win.
"I felt week in and week out, we had speed and were executing," he said. "With what we've been able to do with a small team, I think we can get back there. I think that turned a lot of heads of what we were able to do, and they know the resources a single-car team like us has compared to some of the bigger four-car teams, and I think our team does a great job with that. I'm looking forward to getting back there."
Daytona sticks with a team far longer than the seven days between typical race wins. Not every driver and team have a Daytona 500 win. Some of the sport's biggest names went their entire career without winning the biggest race. Stenhouse and Hyak will always be remembered as Daytona 500 winners, even by fans who only know NASCAR because of its Super Bowl event.
"We cherish that," Stenhouse said. "We're very proud to have accomplished that."
Last year, Stenhouse and Hyak Motorsports went to victory lane in the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway. It was the team's third ever Cup Series win, naturally making Stenhouse the first driver in their history to win races in back-to-back seasons.
"Being so far removed from those [Xfinity Series] wins and championships, it's nice to put two seasons together of wins," Stenhouse said. "We're looking to carry that on to three years and try to rebuild the Cup career and maybe what people have thought about my career."
Stenhouse seems at peace with how it's unfolded -- aside from his natural desire to add more to his resume.
Being at Hyak works for Stenhouse for many reasons, chief among them is the respect and belief between team and driver, and Stenhouse has familiar faces within the organization. Mike Kelley, Stenhouse's crew chief, was also his crew chief at Roush. Ernie Cope, one of the team's co-owners, worked with Stenhouse and Kelley's rivals in years past, making both sides well aware of the other's talent.
And with time and experience has come leadership. Stenhouse is a 12-year veteran of the Cup Series and has already spent five years with Hyak.
"I've settled in because I've got good people behind me and around me that really believe in my ability behind the wheel and my feedback," Stenhouse said. "I think I've settled in because it's a tight-knit family and it's small, it's fun to upset and win some of these races and go run top 10, things that people probably don't have on their bingo [card] of us doing, and it's nice for us to go out there and do that.
"I tell our team this all the time: I'm not there to prove people wrong. I want to prove the people we have in our shop right because we all believe that we can do it."
A new season starts with a revamped team. Hyak Motorsports was rebranded in the winter from JTG Daugherty Racing, and internally there were promotions and shuffling. Stenhouse said there were additions on the engineering side that he hopes will help with different philosophies and ways of doing things. The goal is to be more on the front side of assessing ideas that do and don't work before going to the racetrack on the wrong path.
As that happens, and Stenhouse continues to rebuild his career, maybe one day he'll be reflecting on more recent accomplishments than those of days gone by.