Stenhouse holds provisional playoff position, in ‘really good spot’ ahead of Coca-Cola 600
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CONCORD, N.C. — Overlooked? Underappreciated? Throw any superlative you may over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the rebranded Hyak Motorsports in 2025, but one thing has been certain through 12 races this season — consistency.
Stenhouse currently sits 14th in the Cup Series points standings and 15th on the playoff grid, just ahead of Ryan Preece and Kyle Busch.
With a 17.3 average finish so far, the 37-year-old veteran is currently on pace with his career-best 2017 campaign, where he won two races and finished the 36-race calendar with a 17.1 average finish.
But best to leave the numbers on paper because Stenhouse says there's still more for the No. 47 group to find amid a strong start to the year.
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"I feel like we're in a really good spot as far as the point situations go," Stenhouse said. "But on the other hand, I feel like there's a lot of room for us to improve. I think we're executing well. We're not taking ourselves out of races, but there's a lot of room for improvement on speed and handling. I thought we nailed it at Texas. We had a really good car and we were able to show that. We passed a lot of cars, got to the front and stayed there and finished up there. Kansas, kind of missed the setup a little bit. We fought and clawed. We had a penalty under green-flag stops that put us behind the whole race. Those cautions at the end helped us get back on the lead lap, and then we were able to finish 19th out of it on that long run there. That was a day that was looking like it was going to be like a 30th-place finish and kill us in the points.
We just stayed with it, stuck with it, and was able to come home in a good spot. I think we got more potential here and looking forward to hopefully doing that."
Going from JTG Daugherty Racing to Hyak Motorsports during the offseason, it can lead to the public eye turning attention away from the organization based on the lack of name recognition alone.
However, the rebrand changed very little in the No. 47 shop and Stenhouse gave the organization a huge shot in the arm at the end of 2024 with a victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
"That win at 'Dega at the end of the last year was huge for us," Stenhouse said. "Just carried momentum into the offseason. For us, the competition side of our team hasn't changed at all. So I think that's why we weren't too concerned about rebranding or team-name switch, because what we were doing on the competition side wasn't really going to change that much. Confident in my guys, led by [crew chief] Mike Kelley and his group, they're doing a good job, and we're just trying to slowly get better every day."
A big part of why Stenhouse currently sits in a provisional playoff spot is keeping the No. 47 clean and limiting mistakes.
Of the 3,331 laps completed in the 2025 Cup season, Stenhouse has turned all but three and has crossed the finish line in all of them.
With a tight margin of error with the competitiveness throughout the field, just staying on the track can net dividends when it comes to the points payout.
"Other people have had misfortunes and got caught in wrecks, and so we've escaped Talladega, we've escaped Atlanta and Daytona without getting in massive wrecks and [getting] good finishes there," Stenhouse said. "Then, doing our thing at these other race tracks to finish where we can. Obviously the more laps you complete, the better finishes you're going to have. It's one thing that we're focused on as well this year. So far, we're hitting all of our marks as far as what we're trying to accomplish with finishing races, executing, not making mistakes, not taking ourselves out of it. But at the same time, I think that's helping us build our cars faster and really focus on what we need to do to make each car faster for us at every track versus worried about fixing them."
Next up for Stenhouse is the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night (6 ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the biggest endurance test of the year and the race that pays out the most points with the added third stage before the final 100-lap dash to the checkered flag.
The crown-jewel event has been kind to the Olive Branch, Mississippi native recently. Stenhouse owns four top-10 finishes in the last seven Coke 600s, with a best run of fifth in 2019.
He's finished seventh in two of the last three races on the Charlotte oval and when it comes to what makes Stenhouse comfortable here, he really enjoys the flexibility of where he can move his car.
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