Patrick drew attention at the NHL playoff game when she shot the puck into the net in her first try. Stenhouse? He was cut out of one of the wire photos from that night, something he laughs about.

“It’s all good. I’ve never really worried about being in the spotlight,” he said. “I could care less. If I am, I am. Obviously with her I am a little bit more. But I’m comfortable with it.”

Do people notice them out? “People notice her, yes,” he joked. “It’s still funny. People are telling her, ‘Good luck this weekend.’ I’m thinking, ‘Thanks.’ They’re not going to tell me good luck. It’s funny. She includes me sometime. People ask for a picture, and she’s like, ‘Hey, come on, get in this picture.’ All in all, it’s been really fun.”

Even so, Stenhouse is still surprised sometimes at how much attention the couple attracts. During his years in the Nationwide Series, he’d occasionally notice Sprint Cup drivers and their friends watching from the track’s backstretch grandstands, which aren’t sold for that event. He and Patrick did the same two weeks ago — and the ESPN cameras found them.

“I’ve never not run the Nationwide race (at Richmond),” Stenhouse said, “so I’m like, ‘Let’s go up and watch it. I’d like to watch it.’ All of the sudden, I’m getting texts, my phone is blowing up, Carl (Edwards) is in the booth sending me pictures saying, ‘We see you.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks.’ I thought it was funny … but yes, I was surprised.”

Although his girlfriend often attracts more attention, Stenhouse maintains his identity as a cowboy-hat-wearing former sprint-car driver now competing on NASCAR’s premier series. He was at the Charlotte track Thursday with Taylor Earnhardt, a professional rodeo rider and youngest daughter of Dale Earnhardt, as part of a Western-themed promotion for the Sprint All-Star Race.

While his lassoing skills needed some work, Stenhouse looked completely at home on top of a horse, befitting a driver who typically wears cowboy boots and a big belt buckle. His hometown of Olive Branch, Miss., may be outside Memphis, Tenn., but it’s still cowboy country — the area community college even has bull-riding team, he said. Stenhouse started wearing boots because his dad did, and got further hooked on the culture when he met some professional bull riders after moving to North Carolina.

Now, he’s looking to buy some land where he can ride horses and raise Texas longhorn cattle. “I want it somewhere in North Carolina,” he said. “For the longest time I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go back to Mississippi.’ But I really enjoy going to the race shops and being around here. So I want my land somewhere around here.”

He has some friends trying to piece together the acreage for him. And when he finds it, it won’t be just for horses and cattle. “I am going to have a motocross track with it as well,” he said, laughing. After all, Stenhouse does trade that cowboy hat for a driver’s helmet every now and then.

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“It’s a good thing I drive instead of rope,” Stenhouse quipped after making a few tosses at a dummy calf. But it was all second nature to Earnhardt, who rides on a pair of rodeo circuits that keep her constantly on the road. This weekend brings an event in Gates, N.C. Next week, there are rodeos in South Carolina and Georgia. She’s done about 25 already this season, and has about 40 more to go.

“I’m on the road every weekend, and sometimes during the week and weeks at a time,” said Earnhardt, whose husband Brandon Putnam is also a rodeo competitor. “We go all the way up to Canada, down to Florida and Texas, and all that stuff. It’s a way of life for me now, and I really love it.”

The daughter of Teresa and Dale Earnhardt, Taylor as a child often appeared in Victory Lane with her father. She started riding horses at 3, but it was after her father’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500 where she first turned to rodeo in earnest. Back then, it was just a distraction for a 12-year-old trying to deal with life-altering circumstances. Soon enough, it became something else entirely.

“It really just gave me something to focus on after Dad died, something to keep me going and not focus on everything that was happening. And it turned into something that’s an honest career path for me,” she said.

“This just gave me something to really get into, dig into deep, and really focus on. And it really helped. All the people I know in rodeo and are friends with, they’re some of the most honest and humble people, because they work so hard for what they have. And it really teaches you a lot. Especially when you’re growing up, it builds your values really well.”

Earnhardt started in local shows, progressed to the junior circuit, and now competes in the International Professional Rodeo Association and Southern Rodeo Association. Her specialty is barrel racing, galloping in a serpentine pattern around a course demarked by barrels, without touching any of them, which would be a penalty. She’s in her first year going for a national title, and a few weeks ago took home a turquoise-inlaid saddle as a trophy for winning a barrel racing event.

Her ultimate goal is reaching the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas — which, coincidentally, is often held the same week as NASCAR’s Champion’s Week. “That’s in the plans,” she said. “We’re working on finding that right horse to take me there.” Like a NASCAR driver, she’s looking for sponsorship, given the costs of travel, entry fees, and horses. A good rodeo mount can run $85,000, she said.

Name recognition can’t hurt. “I go to rodeos, and the announcers all know me, and they kind of play it up a little bit for the fans,” Earnhardt said. “And everyone will come over afterward when I’m walking around the rodeo, and I’ll sign autographs. I talk to people all the time, and they recognize me and they want to talk to me and see what it’s like. That allows me to kind of build my reputation and build my persona, too.”

Earnhardt and her husband have also ventured into breeding rodeo horses, which recently produced a new calf. But clearly competition is what drives her, as it does so many other members of her family. “It’s in our blood,” she said. Her schedule, though, doesn’t often allow time to watch Dale Jr. compete on television — at night she’s driving from one event to another, she said, and during the daytime she’s up on the horse.

“I get updates on my phone,” Earnhardt said. “I’ll check every couple of days. You always hope for the best for him, but I’ve got my things going too that I’ve got to worry about.”

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