page_title: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
section_title: 2009–2012
hierarchical_section_title: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. / Racing career / NASCAR / 2009–2012
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. racing his stock car at Road America at the 2011 Bucyros 200 Nationwide Series race. This file was uploaded with Commonist.
context_page_description: Richard Lynn Stenhouse Jr. is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for JTG Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse was the 2010 Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, and won back-to-back Nationwide Series championships in 2011 and 2012. Stenhouse was the 2013 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
context_section_description: In 2009, Stenhouse began competing in a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series at events that conflicted with the Sprint Cup schedule. He had his first Top 10 finish at Kentucky Speedway when he finished ninth. At the following race in Milwaukee, he led 46 laps in the later stages of the race and finished fifth.
  The 2010 season started out in horrible fashion for Stenhouse, but he showed signs of life as the year went on. After crashing out of four out of the first ten races of the season (and crashing in practice also), Stenhouse was replaced by Brian Ickler for three races and Billy Johnson drove at Watkins Glen. After taking on veteran Mike Kelley as crew chief, Stenhouse immediately responded with a third-place finish at Daytona. He proceeded to take seven top tens and was locked in a tight battle for Rookie of the Year (ROTY) with Brian Scott. With Scott struggling after his release from Turner Motorsports, Stenhouse took the ROTY award after a fourth-place finish at Homestead.
  On May 22, 2011, Stenhouse held off charges from Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski for the final 18 laps to claim his first win in the John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway, his 51st start in the Nationwide Series.
  Stenhouse made his Sprint Cup Series debut at the 2011 Coca-Cola 600 substituting for fellow Roush teammate Trevor Bayne. Stenhouse finished 11th in the Wood Brothers Racing entry.
  Stenhouse had dominated the Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at Lucas Oil Raceway before being passed by Brad Keselowski late in the race. Stenhouse took his second Nationwide win at Iowa in August, again holding off teammate Carl Edwards, but in a more bizarre fashion as Stenhouse's engine blew coming off of turn 4. Edwards subsequently rear ended his teammate, pushing him across the line to the win.
  At the end of the 2011 season, having scored 16 Top 5 finishes, Stenhouse won the Nationwide Series championship by 45 points over Elliott Sadler.
  Stenhouse drove the No. 6 Sprint Cup Series car for Roush Fenway Racing in the 2012 Daytona 500, finishing 20th.
  In the Nationwide Series the previous day, Stenhouse had been caught up in a 10-car wreck on the final lap of the series' season-opening event; a week later he finished 3rd at Phoenix, while a week after that Stenhouse won his first race of 2012 at Las Vegas, winning the Sam's Town 300, holding off Mark Martin to take the checkered flag; he would win races at Texas Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway before suffering a run of bad luck starting at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Stenhouse would score 3 more victories at Atlanta, Charlotte, and Kansas. He once again held off Sadler to take his second consecutive Nationwide Series championship.
caption: 2011 Nationwide championship car at Road America
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2011:06:26 21:35:07", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "192", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9090", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5351", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2000", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:06:25 15:12:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:06:25 15:12:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "68", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "68", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "68", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1284", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "658", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8966", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "484000/219", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1288000/583", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}