NEWTON, Iowa — After a rare off weekend following the running of the Brickyard 400, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the fray this weekend when the Iowa Corn 350 fires off at Iowa Speedway Sunday afternoon.
On the starting grid at Iowa and in possession of a new multiyear contract with Hyak Motorsports will be Ricky Stenhouse. The wheelman of the No. 47 Chevrolet since 2020 and winner of the 2023 Daytona 500, Stenhouse currently stands 26th in Cup Series points with two top-five and three top-10 finishes.
With 14 Cup Series races yet to be run before everything wraps up at Miami-Homestead Speedway on November 8, Stenhouse is determined to post up additional top 15 results and move up the leader board in what is his 14th NASCAR Cup season.
Prior to packing everything up and flying on over to Iowa Speedway, Stenhouse weighed in on just what’s coming at him and the No. 47 race effort both now and into the future.
“I’m just kind of buttoning up things here around the house,” said Stenhouse on Friday. “I’m making sure the cows have feed before I head out of town. It’s nice to get a full day and kind of extend our off weekend a little bit. We came off an off week and I’m looking forward to getting back at the track. I grew up being in the race car every weekend and that’s what I love doing. I enjoy off weeks and love spending time with the family, but I’ve been racing since I was five years old and I do miss that, as well.”
Putting pen to paper on a new contract extension with Hyak Motorsports, both Stenhouse and the entire No. 47 organization can continue to build for the future.
“It is great to have this done,” offered Stenhouse of the contract extension. “It’s nice for our team guys to know and for our partners to know. It’s nice for me to know, as well. It’s good to know what we’re doing for years to come and you can keep building on that. I’m really just happy with where I’m at and I’m looking forward to continue that process this year. We know that we don’t have to make big jumps overnight.
“We’ve got some time to do it. That’s what we’re looking at for our race team. We’re a single car team and you can’t change things overnight. We’re continuing to build and I’m glad that we’ve got all that stuff out the way so we can focus on the race car.”
Stenhouse discussed where he believes the No. 47 effort is at right now at this point in the season.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re in a bad place,” explained the 2011 and 2012 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion. “I think we’re in a better spot than we were last year. I think that we’re not where we want to be, but we can see where we want to be, if that makes sense. We have done a really good job in areas. We have struggled in some areas. We fixed those areas and then struggled at those things again.
“I think I started out the year, yeah, you want to make the post-season and you want to win races and that’s always in our thoughts, but realistically, I would say anywhere from 18th to 22nd in points would be a good season for us. Looking at the point standings with fourteen or so races left, we really have a great shot at still being that 22nd team in points. So that’s what I’m eyeing,” he added. “We still have ourselves in contention for that and I think if we do that, we would go into the off-season happy and knowing that we had accomplished on of the goals that we wanted to accomplish. We can build on that for next year.
“You know for us, as a small race team without the support that the other teams have, we’re working at understanding the aero changes that happened. We have an aero change coming up at Daytona that we’re going to have to figure out. Tire changes can throw us for a loop faster than anything. When you’ve got a 20-minute practice session and you’re trying to figure that stuff out on the fly, it is very difficult. Just like Iowa this weekend. We’ve ran well here. We’ve finished in the top five.”
Coming up next for Stenhouse and the NASCAR Cup Series will be consecutive races at Iowa Speedway, Richmond Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to Iowa. This is always a great race. I get to go down to Knoxville and watch our sprint car team race, as well. Really cool going to the Knoxville Nationals and being with all of our NOS friends and family and our race team,” said the former dirt-track racer. “And yeah, then headed to Richmond. Richmond is a short track with really tight corners and with some banking and really old asphalt. A lot of fun. Then you go to New Hampshire where it is pretty rough getting in turn three. Really, really flat. Still feels like a short track. Really a tricky place to get around.
“Then, obviously, I’m looking forward to Daytona. I’m looking forward to this rules package change. I think that is going to kind of throw a wrench into what everybody normally does and how it drafts,” Stenhouse noted. “We’re going to be figuring that out on the fly. It’ll be interesting to see what teams get that setup right. I’m looking forward to that challenge because it’s a race track that if we get our close, we can go win. Daytona victory lane is really special.”
