DAYTONA, Fla. (WGHP) — What it means to win the Daytona 500 is still fresh in mind for 2023 champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
FOX8’s Kevin Connolly and Danny Harnden and WFLA’s JB Biunno spent Wednesday afternoon catching up with drivers as they get ready to hit the speedway this Sunday for the Daytona 500.
Stenhouse Jr., of Olive Branch, Mississippi, drives the No. 47 Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing. He has 11 full seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series behind him. In the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series, he came in 16th.
He’s the defending champ of the Daytona 500 after his 2023 victory, which was his third overall Cup Series win and first since winning both the Coke Zero 400 and GEICO 500 in 2017. Notably, all three of those wins were on superspeedways, which could signal a strong showing on Sunday.
This will be his 13th Daytona 500 after eight with RFK Racing and four with JTG Daugherty.
Asked about how it felt to win the Daytona 500 last year, Stenhouse Jr. said, “It was just over the top really. It’s the biggest race of the season. I’ve been trying to win it since 2012. You get one shot a year at getting it done.”
He knew the win was going to be big, but Stenhouse Jr. said he didn’t quite realize what would come with it.
“I’ve won at Daytona before, I’ve pulled into this victory lane, so I knew what to expect there, but you don’t realize how big it is,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “And not really how big just that moment is but how far it stretches when you’re done and throughout that whole next week and being able to promote this race, promote all your partners in NASCAR for that period of time. It was really special, and now, coming back, trying to defend is something that I’m looking forward to.”
DraftKings puts his odds of winning the 2024 championship at 150-1.
