r/NASCAR • u/Gragson18GOAT Gragson • 3d ago
After having ten top 20 finishes in the first half of his season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr is now looking at falling below 30th in the points.
HYAK looked very impressive for the first half of the season, with RSJ having some fast cars. Since Michigan however, they’ve only mustered one top 20 finish, that being their sixth place finish at Atlanta.
What does the future of HYAK and Ricky Stenhouse Jr look like?
13
u/Fun-Monitor815 3d ago
Best bet is they sell the charter for a fortune. The Slick Rick takes the reins of a RAM. Then toys around in X and Cup when they debut and runs drafting tracks.
25
u/Extreme-Bite-9123 3d ago
I still don’t see this team sticking around long. They don’t have good sponsorship, they don’t make fast enough cars to get good finishes, and their driver is probably nearing the end of his career. I think this team probably goes under by the end of 2026 or 2027
15
u/BabycakesMurphy Ryan Blaney 3d ago
They’ve managed a lot better with sponsorship than any of us could have really anticipated. I think they’ve had a sponsor every race this year.
11
u/lordjollygreen Stenhouse Jr. 3d ago
While true, I wonder how much of a discount the team might've had to take on some of those just to have something on the car.
5
u/NatalieDeegan NASCAR 3d ago
I have to imagine Tad is still involved with the advertising part of things, it’s just they aren’t owners of the team anymore.
1
u/Extreme-Bite-9123 2d ago
I mean how much do you think popsicles and real American beer are paying?
3
u/BabycakesMurphy Ryan Blaney 2d ago
The team is not a charity. The sponsorship money must be ok enough to at least break even most weeks.
1
u/Extreme-Bite-9123 2d ago
It probably comes down to anything is better than nothing. I doubt many companies are jumping over themselves to sponsor the guy that’s only ever relevant 6 times a year at most, so they just get whatever sponsors they can
2
u/BabycakesMurphy Ryan Blaney 2d ago
Arby’s sponsors Cody Ware in a shit box, and they’re happy with that sponsorship.
Stenhouse isn’t spectacular but he has won two years in a row with one of those being a Daytona 500.
4
u/NatalieDeegan NASCAR 3d ago
They’re probably going to go from sixth to fifth in the totem pole with Chevy since Kaulig is going towards Dodge-Ram lol
11
u/Extreme-Bite-9123 3d ago
Chevy will probably just spend more effort on the rest of their teams then worrying extra about the backmarker with a 40 year old driver
1
u/didhestealtheraisins 3d ago
They’ve been very well funded in the past. Did that change with the ownership change?
4
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u/quig50 Gilliland 3d ago
Ironically Hyak wants to expand to two cars next season lol
2
u/Extreme-Bite-9123 2d ago
I wonder what pay driver are they trying to make themselves cash positive
6
u/HULKP3 2d ago
Hocevar fucked his season
2
u/Straight_Champion_77 2d ago
So true. His no-DNF streak was probably going to be on LaJoie or Biffle levels until that happened
5
1
u/Whit_R 1d ago
I had high hopes for the season & to just watch the complete falloff over the last few weeks has been an absolute gut punch.
I'm still holding out hope I can finally see him win at Bristol in a couple of weeks, but after the Bristol race earlier this year... A top 10 would be fine, too. I just want the team to get things turned around and at least manage to get way better finishes.
As a diehard Stenhouse fan since 2010, I'll be devastated when he does finally call it quits in NASCAR, though. He's really the main reason I bother tuning into the Cup races nowadays & a primary reason why I go to Bristol twice a year.
-9
u/mojizus Hamlin 3d ago
$20 says he blames Hocevar for this massive falloff lol
12
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u/JeffGordonFan5-24 Larson 3d ago
I know youre joking but when Hocevar started wrecking him is when that team lost speed. Hard for an underfunded team to continue building competitive cars when they had 2 cars junked in 3 weeks by the same guy.
-4
u/Coldhartbaby111 3d ago
2 cars junked? Were we watching the same races? Mexico City especially was a simple spinout at 50mph through a chicane.. he lost his tires at most lol
-3
u/Fun-Monitor815 3d ago
He’s only really relevant at drafting tracks. Other than that I think there was like one Bristol race. He ain’t it.
12
u/lordjollygreen Stenhouse Jr. 3d ago
Ricky's good at everything except road courses, and he's improved on those too. The equipment just completely sucks. They unload with zero speed every single week, and if they're lucky Kelley is able to make enough adjustments that by the end of the race they've got top 25 speed, but usually Ricky's already trapped a lap down so it doesn't matter.
6
u/BraveDawgs1993 3d ago
Stenhouse is one of NASCAR's biggest "what ifs" in my opinion. Won the O'Reilly's Series Championship twice before going to Roush-Fenway Racing during the middle of their decline. I've always wanted to see what he could accomplish at a place like Hendrick, Gibbs or Penske.
4
u/lordjollygreen Stenhouse Jr. 3d ago
Absolutely. People really forget that he was going toe to toe against all-time greats in xfinity and was able to win a decent amount of races against those guys. Beat Harvick at Atlanta when Harvick was unstoppable there, beat Mark Martin, who was in a JGR car, at Vegas. Usually had guys like Brad, Carl, Kyle Busch and Harvick racing regularly in the series, and often had guys like Kahne, Bowyer, Biffle and others dropping down too. He just got to the Cup series right when RFR was already falling way behind, and we find out with each interview from guys like Biffle, Carl, Kenseth, and Mark about just how bad things were getting behind the scenes there. I think if he'd gotten an opportunity to go to a good team the other year, he'd really be able to show his talent and be a contender for wins on more than just drafting tracks. Kinda like how Truex was seen as a bust until moving to FRR and getting the JGR alliance. I'm not saying Ricky would have that level of success as Truex did, but he'd be much better than most think.
5
u/BraveDawgs1993 3d ago
It's unfortunate that we're in an era where you have to have sponsors follow you or committed to sponsoring one team if you want a ride at one of the best teams.
-2
0
u/Fun-Monitor815 3d ago
14 non drafting top 5s lmfao
6
u/lordjollygreen Stenhouse Jr. 3d ago
Garbage equipment. RFR had already gone downhill when he got to Cup, it's just that Carl, Biffle and Kenseth were heavily masking the real problems with that organization. They lost Kenseth and then Carl, yet the "old school" guys running the team refused to admit that they were doing anything wrong and it was all the fault of the drivers. Guys like Fennig, Reiser, and Roush all refused to embrace the new technology coming into the sport to improve the team. Brad talked pretty extensively about how the first thing they did to the shop once he got involved was to take all of the old tech out and how the shop overall looked like a time capsule. Also, notice how the performance of the 17 didn't really improve when Buescher was put in the car, at least not until Brad got involved? The RFR cars were trash that even Biffle couldn't squeeze any speed out of before he was let go. As for JTGD/Hyak, the equipment was never good. When AJ and Ambrose were in the car, the only places they were really competitive were road courses and short tracks. Ricky did wonders in the 47 compared to any other previous driver, and he absolutely destroyed Preece when they were teammates. He's made the playoffs twice in that car, and the second he would've gotten into them even without winning Daytona.
1
u/Independent-Candy349 16h ago
As a casual fan,this is super enlightening and makes me understand Edwards and Kenseths revamp was just putting them in updated equipment. And they were just able to keep roush up because they were awesome lol
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u/CouchPryor Suárez 3d ago
Ricky’s almost 40, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a retirement by then.
However until that happens, he has taken JTG to extraordinary heights, two seasons in a row with wins. I wouldn’t say he’ll be going anywhere.