But here is why he could be more than just the First Boyfriend of racing: Stenhouse is also capable of making headlines. He is at the forefront of a wave of young drivers who could transform the sport in the coming years as a generation of champions nears the end of their careers.
“At some point, people retire,” Stenhouse said last month. “I think it’s a good group coming in that has a lot of experience, and it could be a fun Cup series in a few years, for sure. Definitely young and exciting.”
After years of little movement in the top series, with few prestigious rides available in a tight market for sponsors, Stenhouse has broken through after consecutive championships in the Nationwide Series. He will race in the No. 17 Ford this season for the Roush Fenway Racing team, replacing Matt Kenseth.
Stenhouse, 25, is not alone on that ladder. On his way up is Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, who turns 22 on Tuesday and is one rung below in the Nationwide Series this season. He is expected to join the Cup series perhaps as early as next year. Richard Childress, the team owner who won six titles with Dale Earnhardt, has two grandsons who could be headed to the series in the coming years: Austin Dillon, 22, was the rookie of the year in Nationwide Series last year; Ty Dillon, 20, was rookie of the year in the Camping World Truck Series.
There is Ryan Blaney, son of the veteran driver Dave Blaney, 50, who is a 19-year-old prodigy in the Nationwide series with Penske Racing. And Chase Elliott, 17, son of the Cup champion Bill Elliott, 57, who is being groomed by Hendrick Motorsports — the home of the five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, the four-time Cup winner Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.
Kyle Larson, 20, and Darrell Wallace Jr., 19, the fourth black driver to get a full-time ride in a national series in Nascar’s 65 years, are also in the lower levels but could join that list of up-and-comers as well.
They will add to the young drivers already in Sprint Cup, led by Brad Keselowski, who turned 29 and is the defending Sprint Cup champion, along with the veterans Kyle Busch, 27, and Joey Logano, 22, as well as the less-proven Aric Almirola, 28. Keselowski is the youngest champion since Kurt Busch won the title in 2004 when he was 26.
It was Gordon who turned Nascar into a young driver’s sport by winning the Cup in 1995 when he was 24. Gordon won three Cups in his 20s, his last when he turned 30. Now he is 41, old enough to be asked about retirement without recoiling at the thought. No, he said, he will not be the next Mark Martin. Martin, 54, is a Nascar anomaly who is still racing competitively.
Gordon says he will be gone long before that age.
“There was a time that I didn’t think I was going to be racing at 40, so I hate to even say never, but I’m pretty sure that’s not something that’s in the cards for me,” he said.
Beyond Gordon, there is the three-time champion Tony Stewart, 41; the 2003 Cup winner, Kenseth, 40, who moved to Joe Gibbs Racing this year to open up the ride for Stenhouse; Greg Biffle, 43; Jeff Burton, 45; and the 2000 Cup winner, Bobby Labonte, 48.
“There’s a potential for six of us, or so, to retire basically all in the same year or staggered out by one year or something,” Biffle said. “That could change the face of the sport a lot.”
The strength of their individual marketing power could keep them in Nascar perhaps a bit longer. Few sponsors in a postrecession economy have shown a willingness to spend millions on the sport, much less on unproven drivers.
Gordon, for one, says he doubts there will be wholesale changes to the Cup lineup in the near future.
“We see a lot of recycling happens in our sport with certain individuals who are still bringing sponsors in, still competitive out there, and until somebody new comes along that takes the needle and spikes it and the sponsors are interested and the teams are interested, then no,” he said. “Because the sport’s gotten so expensive and sponsorships definitely are a challenge.”
But the time will come for these new drivers to change the face of Nascar.
“I remember the day when David Pearson and Cale Yarborough were getting ready to retire, and the world was going to come to an end in that era because there were no more drivers ever again ever going to be able to compete,” said Robin Pemberton, Nascar’s vice president for competition. “So we made it through that. We’ll make it through the next one.”
They will do so with the help of drivers like Stenhouse, who is already on his way to building a reputation in the sport with his championships in the Nationwide Series.
“Ricky Stenhouse will be as good in this business as any driver has been in the modern era,” said Jack Roush, the owner of Roush Fenway. “He’s the real deal.”
But that was hardly the story when he arrived at Daytona last week and faced a litany of questions about Patrick, one of the most popular drivers in Nascar, who is moving up to Cup competition this season as well. They revealed their relationship last month, not long after Patrick announced that she was separating from her husband. He is just now beginning to see the effect of their relationship on his career.
“If I win a race and it says ‘Danica’s boyfriend’ wins the race,” Stenhouse said of the headlines to come, “I don’t know how that will work out.”
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