Ricky Stenhouse Jr. recently shared an update on when he will return to the cockpit of a Sprint Car.

Ahead of the Knoxville Nationals, Stenhouse appeared on the Dirt Parlor Podcast hosted by Gordy Gundaker and Don Martin, and Martin asked him when we will see him back in a Sprint Car.

Stenhouse replied, “Not this year. For sure, not this year. My dad loves it probably more than anybody. My dad, Gordy, knows my dad. There’s nobody that loves going to the race track working on race cars, especially the one that his son’s driving, more than my dad. Definitely not this year.”

While he indicated he won’t be back in the seat this year, he did it make it clear he has plans to return in the future, “We still got all of our equipment and we got things setup to be able to go race. Now, that I have Stetson, him coming out here and coming to the race track and hanging out with the guys, he absolutely loves Sprint Car Racing. So I’m like, ‘I’ve got to race Sprint Cars.’ Right now, he thinks I drive them. And he thinks I win every race. So I’m okay right now, but probably in half a year or definitely another year he’s going to realize that’s not dad out there. I’m going to have get back in there and show him that I can wheel some Sprint Cars.”

“I love racing Sprint Cars,” Stenhouse continued. “Somebody asked me the other day while we were out in the parking lot. They were just talking about, ‘Man, we really appreciate you being a part of Sprint Car racing, having a Sprint Car team.’ And I always told people if it wasn’t for Sprint Car Racing, I wouldn’t be able to spend the money that I make now on Sprint Car Racing. I’ve always from the time I started racing and there was a possibility of me going to NASCAR, my number one goal was to have a Sprint Car team. I thought it was the coolest thing ever when Tony and Kasey had these Sprint Car teams and gave back to the sport. You always wanted to drive for those teams. And I was very fortunate enough in 2007 to drive for Tony’s USAC program. I kept bothering him year after year to drive for his World of Outlaws team because that’s what I really wanted to do. And then all of a sudden the opening came up on his USAC team and I was able to do it. But from that point on NASCAR was a realistic goal. And, from then on, I was like, ‘All right, when I get to Cup, I’m somehow forming a Sprint Car team.’ And glad that I’m still part of the sport.”

Stenhouse was last in a 410 Winged Sprint Car in May 2025 where he competed at Texas Motor Speedway with the High Limit Racing series. He finished 7th in the B-Main on May 1st and 22nd in the A-Feature on May 3rd.

According to Sprint Car Ratings, Stenhouse has 3 wins in a Winged Sprint Car in 53 races. His three wins came in 2006 while competing in the All Star Circuit of Champions’ Ohio Sprint Speedweek series. He won at Attica Raceway Park, Fremont Speedway, and Limaland Motorsports Park. 

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