When Ricky Stenhouse Jr. signed with Roush Fenway Racing in 2008, the target date for him to begin racing in Sprint Cup was February 2014.

So in some ways, when he joins the series full time in 2013, it will be a year earlier than planned. Then again, when Jack Roush benched him for a race in 2010 after he had wrecked several racecars, it appeared that a career as a Sprint Cup driver would never come.

And then when he won the 2011 Nationwide Series title, it appeared that maybe he deserved a full-time Cup ride in 2012.

So 2013? Stenhouse will gladly take it. The organization announced Tuesday that he would replace Matt Kenseth in the Cup stable beginning next year.

“We’re kind of a year ahead of where we thought we would be,” Stenhouse said Thursday at Kentucky Speedway. “The thing about Jack, he has sat me out of racecars but he’s never quit believing in me.

“It’s important that I work as hard as I can, not only for myself, but for him, who has kept me in a racecar not fully sponsored.”

Stenhouse won last year’s Nationwide Series title in an unsponsored car and has raced mostly unsponsored this season.

He could not have predicted his path to Cup, especially the way it happened with Kenseth leaving the team after this season.

“It hasn’t been uncomfortable,” Stenhouse said. “For one, I don’t know any of the details of what went on between Matt and Roush Fenway. … I really thought he would retire at Roush Fenway, for sure.

“I wasn’t as shocked to hear that I was going to run full time. I was more shocked that Matt wasn’t going to come back.”

If there’s anyone who should know unpredictable, it’s Stenhouse, whose presence even in the garage at this point would not have been a good bet when he struggled in 2010.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is again in the thick of the Nationwide Series title mix this season. (AP Photo)
“It’s been really wild,” Stenhouse said. “But I would never trade what we went through in 2010, looking back at it now.

“After winning the championship last year, 2010 made me really appreciate a second opportunity to get back in the car and get business taken care of. … Now we get the opportunity to run a Cup car. It’s just kind of unbelievable how things turn around and things work.”

Third in the Nationwide standings entering this weekend’s race at Kentucky, Stenhouse hopes that with his future determined, he can focus on trying to win his second consecutive title. It was his goal when he started this season and something he stressed to Roush after winning the title.

“Jack had talked about giving (me a Cup ride in 2012),” he said. “I wanted to run another year in Nationwide. I think Jack kind of wanted me to go and run the Cup car.

“I’m grateful that he kind of took my thoughts into consideration and we ran another year in Nationwide. I think we learned a lot.”

Stenhouse said he continues to run under the original contract he signed in 2008.

There had been speculation that if he didn’t get a Cup ride with Roush that Tony Stewart, whom Stenhouse drove for in USAC, might try to sign him.

“I felt like we were going to run Cup for Jack in 2013, no matter what,” Stenhouse said. “Obviously, Tony has helped me a lot through my career. … (But) I look to be here (at Roush) for a long time.

“Yeah, I would have had fun running with Tony for sure. But sometimes you’ve got to stick with the guys that give you the big opportunity that believe in you. Jack has been that guy.”

He expects to run six or seven Cup races later this year in preparation for 2013.

“It’s crazy, man, when I first signed with them (at Roush) in 2008, it was to run ARCA and I had never run a stock car before in my life,” Stenhouse said. “Looking at my contract, you’re like, ‘They want me to go full-time (in Cup) in 2014 and that doesn’t seem too far away.’

“Now it’s 2013 and it seems like forever since I ran ARCA. It’s just been an unbelievable ride.”




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