WATCH: “Celebrate dirt track style”- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates his Daytona 500 win with a midnight visit to the Waffle House
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has scored just one top-10 finish in his Cup career before 2023.
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Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The 75th-anniversary edition of NASCAR opened with a historic Daytona 500 finish. JTG Daugherty Racing No: 47 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scored his third Cup career win and maiden Great American Race win in double overtime. The race was the longest Daytona 500 of all time, and Stenhouse Jr. also made Brad Daugherty the first Black Principal team owner to win the iconic superspeedway race.
Stenhouse Jr. celebrated the victory by visiting the nearest Waffle House at midnight, carrying the trophy, and having a late-night breakfast. He had a warm welcome from race fans and employees before enjoying a meal. The Chevy driver isn’t the first to visit the Waffle House after a race win. Cup rookie Noah Gregson has been doing it for many years and has many drivers before and after him.
The No:47 driver started the day at P31 and found his way to the top, surviving multiple wrecks and on-track incidents. Stenhouse Jr. took the front-row start after Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon crashed out on the first overtime run. He then edged Joey Logano in the second showdown and was awarded the win for leading the race while the caution was called.
“I think this whole offseason Mike just preached how much we all believed in each other. They left me a note in the car that said they believed in me and to get the job done. Man, this is unbelievable. This was the site of my last win back in 2017. We’ve worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short,” Stenhouse said in his post-race interview.
The win ended 199 winless streaks by the Chevy driver, whose last win came five years ago in 2017 at the Daytona summer race. His maiden Cup win also came in that season at Talladega. No driver who won the last three Daytona 500s has won races outside the superspeedways. This was only the 2nd Cup race win for the JTGDR, whose first Cup win came back in 2014 at Watkins Glen.
Discover more: Kyle Busch is devastated as overtime chaos denies him the Daytona 500 trophy
NASCAR fans react to Stenhouse Jr. late-night Waffle House visit
Fans were excited to see the Great American Race winner celebrating the victory at the restaurant like many of the dirt racing champions used to do. Some fans even used the opportunity to demand that NASCAR make a rule to normalize such visits from start drivers.
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Justin P Joy
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