Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stormed to his first Daytona 500 pole in his first race for JTG-Daugherty Racing.

Last season Roush Fenway Racing surprised everyone when they announced Christopher Buescher would be replacing Ricky Stenhouse in the #17 car starting in 2020. Stenhouse had multiple years left on his Roush contract but was left looking for a ride in 2020.

The team that came calling? Buescher’s old team, JTG-Daugherty Racing. It was announced a couple of weeks later Stenhouse would take over the #47 Kroger Chevy as he tried to revive his slow fading Cup career.

Welcome To Daytona

On Sunday during Daytona 500 pole Ricky’s #47 team sent him out in a Camaro that was alllllllll the way trimmed out for speed and it paid off. The two-time Cup Series winner will start P1 when the field takes the green flag next Sunday for the Daytona 500.

Stenhouse will also lead Duel #1 to the green flag Thursday night but you can expect to see him drop to the back of the field. One to preserve the car since the front row is locked in and two, because his car is not set up for race conditions.

Alex Bowman joins Stenhouse on the front row with his P2 qualifying spot. Those two are locked in and will lead the field to green next week.

For Ricky Stenhouse, he couldn’t ask for a better start to the 2020 season with a new team. While Daytona is an anomaly and is in no way indicative of how they’ll run when the series heads to Las Vegas, Phoenix, or California. It is a great start to a new relationship and one that can certainly build confidence.

Qualifying Results

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