May 3, 2025

As has been the case for most races this season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. looks to be a solid place-differential play at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. That's because the Cup Series veteran qualified way back in 34th place for this weekend's Würth 400, and he should be able to move up significantly from that position before the race is all said and done. In nine of the 10 Cup Series events this season, Stenhouse has had positive place differential, which is very important when it comes to DFS scoring. And with Stenhouse costing only $6,200 on DraftKings this week, that makes him a cash-core option because of his upside. Stenhouse has finished 23rd, ninth, and 27th in the three Next Gen races at Texas and also ended up finishing 18th at Las Vegas earlier this year after qualifying 31st. Comparison-wise, Las Vegas is the closest track to Texas this season, and Goodyear decided on using the same tire combination for both races this year.--Jordan McAbee
Source: ifantasyrace

April 12, 2025

The No. 47 team brought a sporty race car for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to work with in the Food City 500 this weekend, as Stenhouse was not only the quickest car in practice on Saturday, but he also qualified second for Sunday's race. This is the best starting position that Stenhouse has ever had at Bristol Motor Speedway. Now the question becomes: Can he stay up front? Thunder Valley has been a struggle for Stenhouse of late, as he has just one finish better than 20th in his last 10 starts here. However, that one finish was a 10th-place effort back in 2023, so there's some hope for him this weekend. As far as playability in DFS tournaments, Stenhouse ($6,500 on DraftKings) is super risky because of his high likelihood for negative place-differential points. However, if the No. 47 Chevrolet can get out and lead laps early, those dominator points could soften the blow from the inevitable negative place differential. In all likelihood, it's best to stay away from Stenhouse in DFS this weekend. After qualifying, Stenhouse remarked, "It's not a surprising run, Bristol's my favorite track. We've worked on ways to find speed and it's great to see it pay off. We'll see what happens tomorrow, I feel we were good at managing tires last year."--Jordan McAbee
Source: PRN

April 6, 2025

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s career pretty much lives and dies on his performances on drafting tracks now, as he is never anything more than anonymous anywhere else these days. Don't expect that to change at Darlington, where he only earned a single top-10 finish in the 2022 spring race and has never led a lap. Even in that race, he didn't run that well since his average running position was 17th, and he mostly benefited from the fact that 13 cars didn't finish -- that normally doesn't happen here. Since he's starting 28th and only costs $6,500, the case is there that he could be valuable for DFS play if you think he could back into a decent finish at all, but he would likely have to back into it due to attrition or wild strategy. It's unlikely to happen.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

March 30, 2025

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. qualified 34th at Martinsville, worst of all the established veterans in competitive cars. However, this isn't particularly a good track for him, as he has never led a lap and has only earned three top-10 finishes with an average finish of 24.1 despite only crashing once here. He did earn his best finish here in the 2023 spring race when he finished eighth, but his speed declined significantly in the second half of 2023 and never completely recovered, and his average running position even in that race was only 17th. From where he's starting, he'll probably gain a fair bit of place-differential points, but he won't even sniff the lead, so he won't score nearly enough lap-leader or fastest-lap points to be viable for DFS.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference