NASCAR Cup Series

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Daytona 500 victory tour rolls through Chicago

Updated Feb. 21, 2023 6:05 p.m. ET

CHICAGO — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. isn't a big tattoo guy.

But considering the great race car his team gave him and his crew's belief in him — not to mention his wife in favor of some skin ink — he probably will get one to commemorate his Daytona 500 victory.

"I've always been against tattoos," Stenhouse told FOX Sports. "A lot of guys on my team get tattoos back in [North Carolina] and they have a really good tattoo artist there. So we didn't figure we would do a spur-of-a-moment and do one here [in Daytona].

"We will actually think about it and get a meaningful one."

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Stenhouse's victory celebrations since Sunday night have included climbing the Daytona International Speedway catchfence minutes after he won the race, a trip to Waffle House in the wee hours Monday morning, VIP access Monday afternoon at Disney and eating a cheeseburger Tuesday afternoon among his stops in Chicago.

"We were all going to go climb the fence," Stenhouse said. "I turned around and they were gone so I went and climbed the fence by myself and did some extra pullups for good measure."

His victory tour isn't over yet. He will make sure he visits the JTG Daugherty Racing team shop Wednesday and will spend Thursday in New York City before making his way to California for this weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

The 35-year-old Stenhouse has won just three Cup races — his win Sunday snapped a 199-race winless streak — in more than a decade of competing at NASCAR's top level. So he is relishing and enjoying every minute in the spotlight that he possibly can before getting back to work.

He certainly has created some memories and highlight reel moments. He had no idea how he would celebrate a Daytona 500 win and, at first, the celebration seemed a little weak when he didn't do any burnouts.

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He couldn't do burnouts because he had ran out of fuel on the cool-down lap after taking the checkered flag.

But while out on the frontstretch celebrating with his team, his crew members suggested they climb the fence. Stenhouse, though, had to do a broadcast interview first. By the time he finished the interview, the crew was gone.

And since then it's pretty much been public relations people from NASCAR telling him where to go and what to do, at least for part of Monday and Tuesday.

Stenhouse took some time on the plane to answer some of 650 text messages that he got for the win. He admitted he still had around 100 left to respond to Tuesday.

NASCAR, looking to promote the July 1-2 race weekend in Chicago where it will for the first time in series history compete on a temporary street course, had Stenhouse meet with Chicago Public Schools students, patients at a children's hospital, and make many media stops.

"It's been an amazing few days," Stenhouse said.

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As he talked about his celebrations this week, he said he didn't have any predetermined plans of how he would celebrate such a big win.

"You never write those things out in your head," Stenhouse said. "You don't want to get too far ahead and something happen and you don't get the victory.

‘It was kind of chaos."

Stenhouse's climbing of the fence replicated celebrations done by Helio Castroneves, Tony Stewart and others typically at Indianapolis.

Stenhouse drove for Stewart during his sprint-car career before coming to NASCAR, and while he has talked to Stewart, they haven't talked about his celebration.

"I'm going to have to see if he can do any pullups up there."

While it was a career-defining moment, Stenhouse hopes it doesn't take him another 199 Cup races to hoist another trophy.

"This race is monumental for your career," Stenhouse said. "I want to keep winning. I want to keep coming back and want to get another Daytona 500. I look at a career like [Martin] Truex or [Joey] Logano — they had been in the Cup Series for a while and it took them a while to go contend for championships week in and week out.

"I feel like I am still capable of doing that."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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