Stenhouse climbs Stairway to Fitness during TCU visit
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
FORT WORTH – It was early in his high school football career that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. realized he was not destined to become a future phenom for his beloved Ole Miss Rebels.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. does an intense aerobic workout with Kaz Kazadi, assistant athletics director for human performance during a visit to the TCU campus and Amon G. Carter Stadium on Tuesday. TMS photo
“Absolutely not!” Stenhouse said with a laugh during a visit to the TCU campus and Amon G. Carter Stadium here on Tuesday. An established driver in the NASCAR Cup Series with Hyak Motorsports, Stenhouse arrived in Cowtown early to promote the WURTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY tripleheader weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
Stenhouse’s four-part tour of North Texas began with a visit to the TCU football locker room, a walk through the long-and-winding black tunnel leading onto the stadium’s turf, and meet-and-greets with Horned Frogs Coach Sonny Dykes and an intense, aerobic workout with Kaz Kazadi, assistant athletics director for human performance.
“That locker room is sick,” said Stenhouse, who added his autograph to a well-scripted pillar of celebrities. “And the tunnel is awesome.” The moment conjured up memories of Ricky’s playing days with the DeSoto Central High School Jaguars in his hometown of Olive Branch, Miss.
“I was a backup (left-handed) quarterback because I could not see over the line when I was younger. I was even smaller than I am now,” said Stenhouse, 37, and listed at 5-foot-10 and 175-pounds. “Played quarterback, special teams. Up through my freshman year, I played football, basketball, baseball, golf and I raced. I loved all sports growing up, felt like I was decent at a lot of them and enjoyed playing. But I don’t think I was mean enough to play football, at least back then. I feel like I’m a little bit more mean now and try to be a little bit more aggressive.
“And then my dad said, ‘Just pick a sport.’ He didn’t care what it was and I picked racing and quit everything else.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #47 Kroger/Irish Spring Chevrolet. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet, Stenhouse will be making his 24th career Cup start on TMS’ high-banked/1.5-mile oval on Sunday. “I’m the starting quarterback in the race car,” said Stenhouse, whose Cup resume features a victory in the 2023 Daytona 500, otherwise known as NASCAR’s Super Bowl. “A lot of our guys that are changing our tires are ex-football players, and yeah, it takes everybody to do their job, no mistakes. That’s how you win these races.
“My whole life, I only wanted to race for a living. I knew that from very early on when I started racing go-karts at 5-years-old. I didn’t never really dream about making it to NASCAR, I just wanted to race for a living, whether it be dirt racing, you name it. As long as I was able to pay my bills racing, that’s what I wanted to do.”
Greeted by his image on TCU’s giant-sized stadium scoreboard with the message of “Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Welcome to Funky Town,” Stenhouse told members of the DFW media his scouting report on Kazadi was that “he’s very intense.” Fortunately, Stenhouse counts himself among the NASCAR regulars who maintain a year-round fitness regimen.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. participates in an intense aerobic workout during a visit to the TCU campus and Amon G. Carter Stadium on Tuesday. TMS photo
“A lot of guys will do long-distance cardio, bicycle riding, running _ things like that,” Stenhouse said. “With my training program, we mix things up with high-intensity intervals, full-body lifts, long-distance running, short running…and then I’ll always end up doing some kind of dumb thing once a year. This might be the dumb thing I do this year. Last year I did a 30-mile run for no reason.”
Kazadi came prepared with a short workout topped by a series of stair-climbs through the stadium’s steep main grandstand.
“Sonny tell you to take it easy?” Stenhouse said upon meeting Coach Kaz.
“I’m not a take-it-easy guy,” Kazadi warned. “We’ll loosen you up a little bit, full-range of motion type stuff.”
Stenhouse certainly looked the athlete during the session of extended stretching, 30-yard sprints and squats while holding a 10-pound weight. Ricky then hit the stairs. After completing his second set, he paused long enough to turn his new purple TCU cap around in order to catch some air.
“The stairs…I don’t know how many stairs there are there but it’s not just conditioning,” Stenhouse said after completing a session that lasted about one hour in 80-degree temps. “It’s getting those muscles fired-up and using them. This is a little bit more intense as far as a Monday workout as far as the stairs at the end. But just that constant movement, deep squats and things like that. The stairs were normal for a Tuesday workout for me, high-intensity interval type stuff to get the heart rate spiked, try to get it down on the way down the stairs, get rested before you take back off. That’s more of my Tuesday workout.
“He (Kazadi) really learned what drivers go through, he studied and paid attention. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought mainly we’d do football stuff but he (targeted) my lower back, my glutes _ obviously, I’m sitting there in one posture for four hours. So I got some new techniques I can use on Mondays and race day before I get in the car to get my lower back and glutes loosened up. He knew exactly what I struggle with once I get back in the gym on Mondays _ my posture, my shoulders.
“I learned a lot and he’s going to get me on a diet program, too. He saw my midsection and he’s going to get me dialed-in on nutrition. I’m 175 now…I was 180 after a Bahamas trip, down to 175 so I’ve probably got another 15 to go before I’ll be happy. It’s not about what the scale says, it’s looking in the mirror and making sure you feel good about it. So, we’ll get there.
“I just got told that I should probably get a good massage therapist and a good nutritionist. We may come back next year; I might look like I’m ready to play.”
Earlier, Stenhouse met with Coach Dykes, 55, who walked him through his career path to TCU. Dykes’ 27 wins trail only two-time national champion Dutch Meyer (1929, 1934-36) for most by a TCU head coach during his first three seasons.
“What he’s been able to accomplish as a coach…it’s a really cool story,” Stenhouse said. “Similar to me, he’s doing what he loves, right? For me, I wanted to race for a living. I didn’t care what it was, I just wanted to race for a living. Obviously, I’m at the peak of racing for a living. And he probably feels like he’s at the peak of where he wants to be in football coaching.”
Stenhouse said he would like to attend TCU’s 2025 football season-opener against the North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill on Monday, Sept. 1. That game will come gift-wrapped with built-in buzz surrounding the collegiate debut of UNC Coach Bill Belichick. He is, of course, the winner of a record eight Super Bowls _ six as head coach of the New England Patriots and two as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants.
“Hopefully, I can hang out with him (Coach Dykes) there and be on the sidelines,” Stenhouse said. “And what I like about football coaches is the pregame speeches they give their team…the pep-talk. I’d like to get in on one of them.”
Dykes served as grand marshal of last spring’s Cup race at TMS, and gave the command for the drivers to “start your engines” along with his family.
“It’s pretty remarkable what these guys go through during a race,” Dykes said. “Obviously the stress, the speed at which decisions have to be made, it’s just crazy. People think you sit in a race car just pushing a pedal. It’s hot in there and there’s just a lot going on.
“It’s really cool, too, to get to wear the headset and hear what’s going on with the crew and everything. It reminds me a lot of a football team. It’s a big organization, a lot of moving parts, hard decisions that have to be made _ so it’s a really similar setup.”
Stenhouse likened his crew chief, Mike Kelley, to Coach Dykes. “He’s giving the rundown on what to expect for our whole race team,” Stenhouse said, “from our pit crew to our guys behind the wall to what I’m doing on the racetrack with my spotter. He kind of gives us our game plan. With our races, it changes a lot depending on when the cautions come out, where you qualify, how your race is going. We don’t have a halftime break to kind of regroup, you just kinda gotta do it on the fly.”
Ricky Stenhouse’s media tour of Fort Worth included getting a custom-fitted hat for Ricky (white straw) and his wife Madyson from Best Hat Store on Main Street in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. TMS photo
Stenhouse said preparations for TMS began on Wednesday with a ZOOM meeting led by Kelley. Stenhouse started 31st and finished 23rd in last April’s race at TMS in the No. 47 Chevy then fielded under the banner of JTG Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse’s best start at TMS to-date is third on May 22, 2022, when he won Stage 1 and led 20 laps. His best finish at “The Great American Speedway” is ninth on two occasions _ June 13, 2021 and Sept. 24, 2023. Stenhouse has led a combined 53 laps on a track where the series now competes only once a season.
“That’s a bummer,” said Stenhouse, the Sunoco Cup Rookie of the Year in 2013 with Roush Fenway Racing. “We’ve been going to these tracks for years, so you have to look at the last race you raced here. For us, last year we had a really good race car here. We were battling in the top-10 and had just passed the eventual winner (Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports) before the green flag pit cycles happened and a caution came out. So I feel really good about our car.
“Texas is very unique in the fact that Turns 3 and 4 (banked at 24 degrees) are drastically different than Turns 1 and 2 (banked at 20 degrees). Like if you had a football field that was level on one side and downhill the other, or even off-camber the other way, that’s what it would be like. You go one end of the field, everything’s really easy and normal and then you get to the other end it’s pretty treacherous and tricky. So we’ll look at our past races, look at our notes. You really can’t compare this track to any other one. The other factor we have here is the wind. That can change the handling of your car.
Ricky Stenhouse’s media tour continued with a stop at Raising Cane’s Drive-Thru on University Drive for lunch. TMS photo.
“And then, how much the asphalt has aged in the full cycle of the year. It’s getting lighter and lighter in color, which is a good thing. That’s what us drivers love _ a little less grip the more you can move around the racetrack and the easier it is to pass. So, we like old racetracks.”
Stenhouse’s tour continued with stops at Raising Cane’s Drive-Thru on University Drive for lunch, a custom hat-fitting for Ricky (white straw) and wife Madyson from Best Hat Store on Main Street in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, and a solemn tour of the recently opened National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington with Greg Waters, director or curatorial affairs.
Out of the 41 million who have served in the U.S. military, the Medal has been presented to only 3,528 service members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. As of late April 2025, there are 103 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.
Stenhouse was genuinely moved by the experience. “I feel like when I walked into the Medal of Honor Museum…the first thing I did was take my hat off,” Stenhouse said. “You’ve got all these 3,528 names around here and I feel just super-honored to be here and learn the history of a lot of these guys. Makes me want to look up every story and read through them. I would say this is a really special part of the day and obviously, the most important, just learning the history of a lot of these guys that have sacrificed so much for our country. So, very special to end the day here.”
This weekend’s NASCAR tripleheader program will again be the only appearance by a major sanctioning body at Texas Motor Speedway this season. In a bid for more fan-friendly weather, NASCAR moved the event back approximately three weeks into May, where it is bumped-up against Cinco de Mayo celebrations and Mayfest in Trinity Park in downtown Cowtown.
Mark Faber, TMS’ executive vice president/general manager, believes the track will more than hold its own attendance-wise. “The move to the Cinco de Mayo weekend has been great for us,” Faber said during Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s visit to TCU. “It’s going to be a fiesta weekend with a little bit of ‘Force be with you’ on Sunday for Star Wars fans. Might be some Storm Troopers out there mixing with mariachi bands.
“We’re seeing double-digit increase on attendance for our grandstands, our camping, our suites, premium seating, partnerships and sponsorships. So, we’re really expecting a full-house. Talking to our ticket guys, they’re not getting a break on the phones.”
The schedule was set to begin Thursday night with Round 1 of the Kubota High Limit Racing Stockyard Stampede 410 Sprint Cars on the half-mile TMS Dirt Track. The series will race again on Saturday night.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 will begin at 7 p.m. (CDT)on Friday, May 2; the NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 will compete at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, and the NASCAR Cup Series WÜRTH 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY is set for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.
Information on individual tickets, weekend packages and camping is available at www.texasmotorspeedway.com.
