9 months agoRicky Stenhouse Jr. will start 24th in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. After winning the Daytona 500 and tying a career-high nine top 10 finishes in 2023, there was some optimism surrounding the 14-year Cup veteran entering the season. While nobody was expecting him to be a threat to contend for the Cup championship, there was hope that he would take the next step in what has otherwise been an inconsistent career. Unfortunately for fans of the JTG Daugherty Racing star, his only step has been backward, as his average finish in the first six races of the season is 22.6, down from 13.6 over this span a year ago. While Stenhouse will undoubtedly be the contrarian driver that helps someone win a DFS contest this season, do not expect this to happen this weekend at Richmond. In the four Cup races in the Next Gen car at the "Action Track", Stenhouse has had difficulty maintaining track position, dropping back an average of 8.25 spots from where he started in these races. Even more concerning is his average DraftKings score over this span is just 8.80 points which is the second-lowest among active drivers. Given these struggles, the only reason to play Stenhouse this weekend is to be different for the sake of being different, which is rarely, if ever, a strategy that leads to success in DFS. --Adam Erhardt - RotoBaller
Source: Racing-Reference.info