Ricky Stenhouse Jr strives to join elite company with another Daytona 500 victory

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the 2023 Daytona 500 winner, talks to Fox News Digital about prepping for this year's big race and what it takes to take home the checkered flag.

Daytona 500 weekend is here, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is looking to etch his name further into history.

The winner of the 2023 race, Stenhouse would become the 13th driver to take home the Daytona 500 checkered flag twice.

After lying low for a couple of months after the season started, Stenhouse is "pumped" to get back to competitive racing.

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series 65th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway Feb. 19, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

"I'm ready to go. My team, we got a lot of good things working with our team, and everybody's ready to go," Stenhouse told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

Stenhouse's victory three years ago didn't exactly change his view of himself as a driver, but he knows the Daytona 500 is where legacies are made.

"I think it changed the way maybe a lot of fans saw me as a driver. I mean, anytime you can put Daytona 500 champion next to your name, it’s something that we've been striving for," he said. 

"I mean, I ran my first 500 in 2012, and it took me until 2023 to get that box marked. It was a huge win for a small team like ours. I felt like that really propelled us to have a great season that year, and I still feel like we're taking momentum from that. Even though last season wasn't the season that we wanted it to be, we’ll still show up to the 500 this year very confident that we're gonna have a shot to go win."

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drives during practice for the