Stenhouse began kart racing at six and accumulated 47 wins and 90 podium finishes before transitioning to winged sprint car racing in 2003. He won the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver Poll and the Dirt Winged Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in 2003 and earned dual Rookie of the Year honors in USAC sprint car and midget competition in 2007. Stenhouse remains active in sprint car and midget ownership and competition outside NASCAR; his win at Talladega in 2017 made him one of only eight drivers to have won in NASCAR's Cup Series alongside victories in USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car, and National Midget competition.
Stenhouse joined Roush Fenway Racing's Nationwide Series program in 2009, making a partial schedule debut. After a difficult early 2010 season that included four crashes in ten races and a temporary replacement, he steadied the car and won the Rookie of the Year award.
In 2011, Stenhouse won his first Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway, holding off Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski over the final eighteen laps. He accumulated sixteen top-five finishes and won the championship by 45 points over Elliott Sadler. In 2012, he won six races — at Las Vegas, Texas, Iowa, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Kansas — and again held off Sadler to claim back-to-back Nationwide titles.
Stenhouse replaced Matt Kenseth in the No. 17 Ford at Roush Fenway Racing for the 2013 Cup Series season. He finished third at Talladega in his rookie year behind Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and was named Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
After several seasons of middling results with Roush, Stenhouse scored his first Cup victory at Talladega in May 2017, passing Kyle Busch on the final lap after surviving an eighteen-car pileup. He added a second win at Daytona in July 2017, pushing his way into the Playoffs for the first time. Roush Fenway nevertheless parted ways with Stenhouse after 2019, and JTG Daugherty Racing signed him for 2020.
Stenhouse won the 2023 Daytona 500 — his third career Cup win — in a race decided by strategy and patience across 200 laps at Daytona International Speedway, earning his first ever playoff appearance since 2017. In 2024 at Talladega, he won his fourth career Cup race by beating Brad Keselowski by .006 seconds in one of the closest finishes of that season, though a garage-area brawl with Kyle Busch following the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race overshadowed his year — NASCAR fined Stenhouse $75,000 and his father Ricky Stenhouse Sr. was suspended indefinitely for their roles in the altercation.
Before the 2025 season, JTG Daugherty Racing rebranded as Hyak Motorsports. Stenhouse started the 2026 Daytona 500 with a second-place finish and signed a contract extension with Hyak.
Stenhouse's 2017 season marked the end of a 101-race winless streak for Roush Fenway Racing, dating back to Carl Edwards's 2014 win at Sonoma. His 2023 Daytona 500 victory made him one of the few drivers to win NASCAR's most prestigious race without being considered a championship contender. He is the first Mississippian to attempt a full-time Cup schedule since Lake Speed in 1997.
Stenhouse was in a relationship with Danica Patrick from 2012 to 2017. He married Madyson Goodfleisch on October 26, 2022, in Charleston, South Carolina. A devout Baptist and fan of classic country music, he remains closely tied to his sprint car roots both as a competitor and as a team owner through Stenhouse Jr.-Wood Racing.