Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — Tony Stewart signed up to compete in one NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race in 2026: The season-opening Fresh From Florida 250 on Friday.
Could he sign up for more? Hey, who would have thought six months ago that 54-year-old Stewart would ever race in NASCAR again? Well, on little practice, Stewart jumped behind the wheel of the No. 25 Kaulig Racing Ram this week to give it a go.
The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion — whose last NASCAR race was in 2016 and last truck race was in 2005 — and current NHRA racer had his NASCAR return end with a wreck 39 laps into the 100-lap truck season opener on Daytona’s iconic 2.5-mile track.
“I didn’t think I was going to be here 10 years after I retired, so I think we have to learn to never say never,” Stewart told FOX Sports broadcaster Amanda Busick after being released from the infield care center. “It’s a great opportunity. … Just finally getting in a spot where I felt like I could start hustling and being in the mix there a little bit.
“Early on, it was just like kind of hang on. [I] knew we needed to take care of it until we got a shot to make pit stops. So probably needed one more good swing at it to really get to where we could go, but we’re gaining on it. So at least they’re building a notebook now. The rest of the guys are out there still digging, so they’ll build a good notebook for when we come back next time.”
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We come back next time?
He told me and other reporters that he signed up for one race and that’s currently the plan. But he also sounded like a guy who enjoyed his race until Jake Garcia got loose and slid into him.
“I don’t get a chance to mix it up wheel to wheel with anybody anymore on the drag race side,” Stewart said. “You don’t want to be around anybody running 300 miles an hour.
“But it was fun to come back here. It’s fun to watch the style these kids run. You could tell the guys that their trucks felt good right out of the gate, and they were aggressive. And I was like, ‘Man, I wish I had the confidence to do that.’”
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Stewart said he never got comfortable being in any spot on the track.
“I knew [the truck] wasn’t going to be able to do the middle of the three-wide deal,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t comfortable enough with that, and we weren’t tight enough to do that. But the swings we were making — that was getting the balance a lot closer to where we could do that.”
It almost sounded like Stewart has unfinished business. The day before the race, he indicated he will have to do some convincing — he has a 15-month-old son with wife and fellow drag racer Leah Pruett — if he wanted to do more races in the gaps of his full-time NHRA schedule.
“I have a wife and a son who also like those gaps as well and would prefer I not keep booking those gaps,” Stewart said.
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