{"id":407666,"date":"2026-01-14T02:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407666\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:14:12","slug":"tony-stewart-to-return-to-nascar-in-truck-series-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407666\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart to Return to NASCAR in Truck Series Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"0\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Tony Stewart is coming in from the cold.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"1\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">A former Cup Series champion and former co-owner of a successful Cup team, Stewart eventually left NASCAR for drag racing but now is making a temporary return. Kaulig Racing announced Tuesday that Stewart will drive one of its entries in the Craftsman Truck Series opener at Daytona International Speedway next month.<\/p>\n<p>Related Story<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"4\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">A three-time Cup champion, Stewart last raced in NASCAR\u2019s top series in 2016. He hasn\u2019t competed in the Truck series since 2005 and hasn\u2019t raced a truck at Daytona, but he has 19 wins at the track in other series.<\/p>\n<p><img draggable=\"true\" alt=\"person in a black polo shirt featuring automotive branding with arms crossed\" title=\"person in a black polo shirt featuring automotive branding with arms crossed\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;width:100%;height:auto;\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc01800-683x1024-69668697a189b.jpg\" class=\"css-0 e1g79fud0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kaulig Racing<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"6\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">\u201cI\u2019ve raced just about everything with four wheels at Daytona but never a truck,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cSo when a seat in the new Ram was offered up for their first race back in NASCAR, I didn\u2019t hesitate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"7\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Kaulig plans to field five Ram trucks this season as Dodge makes its return to NASCAR. Brenden Queen, Daniel Dye and Justin Haley are scheduled to run the full season. A fourth truck, designated as the \u201cfree agent\u201d ride, is available for both experienced drivers like Stewart and younger drivers who have shown potential. A fifth truck will be driven by the winner of a competition involving new drivers.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"8\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">\u201cHaving Tony Stewart in one of our Ram trucks is the kind of thing you dream about,\u201d said team owner Matt Kaulig. \u201cHe\u2019s a legend. His name brings energy to the sport. We couldn\u2019t be more fired up to have him in our camp as we roll into Daytona for our first race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"9\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Stewart was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-dynamic-svg=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/www.autoweek.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/autoweek\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de67f45.svg?primary=%2523000\" loading=\"lazy\" data-testid=\"dynamic-svg-base\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" alt=\"Lettermark\" class=\"css-7mevzh ev8dhu50\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart is coming in from the cold. A former Cup Series champion and former co-owner of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,171702,784,1642,634,171701,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-407666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-d777da4c-a396-4875-871c-4108eff4f8f5","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-locale-us","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-shorttitle-tony-stewart-to-return-to-nascar-in-trucks-opener","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}