{"id":408765,"date":"2026-01-14T13:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408765\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T13:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:57:24","slug":"tony-stewart-to-make-nascar-return-in-truck-series-season-opener-at-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408765\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart to make NASCAR return in Truck Series season opener at Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart is back in NASCAR<\/a> \u2014 for one night only. The Hall of Fame driver will compete in the 2026 Truck Series regular season opener at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Stewart will drive the No. 25 Ram truck for Kaulig Racing in what will be the automotive brand\u2019s first race back in NASCAR since 2012. Stellantis this past summer announced Ram\u2019s return to NASCAR for the 2026 season. \u201cWelcome to The Smoke Show,\u201d Kaulig said in its reveal of Stewart as a driver at Daytona. <\/p>\n

Stewart will drive a Kaulig entry as part of Ram\u2019s \u201cFree Agent Driver Program.\u201d The 54-year-old last competed in NASCAR in 2016 before retiring from full-time competition. He has made just six career starts in Truck, the last coming in 2005 with Kevin Harvick Incorporated. Stewart is a two-time winner in the series, winning at Richmond Raceway in 2002 and again in 2003. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve raced just about everything with four wheels at Daytona, but never a truck. So, when a seat in the new Ram was offered up for their first race back in NASCAR, I didn\u2019t hesitate,\u201d Stewart said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cRam\u2019s Free Agent program is another great way for me to stay sharp and have a little fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaulig makes big splash, lands Tony Stewart for Truck Series race at Daytona<\/p>\n

Stewart is one of the most decorated wheelmen of all-time. He is a three-time Cup Series champion with 49 wins in the series. Stewart has also won championships in the IndyCar Series, USAC and IROC. He now competes in NHRA where in 2025, he won the Top Fuel regular season championship. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Tony Stewart in one of our Ram trucks is the kind of thing you dream about,\u201d team founder and owner Matt Kaulig said. \u201cHe\u2019s a legend\u2014his name alone 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. This is going to be a ride worth watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ram will field five trucks throughout the 2026 season with Kaulig. Daniel Dye (No. 10), Brenden \u201cButterbean\u201d Queen (No. 12) and Justin Haley (No. 16) are Kaulig\u2019s full-time drivers for the upcoming campaign. The fifth truck (No. 14) will serve as a seat for a driver selected through a reality-show competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart is back in NASCAR \u2014 for one night only. The Hall of Fame driver will compete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-408765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408765","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=408765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}