NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart is back at Daytona

Tony Stewart gave a shoutout to his bachelor days when he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He thanked "all the girlfriends” in that early 2020 speech that were along for the ride with him as he grew from Indiana dirt racer to a three-time Cup champion and eventually a successful NASCAR team owner.

Smoke these days can about pose for a family portrait when he makes his NASCAR return.

"It’s going to be a lot more fun for me to watch my son and see him look at all these bright, shiny colorful trucks,” Stewart said.

Ten years after his last NASCAR race, the 54-year-old Stewart will have his wife - drag racer Leah Pruett - and their 15-month-old son, Dominic, with him for the Truck Series race when the season kicks off at Daytona International Speedway.

Stewart surrendered the single life when he married Pruett in 2021 and is now a devoted family man, one who can't wait to show off his old stomping grounds to his new son - even if the toddler won't remember.

"My wick on my fuse is running out on my driving career," Stewart said. "That’s the great thing about the era that I grew up in. Luckily, there’s enough video stuff out there that he’s going to know his dad was a race car driver and he’s going to know all the things that we’ve done.”

It's a lengthy list.

Stewart is the first and only driver to win all three USAC National championships (Midget, Sprint, Silver Crown) in one year (1995). He also won the IndyCar championship in 1997 and NASCAR championships in 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Stewart kept racing even as he quit NASCAR following the 2016 season and still competes in various lower-level series across the country. He co-founded a short-lived short-track series and never really felt the pull to return to NASCAR until last summer when he popped into Michigan's famed Roadkill Nights - a racing extravaganza known for its street-legal drag racing - to promote his NHRA cars and instead got a comeback offer.

The pitch enticed him: just make one start for Kaulig Racing in the debut of the Ram Truck at Daytona.
Stewart first had to run the cameo by Pruett.

"She looked at me like I had three heads,” Stewart said.

Stewart got the approval he needed and his return to NASCAR - after he was entangled in a sticky offseason with series executives - was set.

Stewart will be part of Ram’s "free agent program” that is designed to bring proven drivers and rising stars into the spotlight. Ram will field five trucks this season - full-time seats for Brenden "Butterbean” Queen, Daniel Dye and Justin Haley, as well as the free agent seat and an additional program called "Race For The Seat” in which a competition in the form of a reality show determines the fourth full-time driver.

The trucks race at Daytona is typically a wreck-fest where the goal is often just to finish in one piece as much as it is to win the race.

"Boy, he picked a doozy," NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his podcast. "I wouldn’t have picked Daytona. I would have picked somewhere else. It must be writing him a nice check.”

Stewart even conceded that, yes, there are more ideal tracks to make a safer return at than Daytona.

"Is it the most ideal race for me to run as a driver? Probably not, in all reality,” said Stewart, who'll have to qualify for the race. "The biggest reason was, it’s Ram’s coming out party.”

Tim Kuniskis, the CEO of the Ram brand, made the initial pitch to Stewart and was surprised when he agreed to race at Daytona. Stewart last raced a truck in 2005 at NASCAR’s national level.

Kuniskis said he's asked all the time, "How did you get Tony to agree to do this?”

Yes, Stewart, as fiery and competitive as any racer of his generation, enjoyed the chance to resurrect both his NASCAR career and Ram trucks' re-entry into the series.

Kuniskis and Ram can probably really thank Dominic James Stewart for the assist.

"The only negative is I’m 54 being a first-time father,” Stewart said. "I would have loved to have done this 25, 30 years ago starting this process. It was the right time for me to start, even though looking on paper, 54 isn’t the ideal age to be a first-time father.”

Stewart's comeback - he's keeping future NASCAR plans "open-ended” - comes months after the bruising federal antitrust trial against NASCAR when his defunct Superstar Racing Experience series was trashed by NASCAR executives. Stewart was embroiled in his share of battles with NASCAR over his career and here he was again - after he was out as a driver and team owner - caught in the crossfire with SRX taking hits as a "trash series” in text exchanges.

"I didn’t have the best relationship with NASCAR,” Stewart said. "Surely, over the last 12 months, I’ve had more reason than not to not have the best of relationships.”

Stewart brushed any lingering hard feelings aside to link up with Kaulig Racing and put some star power in the kickoff race of Daytona 500 (where he went 0 for 17 ) weekend.

"I think as we all know right now NASCAR needs all the help it can get right this minute,” Stewart said. "It’ll get back sorted out. It’ll get healthy again. It’ll be fine. This is a good way to kind of help with that and get the fans excited about Daytona again.”

Associated Press