Tony Stewart surprised many, including his wife Leah Pruett, when he agreed to a return to NASCAR. The three-time Cup champion announced that he will drive the No. 25 Ram truck for Kaulig Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series season opener at Daytona on February 13.
The NHRA drag racing driver stepped away from full-time NASCAR Cup racing after 2016 and has not raced in a NASCAR national series since then. He has just six Truck starts between 1996 and 2005, with two wins and five top-10 finishes.
Stewart revealed to Racer that he took the seat to celebrate Ram’s return to the truck series and explained that Pruett’s reaction to the news was blunt.
“She looked at me and she’s like, ‘Why would you do that?’ She goes, ‘You’ve always told me it’s about a 70% chance you’re going to get wrecked out of any race at Daytona,'” Tony Stewart said.
“told her this is how much the Dodge brand, Stellantis and Ram mean to me. Is it the most ideal race for me to run as a driver? Probably not, in all reality,” he added.
The Stellantis brand, which also partners with Stewart’s Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) in NHRA, will lead a factory return to the Truck Series next year with five entries with Kaulig Racing. Ram has not had a factory-supported NASCAR Truck presence since 2012. Kaulig will rotate the No. 25 truck among free agents this season, and Stewart is the first announced driver in that program.
Meanwhile, Top Fuel racer Pruett, who stepped away to start a family in 2024, is set to return to Top Fuel competition with TSR in 2026. The team also announced multi-year ties with Dodge and the Direct Connection program last year.
“We Have a Pretty Good Success Rate” – Tony Stewart on Returning to Daytona After Over a Decade
Tony Stewart will not return to the same NHRA seat he drove the past two years for TSR following Leah Pruett’s return full-time this season. The 54-year-old’s 2025 NHRA campaign was strong. He won two Top Fuel wins and collected the 2025 NHRA regular-season championship. Stewart also earned NHRA Rookie of the Year honors in 2024 and finished fifth points standings in 2025.
But after over 10 years away from racing in NASCAR, Stewart shared that his past results at Daytona give him some confidence, since he understands that part of the track.
“It doesn’t matter how much technology changes, the one thing that doesn’t change at Daytona is the air. So, I think our record book shows we have a pretty good success rate at Daytona, and at least we understood that part of it,” Tony Stewart said.
Stewart has won multiple NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly (Xfinity) Series races at Daytona International Speedway. He will join a star studded linup of NASCAR drivers, including Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Carson Hocevar and Corey Lajoie at the Truck Series opener of the 2026 next month.
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