Stewart ready to lean on some old tricks - and embrace the unknowns - in Truck Series cameo at Daytona

Leah Pruett had the same reaction as some others did when Tony Stewart, her husband, finalized his NASCAR return by entering the Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

“She looked at me and she’s like, ‘Why would you do that?’” Stewart said. “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.’ I 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.”

Stewart, however, wanted to be included at Ram’s coming-out party. A party being held at the biggest race of the season. It also made sens,e considering his relationship with Dodge through his NHRA program.

“Why not be a part of that?” said Stewart. “Why not help kick off the season for Ram and get this off on the right foot? Hopefully, it brings excitement. Hopefully, it’s the right event to kick everything off and get everyone who is a Ram fan excited about it.”

Ram is returning to NASCAR after 13 seasons away. It was under the Dodge brand, in 2012 that they last competed in NASCAR.

The entry Stewart will drive, the No. 25 Ram, is the free agent program. Ram and Kaulig Racing created a team that is open to drivers from across the motorsports landscape who want to compete in NASCAR. It should result in a variety of drivers who get behind the wheel throughout the season.

“The second part of it is, I thought through it, and as much as I realized that there’s a lot of potential that we’re going to get wrecked, I haven’t been in a NASCAR anything for 10 years,” Stewart said. “As much as technology has changed and all these different variables have changed, all these drivers that are running in the Truck Series, they know the handling characteristics of these trucks. But when you go to a place like Daytona and Talladega, they aren’t going to necessarily have the same handling characteristics and things that you truly need to know about (in) the draft. 

“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.”

Even taking that into account, Stewart knows it’s a unique situation that he’s embracing. Stewart last ran a NASCAR race in 2016, and he has not run a Truck Series race since 2005. And he only has six starts in the series in total. None of them was on a superspeedway.

There are also the variables that Kaulig Racing is dealing with for the event. According to Stewart, only six trucks are ready so far, which means not all drivers will get to do drafting practice because of the lack of backup trucks. Stewart, who has to qualify for the event, will make single-truck runs, and he will draft for the first time if he makes the race.

“That’s going to be a big deal, trying to figure out what the truck likes, what it dislikes, what happens if somebody tucks down to the door in the center of the corner,” Stewart said. “What happens if you pull out and try to make a pass? How does the air slow the truck down? It’s variables like that I’m going to have to figure out. But for these kids in the Truck Series, the majority of them are trying to figure out the same things. So, I feel like making that decision to run Dayton was more out of the things that I already know about (superspeedway) racing and the variables that these kids are going to have to learn.”

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Stewart's NASCAR return will be the speed. Stewart, of course, is not unfamiliar with the speed at Daytona, but the sensation is likely to feel far different this time around after speeding the last few years behind the wheel of a dragster in NHRA competition.

“I guarantee the acceleration is not going to feel the same, but it doesn’t feel the same when I’m driving through the streets of Lake Havasu or Columbus, Indiana or anything like that,” Stewart said of the truck. “But it’s definitely going to be different, for sure. Our runs in NHRA are about 3.7 or 3.8 seconds, and a 3.6 on a good run. I don’t even know what the truck gets up to speed-wise in 3.7 seconds. So, I’m kind of interested to see what that is. It’s definitely not going to be the same, by any means.

“The other thing is, you run the dragster down the backstretch at Daytona, you get to the corner, and it’s not going to like trying to go into the corner like the speed we’ll have the trucks going through the corners. So it won’t handle the same. It’s two drastically different cars. The thing about Daytona is it’s not about acceleration at all. Once the trucks get up to speed, there’s not a lot of variance in how much mile an hour, plus or minus, you’re going to have once you get up to that speed. The drag racing side is a game of acceleration, and the truck race at Daytona is a game of momentum and working the draft.”