NASCAR champion Tony Stewart is happy to be back at Daytona International Speedway
Following the 2016 season, Tony Stewart retired from full-time NASCAR racing. And since then, he hasn’t returned.
Until now! This week, Stewart is running the NASCAR Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway. He’s driving the Ram No. 25 for Kaulig Racing.
Today, Stewart touched the track for the first time in the opening round of practice. After practice, he was noticeably happy to be back behind the wheel…
Daytona Practice Results (Trucks)
Tony Stewart comments after his Daytona practice session
“I still need to make some more laps,” Tony Stewart told Fox Sports after the practice session.
“I wish we had another hour where we could get some drafting practice. Just little things here and there. The steering box ratio is different than I thought it would be. I’m going to have to move my mirror around. We thought we’re going to have to move some numbers on the dash.”
“It’s just little stuff that when you drive these things you get it sorted out pretty quick. Just trying to do it in 50 minutes. You can do it at the shop all you want but until you get on the racetrack, you don’t really know what you’ve got.”
“But, it’s cool. Not going to lie, it was fun to get back out there. Even by myself, it was really cool to be out there.”
“I was thinking about my iRacing guys. Hold my hands really still, even though we didn’t really do a full blown qualifying run.”
“I’m excited about it. They definitely drive different than I thought. Technology’s changed so much in the NASCAR rules. Watching Cup qualifying last night and how bad they bounced around. I mean the trucks do too. I don’t think they’re as bad as the Cup cars. But it’s definitely different than what I remember the last time I was here.”
During practice, Stewart was told to park behind the NASCAR hauler. But, that was only due to a lack of space.
“They go, ‘We want you to park behind the NASCAR hauler.’ I thought, ‘We’ve been in this thing about 35-40 minutes, I already got in trouble.'”
“No. The garage area here is not a garage area. This whole entire Truck Series is in a parking lot at Daytona. When I got called to the truck I thought, ‘Man, that didn’t take long. It’s like old times again.’ “
“But no, the atmosphere is really cool. It’s a lot of fun to be back here.”
The green flag will drop on the NASCAR Truck Series race tomorrow.
