Tony Stewart will return to NASCAR competition next month at Talladega Superspeedway for his second start of the 2026 season.
Kaulig Racing tabbed Stewart for its No. 25 ‘Free Agent’ RAM 1500 in the Oct. 23 Love’s RV Stop 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will reprise the role he played in the February race at Daytona International Speedway. Stewart started 16th and finished 36th with 39 laps complete due to a crash.
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Daytona marked Stewart’s first start since retiring from full-time Cup Series competition in 2016. The hype around Smoke’s return drew 1.387 million average viewers to FS1 for the race – a 37% increase over 2025 – with peak viewership of over 1.6 million viewers for what was the most-watched Craftsman Truck Series broadcast since 2016.
“Anytime you can get into a Ram truck and go racing at a place like Talladega, you jump at it,” Stewart said. “Daytona in February was a blast, but this trip focuses on having fun while helping Kaulig Racing learn and build their notebook on superspeedways. Ram put a tremendous amount of heart into this NASCAR return. If my experience helps this team sharpen its drafting package and speed up the learning curve, everyone wins.”
Kaulig Racing is in its first season in the Craftsman Truck Series. The organization has had growing pains but is steadily getting better. They put at least one truck in the top-10 in seven of the first nine races, including a triple top-10 at Watkins Glen with AJ Allmendinger (sixth), Mini Tyrrell (eighth) and Brenden Queen (ninth).
Recently, Justin Haley has been putting up some solid results for the No. 16 team with the newest trucks. He finished ninth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and then finished fourth after starting ninth the following race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Haley currently sits 13th in the points, one spot ahead of Queen and seven ahead of Tyrrell. Haley is responsible for 23 of the 24 laps the Truck organization has led, including 20 laps at Daytona. He also has five of the organization’s 15 top-10 finishes, while Queen has four, Colin Braun and Corey LaJoie each have two – and Tyrrell and Allmendinger each have one.
Stewart will try to pad those totals and possibly add a win to it. He has two career NCTS wins – at Richmond Raceway in 2002 and 2003 – in seven starts. His last NCTS start before Daytona this season was a two-race stint in 2005 and one start in 1996, 2002, 2003 and 2004 each.
In the Cup Series, Stewart scored just one win at Talladega – coincidentally in a controversial October 2008 finish with the most recent ‘Free Agent’ driver, Regan Smith.
FS1 will broadcast the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega, starting at 4 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 23.
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