Returning to Daytona after over a decade seems to be a daunting task even for someone with as much experience as Tony Stewart. While it is an uncommon practice for a driver to reveal their preparation secrets, Stewart has nothing to hide.

Tony Stewart gets behind a virtual wheel

Racing simulators have changed the way drivers practice for special races. iRacing seems to be doing the trick for Tony Stewart, as he recently shared on social media. Although he has ample experience racing in NASCAR, Stewart never really raced the Trucks as much, and now that he prepares his return with Kaulig Racing at Daytona, he’s pushing hard.

Stewart retired from full-time Cup racing at the end of the 2016 season. Although he never won the Daytona 500, he did manage to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts (formerly the Xfinity) Series race on the track multiple times. Moreover, he has also raced at the 2.5-mile track in the International Race of Champions and the Rolex Sports Car Series. Safe to say, Tony Stewart has enough experience on the track. But what about car-specific experience?

Stewart did race the Trucks back in the day, but not enough. He had six race starts (he won two of those) and managed to pull off some impressive performances. But none of those races were at Daytona, so his return to the Truck Series does appear to be an interesting challenge.

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His return to NASCAR is part of Ram Truck’s driver program, and Stewart is attempting to make quite the impression, with some help from his $3 million partner, iRacing. 

However, his preparation could also extend beyond just the Daytona race, as an interesting revelation has made him reconsider his plans.

Is Stewart planning to get back in the truck again after Daytona?

Ram’s CEO, Tim Kuniskis, recently announced that the free agent program will also have a reward at the end of the season for the driver who ends up with the most points. Tony Stewart, being the extra competitive driver that he is, is watching out for the opportunity to win the trophy. Earlier, he planned to run the one race at Daytona and bid farewell to NASCAR once again; however, that could change now.

“Tim neglected to tell me ’til today that there’s a trophy,” Stewart said. “I would love to sit here and go, ‘Man, this is just one and done.’ I would say my answer is, I don’t have an answer. I would say, before we spoke today, and before he mentioned that there was a trophy and an award for this particular truck and who gets the most points in it, I would have said this was one and done. But let’s just say, I’ll leave it open-ended at this point.”

Now this is certainly interesting. Fans are already hyped about Tony Stewart returning to NASCAR, but that could peak if he stays for a few more races. Moreover, his preparations with iRacing seem to get him right on the line for the big race.