Tony Stewart has made the rumors come true. Kaulig Racing’s free-agent seat is set to feature Tony Stewart as the first driver of their ‘All Star’ lineup for the 2026 season. On paper, everything sounds perfect. Tony Stewart is returning to race in NASCAR. This aligns perfectly with Kaulig’s plans to appeal to the fans and gain their support. Tony Stewart is a popular driver who has a massive fan following. But a question remains in everyone’s mind.

Why did Tony Stewart agree to race in NASCAR even though he faced terrible disrespect from Steve Phelps? People did not expect Stewart to come to NASCAR so easily, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has the perfect answer to that question. Seems like Kaulig Racing paid a heavy price for Tony Stewart’s return, quite literally.

Dale Jr. reveals Tony Stewart’s real motivation behind NASCAR return

During the latest episode of his podcast, Dale Jr. Download, Dale Jr. was discussing the importance of NASCAR’s new championship system. Midway through the episode, he got the breaking news about Tony Stewart returning to NASCAR with Kaulig Racing for the Daytona race in the Truck Series.

Dale Jr. was visibly flabbergasted by the news, reacting without any filter.

“The dude don’t give a s*** because I wouldn’t have picked Daytona. I would have picked somewhere else. They must be writing him a nice check.”

It is an important factor to consider. Tony Stewart’s racing series, SRX, put him directly against NASCAR in a competition. And Phelps’ words about Stewart made it clear that NASCAR saw him and his series as a threat. For Tony Stewart, returning to NASCAR would mean swallowing his ego and making amends with them.

It was not that important for him. But it was terribly important for NASCAR itself. The sport has seen a major fallout among fans owing to the recent situations it has encountered. If Stewart had rejected NASCAR or spoken against them, it would have created a big issue, which would have ultimately caused the fans to start moving away from the sport. Kaulig Racing and Ram Trucks must have chipped in a huge sum to convince Stewart and bring him back.

According to Dale Earnhardt Jr., it is also a positive step forward for Dodge, which is trying to make a comeback in the sport.

“This is what Dodge wants to do. They want to create noise. They want to create a splash. They want to. This doesn’t work for Dodge by just building trucks, cars, going out, and winning races. They need the story. They need to be the big deal on social media. They need everybody talking about this.

“This is a start. That is the way that they’ll get their board and everybody at Dodge to help support financially what’s going to be required for them to get all the way back through the Cup Series. And so going out and winning races is good, but they need engagement. And so this is what this is all about.”

Surely, this is a major victory for Ram Trucks as a manufacturer. They promised fans that they would give them what they wanted. They created hope among the fans and delivered on it accordingly. Hence, they now have a rather positive start to the season. All that’s left is converting those positives into good results and performances.

With these factors, Kaulig Racing and Ram Trucks would end up winning over the fans sooner than expected. Talking about winning over fans, Dale Jr. has underlined a major effect of the new format in the upcoming season…

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Dale Jr. discusses major strategy change for the 2026 Cup Series

When asked about the possible consequences of the new format, Dale Jr. was still skeptical. However, he had an important point that he felt like the fans should know.

“I feel like since they’ve added so much to winning, now winning, putting yourself in position to actually win the race. So the stage points will still be important. We know that guys will strategize sometimes to actually take away their chances of winning the race, hurt their chances of winning the race, to gain more stage points. We’ve seen guys do that.”

Dale Jr. was referring to the new points system. As per the new points system, the drivers will now earn 15 more points for a race victory. It has risen from 40 to 55. NASCAR aims to instill more incentive among the teams and drivers to actually win the race.

With the Chase system not counting bonus points and wildcard entries anymore, winning is going to be the top priority among the contenders. This, according to Dale Jr., will change the way teams operate by a huge margin.