The inaugural racing weekend of the 2026 NASCAR season has officially gotten underway, and the Truck Series will be the first of three national series races to go green. Once the curtains go up, a large chunk of the spotlight will be on the legendary Tony Stewart, who returns to NASCAR racing after a decade away.
But a bigger highlight will be Stewart coming face-to-face with NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell.
Tony Stewart Isn’t Shying Away From Taking a Jibe at the NASCAR President
When the NASCAR charter lawsuit was going on, 23XI Racing and FRM’s counsel presented documents against the sport’s governing authorities’ monopolistic practices. Amid a plethora of evidence, there was also a series of personal texts that went particularly viral.
In those texts, the current NASCAR President O’Donnell had presented a harsh front against Stewart’s SRX Series. The exchanges between O’Donnell and Ex-Commissioner Steve Phelps discussed ‘putting a knife in the SRX series,’ owing to its similarity to NASCAR.
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Months after the revelation, Stewart is returning to race in the sport he once adored, but this time, things will be highly different. And when asked about what it would be like to face O’Donnell, Stewart didn’t feel the need to mince his words when taking a subtle jibe.
Quoted on X by veteran Journalist Bob Pockrass, Stewart was asked whether he had met with O’Donnell at Daytona. At his sarcastic best, the 54-year-old replied, “I have not had that pleasure yet.”
He added, “I’m going to do my deal. If I run into Steve O’Donnell, then he’ll have to deal with that part. I’m gonna do me and I don’t really care what he does this week.”
Notably, the SRX series disbanded shortly after a three-year run, with the curtains drawing in 2024. At the time, financial constraints and a lack of viewership were cited as the reasons for the closure of the series, but the timing of Phelps and O’Donnell’s texts threw the same into doubt.
During the charter lawsuit, the NASCAR President ultimately had to face the heat for his texts as he took the stand for his testimony. At the time, O’Donnell said that he had become increasingly concerned about the SRX series in Years 2 and 3, given that it started to look a lot like NASCAR.
He kept asserting that the ‘look and feel’ of the series became a lot like NASCAR, especially with active Cup drivers taking part in the racing action. And when the topic of denying venues the right to host SRX races came up, he said that the denial came during a negotiation period.
Per O’Donnell, the denial had little to do with personal feelings, and it was more a matter of gaining more revenue for teams and tracks.
But with all that in the history books, all eyes now turn to the Fresh from Florida 250, which is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET on Feb. 13, with Stewart returning as a NASCAR driver once again.