Tony Stewart gives fiery response when asked about NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell

NASCAR’s season-opening weekend at Daytona is finally here, and with it comes the return of 4-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart. He is set to make his first appearance in the Craftsman Truck Series since 2005. But in the wake of the contentious antitrust lawsuit between NASCAR, 23XI, and Front Row Motorsports, he doesn’t sound particularly excited about the prospect of chopping it up with the sport’s leadership.

By now, serious NASCAR fans are intimately familiar with the text messages that surfaced throughout the course of the trial. The most infamous of these exchanges belong to former NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps and his “redneck” comments directed at Richard Childress. But those messages were far from the only ones to attract attention.

It came to light that NASCAR executives also voiced concerns surrounding Tony Stewart’s SRX Series. Steve O’Donnell confirmed these concerns himself during the trial. NASCAR leadership felt threatened by the talent and attention SRX was attracting on ESPN, with Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience series looking “more and more like NASCAR,” according to O’Donnell. In a series of texts between Steve Phelps and O’Donnell, the former commissioner went so far as to call SRX a “trash series.”

So, in light of NASCAR leadership’s stance toward Tony Stewart’s venture, and the fact that Steve O’Donnell is now the sport’s top dog, how is Smoke feeling about it all amid his return? NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass got to the heart of it.