DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Among the endless storylines going into Friday night’s (Feb. 13) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race was the fact that RAM made its return to NASCAR with a Kaulig Racing team comprised of Tony Stewart, Justin Haley, Daniel Dye and a pair of rookies in Brenden Queen and Mini Tyrrell.
Queen gained popularity for his work both on and off the track last season in the ARCA Menards Series, capturing that championship, while Tyrrell entered the fray fresh off winning the RAM: Race for the Seat reality show competition. While popular, both drivers came into the night with the odds stacked against them from an experience standpoint.
But they didn’t care. Both crossed the finish line in their first ever races for Dodge, with Queen managing to finish inside the top 10 in seventh place.
“I learned a ton,” Queen said. “Derek Kneeland [spotter], he taught me all night. Every time we’d make a run, we knew why we did it.
“We learned and applied [that knowledge] for later in the race, and that last restart is why we learned all night, because that was when it paid off. Obviously, you’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to get to the end, you’ve got to have luck, but you also can learn in the process of it.”
Learning was the name of the game for both rookies, in fact. Tyrrell sat back in the draft for the majority of the night doing just that and used it to finish with a clean truck — something most drivers couldn’t say.
“I learned a lot, man,” Tyrrell said. “I learned about air, learned about how these things drive here. It’s just a totally different world.
“During the offseason, learning about the radial tires, again, getting the feel of that a bit and getting to understand how these things drive. … It felt good coming down, getting out and learning something every lap.”
Tyrrell ended the night in 19th, two spots behind teammate Dye.
While Stewart’s return was the headliner of the night for Kaulig, this year is just as important for an organization that has become a staple in the NASCAR world. Part of that staying power lies in its younger drivers, and the Kaulig brass were pleased with the performance of their rookies.
They should be.
Good results didn’t come without their share of challenges, though. For starters, Stewart’s night did not go as planned. The Hall of Famer’s first NASCAR race since 2016 and first Truck race since 2005 ended just 39 laps into the 100-lap event with an incident not of his making. He was riding in the pack, biding time, when Jake Garcia got loose and corrected right into him, damaging the No. 25 beyond repair.
“The hard thing is, I’m not really sure what happened that got us there, but we just ended up on the wrong side of that stick,” Stewart said.
Stewart was uncomfortable with the feel of the truck early on but felt like it had gotten a lot better as the night had gone on, noting he needed “one more good adjustment” to get it to his liking. But that adjustment never came as he left with a DNF.
Haley, who has won superspeedway races at both the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts series levels, looked the most competitive on the night. He tied Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell with the most laps led in the race, spending a total of 20 circuits out front. However, the veteran driver was shaken out of the draft late and dropped to a 22nd-place result in his return to a series where he is a three-time winner.
As for Queen, midway through the final stage, he pulled out of line and attempted to lead his own charge. It was at that moment that reality set in and Queen realized he still has a lot of room to grow in the Truck Series.
Nobody moved with Queen. He lost the draft and fell back to 20th before climbing his way back through the field.
“It was frustrating, because I feel like I’ve got to earn my respect,” Queen said. “I really wish they would have went with me, because I feel like I’m capable of leading a line or doing the right thing. I don’t want them to feel scared to be around me, because I want to be one of the guys.
“In the ARCA Series, I feel like people would go with me. But it’ll come in time, and hopefully, tonight was a proving point that [drivers] can trust me and work with me.”
In truth, being behind the leaders by an extra truck or two probably kept Queen’s nose clear. If given the choice, he surely would prefer being up front but the rookie made the most of his Friday night.
Now, armed with one top-10 finish already in Dodge’s 2026 debut, he and the rest of the Kaulig team will head to EchoPark Speedway next week with a sense of optimism.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for multiple automotive news outlets, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host, and a PhD. student at a premier college of media and mass communication. Tanner began working with Frontstretch in 2022, covering the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.