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Rico Abreu joins Tony Stewart Racing! The details, questions answered, how it came together, more | Daily 9-17-2025
Unlike some people thought, Tony Stewart Racing is not closing down after 2025. Instead, they will team up with Rico Abreu. We'll get into all of the details today on the deal, what it means, how it went down, and answer the most burning questions. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, September 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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It's been an interesting afternoon in sprint car racing with Tony Stewart and Rico Abreu making the announcement that Rico will drive for TSR in 2026. I'll hit on all the major bullet points here and then we'll dive in and talk a lot about some of the other questions I'm sure you have, what all of this means, and we'll talk through the mechanics of how this announcement went down.
So, Rico will drive the Tony Stewart Racing number 24 in 2026, they will run High Limit full time, and Rico is bringing his entire crew to TSR. So not the TSR 15, or 14, which sounds like it was discussed, but the 24. Rico keeps his number. That means crew chief Ricky Warner, and crew guys Zach Middlebrooks and Brady Forbrook. The team will operate out of the TSR shop, and current TSR crew chief Todd Devnich will come off the road and serve as shop foreman. There is no mention of the other current TSR crew members in any of the press or stories I saw. During an interview on today's Dale Jr. Download, Tony Stewart said quote "Rico gets to run the whole program" unquote. That is not an insignificant thing, and I think instead of looking at this like TSR has hired Rico, this very much feels like a merger of the two teams. Rico gets to maintain control of his sprint car program and future, Tony Stewart Racing continues to exist, and they can merge sponsors and resources to maximize their capability. It does mean a return to TSR for Ricky Warner, which I'm sure is a bit weird, but he's been such a big part of Rico's rise the last few years. The stats before and after Ricky Warner are pretty staggering.
The franchise situation with High Limit is a big question, but on the Dale Jr. episode, it was confirmed that TSR will lease the franchise from Rico Abreu Racing with the approval of High Limit. So Rico maintains ownership of that franchise. That obviously means that the World of Outlaws lose a full time team, and overall, the national scene loses a car and team. This is contraction no matter how you try and spin it. What was two is now one. High Limit will be touting that they've gained Tony Stewart Racing, as they should, it's a big get on vibes and the attention it will bring. It is a win for their side. And the World of Outlaws haters will latch onto this to talk about how it's another bad blow for that series. And to some level, they would be correct. It sucks for the Outlaws to lose TSR as a brand, but I think I'd feel differently here and like it was a bigger loss for WRG if they were switching away with Schatz still in the seat and them at the top of their game. But this team hasn't been a serious title threat in a few years. That team going away will open up an opportunity for another team to join and for others to rise. There are rumblings of series flips in both directions, but I don't think we'll know for sure on a lot of that until WRG finalizes it's point fund and platinum package for 2026 and begins to share that with teams.
Another point here is the future of the WRG relationship with Eldora Speedway, which I've already seen asked about. It's my understanding here that nothing is changing on that front, and that the Kings Royal will remain World of Outlaws sanctioned. High Limit has their races at Eldora already, and it's probably a good business move for Tony and Eldora to work with both sides on events. Remember as well that the late model crown jewels at Eldora are DIRTcar sanctioned and heavily supported by WRG. I wouldn't expect any of that to change.
I know some will be wondering why Rico is deciding to do this now, given that he's built himself a strong team and is on the cusp of a real shot at winning this High Limit championship. He could certainly continue on as-is and be just fine, competing for wins and championships. But partnering with Tony will ease the burden, especially when it comes to resources. It won't just be on Rico and his management to find sponsors and keep the team going up and down the road. TSR has existing marketing partners and infrastructure, and that will lighten the load for RAR. TSR gets a younger driver at the top of his game, and Rico can breathe a little easier knowing it's not all on him. That piece of mind is likely worth a lot to him. Dale Jr. did ask Rico what else he'll race next season, and the new TSR driver said just 410 sprint cars. We haven't seen Rico at the Chili Bowl for example, since 2023, and it doesn't sound like that will change next year. Rico has also been spending quite a bit of his offseason running in Australia.
I did want to point out a few interesting logistical things. I said before that Rico will move over to the TSR shop, which they said is only about two miles from his current shop space. I saw somewhere that Rico has been renting Joey Saldana's shop. As for equipment, I'm sure there will be a lot of blending there, but I wouldn't expect Rico to suddenly start driving J&J's with either the Shaver or Kistler power and running FOX shocks. Rico is a Schnee Lawson driver, and they use Speedway Engines and FK Shocks. Since Rico is quote unquote running the program, I'd bet he'll stay with what he's comfortable with. Nowhere in any of the announcements was there any mention of Ford, and even though Ford Performance remains listed as a partner on the TSR website, I would be surprised if that program ever surfaced again at TSR. What's interesting to note too about the Ford stuff, Ford Performance recently rebranded back to Ford Racing, and TSR didn't update the logo.
Interesting too to hear Tony address the end of Donny's tenure with TSR. He told Dale Jr. that they probably should have moved on from him two years ago, and quote "We had always let Donny Schatz run our program in the past, and that kind of got us down a road we didn't really want to be on" unquote. Donny has certainly had some interesting quotes himself in the media about the deal going south, and Tony using his opportunity here to do the same. I said it before, and I'll say it again here, after 18 seasons together and all the success, you would have hoped for a better ending there.
I do want to talk about how all of this went down and the timeline here over the last few weeks, and even today. I was told in recent weeks that this was happening, and I've heard through the gravevine that this may have all come together around the Knoxville Nationals, or right after. Obviously we know that Donny was shown the door that week after the Nationals. An email went out yesterday that this announcement was on for today, and to be transparent, that was an email that I was not copied on or apart of because I'm just a lowly YouTube/podcast host, but I did hear about it from multiple sources. As much as people talk in this sport, nothing is ever as big a secret as they want it to be. It was funny to hear Dale Jr and Tony talk about this quote unquote secret to kick off the interview today. The plan was for things to get announced on the Dale Jr Download, and for all other media to be embargoed until 3:15 when TSR would put out their release. That's why you saw a bunch of media outlets dropping completed stories already with quotes from people right at that time. Those stories were written in advance. TSR did post a teaser earlier today publicly about the 3:15 announcement, but Rico blew it all open at noon with a post that read "Today we compete at the Burg. Should be a fun night. Racing in Ohio this weekend. 2 nights at Eldora. 4 crown weekend is always special!" unquote. If you take the first character from each line, it's TSR24. The Dale Jr. Download hit right around 2:45 PM, but the whole thing was basically spoiled in the DJD podcast episode description, so all of it was out there before anyone could have listened to the entire episode, or seen those 3:15 stories.
So moving ahead, this will clean up a few silly season things. Obviously TSR is off the market now, so now Sheldon Haudenschild, or Gio Scelzi, or Spencer Bayston, or insert driver here in this seat. As I talked about before, all signs are pointing towards Sheldon in the KCP 18 and Gio in a second Clauson Marshall Spire car. At this moment, my understanding is that second CMR deal for Gio is not the Stenhouse car, and that they are on the hunt for a driver. Also, this obviously means no more Kerry Madsen beyond the 2025 season. As I've said all along, he was just going to be a stopgap driver until TSR got it's plans ironed out. Rumblings point towards him back with Vermeer for 2026, and potentially a full time World of Outlaws run. We've got about six weeks until World Finals, and I think between now and then, most of these open situations will get buttoned up.
In the meantime, there is racing tonight. This High Limit championship battle heads to Lawrenceburg. Rico leads the RSR 87 by 19 points, and the KKR 49 by 25. Rico also in front of Brad Sweet by 25 for the drivers championship. We'll see who comes out of tonight with the lead. If you're going to be there, Rico is already selling TSR/Rico shirts in his merch trailer. Kyle Larson the defending Lawrenceburg winner, but he won't be in attendance tonight. If you can't get there, it will be live on Flo.
We'll call it good right there for today.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!