Of all the aspects that Rico Abreu brings to the table, one particular specialty of his has Tony Stewart feeling reborn as a Sprint Car owner as he embarks on a blockbuster partnership with the St. Helena, Calif., superstar.

“I mean, we’ve got somebody that is willing to take the time and energy to work at making the whole package work versus just, you know, showing up and driving the race car and going home at the end of the day,” Stewart told Dale Jr. Download host Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Wednesday’s announcement that Abreu’s joining his TSR team in 2026. “So I think it just brings such a new energy, having him come into that building, he single-handedly will change the whole atmosphere in that entire building.”

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Atmosphere-shifter. That’s not hyperbole on Stewart’s behalf. He truly believes Abreu will inject new life into his Sprint Car program that’s, needless to say amid Donny Schatz’s performance decline that escalated into his midseason release, struggled to find its way the last handful of years.

On paper, Abreu is virtually the perfect hire for Stewart, who lands the second-winningest driver in Sprint Car racing since 2022 (Abreu’s 38 wins are behind only David Gravel’s 44) and welcomes Ricky Warner back into the fold, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame crew chief who served as Schatz’s head wrench from 2005-18.

But again, Stewart made one point too clear in Wednesday’s announcement, that Abreu’s infectious optimism is the remedy to his program’s pain points — a program that went from winning 10 World of Outlaws titles in a 14-year span to winless so far this year and having to end an 18-year relationship with Schatz.

“The great thing is, it’s like bringing the band back together so to speak, but bringing a positive energy with it like Rico mentioned and positive-energy attitudes,” Stewart said in conversation with Earnhardt. “But Rico’s got a great team established. And you know, you and I both know, we’ve worked with many crew guys over our years and when you find a group that works well together and gel well together — and honestly, in the Sprint Car deal, I feel like it’s even more critical than what you and I’ve been part of.

“There’s only three guys that work on this race car. Well, those three guys travel together in the same truck and trailer all year long. If one of those guys has a bad day, that’s 33 percent of your program versus, you know, we’re used to 300-person programs. You have a guy that has a bad day, it’s one-third of 1 percent. So, I mean, it really puts the importance on how these guys gel. He’s got a great group.”

Stewart’s alluding to Abreu’s race-day crew of Warner and general mechanics Brady Forbrook and Zack Middlebrooks, the core of his team that’s been with Abreu four years and counting. Cultivating a team dynamic worth bragging about, and for Stewart himself to laud, doesn’t get much sweeter for Abreu.

“I feel like that’s one thing that’s really made my team run at a successful pace, is just my availability throughout the week and just the passion I have for making sure the employees are in a great atmosphere,” Abreu said. “I think that’s 85 percent of Sprint Car racing, with the travel down the roads. I mean, it’s nonstop.”

Abreu himself doubles down on Stewart’s belief that “the atmosphere is gonna change” around TSR’s Brownsburg, Ind., headquarters.

“I feel confident enough I can bring that good energy and continue to maintain it with the race team,” Abreu told FloRacing on Tuesday night. “A lot of that comes from my hands-on portion of being there. Like I'm involved and I'm a part of every decision that gets made on my race car. I'm a part of every dollar spent on my race team. And I'm also a part of, you know, just personnel management day-to-day. Like, I'm in the thick of this with my guys and I feel like they see that and it creates such a different, you know, atmosphere when your team sees the amount of work that you're putting in and investing with them, right?

“Like, it's, we're like a family. Like, we literally travel 24/7.  And it gets difficult sometimes. Like, I'm racing with grown men, there’s alpha mentalities. I mean, at the end of the day, these guys, they work really hard, and I'm going to make sure their paychecks continue to show up."

Stewart further shared that “my goal was to, ultimately at the end of the day, I wanted Donny Schatz to retire as a Sprint Car driver driving a TSR car,” but “it just comes to the point, things cycle through and decisions are made along the way and the variables in the equation change, and it just got down a path that we couldn’t recover from” and that “you have to make that tough decision.

In hindsight and “in all honesty,” Stewart also candidly shared “I probably should’ve done that two years ago for the sake of our people,” but “I was very loyal to Donny as long as I could be and finally, you just get to a position where you realize you have to make a change.”

“I literally remember going to bed the night before I called Donny and I said, ‘I feel like I’m getting ready to sign divorce papers tomorrow.’ That’s how bad I felt,” Stewart said. “I want him to succeed and I want him to get back in form, but you just get to a point as a team and an organization where you’ve got down a rabbit hole for so long, you just realize you can’t fix this.”

With Abreu, however, Stewart goes from feeling rather hopeless as a Sprint Car owner to one who’s getting his hopes way up.

“That’s what’s so great about partnering with Rico now and bringing him on board,” Stewart said. “I told (TSR public relations manager) Misha (Geisert) driving over here, I said, ‘I haven’t been this excited about Sprint Car racing in a long time.’ It’s always my No. 1 passion. Literally of everything I’ve ever driven, dirt Sprint Car racing is my No. 1 passion.

“But it’s been so hard the last couple years to get excited just about going to the racetrack because it’s been so much friction and such a toxic atmosphere with Donny and the team, that, you have a lot of other things going on. You get married, you’re starting a family, you gravitate towards those things and put your energy over there. … For me, it’s a new start and a fresh beginning again.”

For more Sprint Car silly season news and updates, including additional stories surrounding Abreu's move to TSR, stay tuned to FloRacing's 2025 Sprint Car Silly Season Updates page.