'Wrong end of the stick.' Tony Stewart's return to NASCAR racing ends early.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart’s return to NASCAR racing concluded with an early exit, and it sounds like the all-time great driver doesn’t have it in his plans to redeem his unlucky run.

Stewart, after getting knocked out of the season-opening NASCAR Truck Series race on Friday night, reiterated to reporters what he said Thursday afternoon: that he isn’t expecting to be back in a NASCAR fire suit anytime soon.

“I mean, I signed up for a one-off,” Stewart said, when asked if he’d be back in a NASCAR vehicle. “So that’s where we’re at so far.”

Was he having fun, at least?

Stewart smiled.

“The closer the truck was getting balance-wise, yes, I was having more fun,” he said.

Stewart gave this interview just outside the care center in the Daytona International Speedway infield, where all drivers who get knocked out of the race early must go prior to being released from the racetrack. The NASCAR Hall of Famer drove the No. 25 truck for Kaulig Racing; it marked the first time Ram competed in a NASCAR race since 2012.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go for the three-time Cup Series champion and household name of NASCAR’s early-aughts. Not at all. And for the first 36 laps, even, an early wreck didn’t appear to be his fate.

But it all changed late in Stage 2.

Stewart explained that his truck was tight at first, and that such conditions were not ideal considering how aggressive the field was running — going three-wide seven laps into the 100-lap race.

“It was the first race for Kaulig with the trucks,” Stewart said. “I haven’t ran this package, so I don’t know really what it’s supposed to feel like. But I never felt like, early in the race, that the right-rear was really underneath it. It never really stepped out, but it just got really free to where you felt the steering wheel get light. That’s when the car’s getting free.

“The first time we had a shot to make a pit stop, it didn’t seem like it moved the needle at all. The next time we came down, (crew chief) Alex (Yontz) went a different route. It definitely responded to it, it definitely liked it. We probably needed that much of an adjustment again, if not a little more. But at least that time, with that, I could tug on the wheel a little more and feel like I had more control of my truck. I feel like I could get into the mix without feeling too worried about it.”

Stewart said he felt comfortable being three-wide at the top after the aforementioned adjustments.

Then came the wreck.

“The hard thing is, I don’t really know what got us,” Stewart said. “We just ended up on the wrong end of that stick.”

Replay showed that Jake Garcia, on Turn 4, got loose after hitting his left-front into the side of another car. Garcia’s spin-out crashed into Stewart and crushed him into the wall.

Said Garcia on the wreck: “It’s unpredictable off of 4. You either get tight or loose. It depends on what the air is doing around you. ... I hadn’t gotten loose off that corner all day, and then it just absolutely snapped around. And when I chased it up the racetrack, obviously, the 25 was there. Apologies to those guys.”

Stewart could get the car down pit lane thereafter, but he didn’t reenter the field. Stewart said over the radio that the hit “hurt,” adding: “This is one of those deals, unless you’re points racing, it’s pointless.” He pulled into the garage shortly thereafter.

Another important exchange Stewart had over his radio after the race?

Yontz: “I hope you want to come back and do it again.”

Stewart: “Good shot of that.”

Stewart, affectionately called Smoke, has at times said conflicting things in regards to his NASCAR driving career. After retiring in 2016, he said he’d “never” run in a NASCAR event again. He acknowledged the irony on Thursday: “I’m learning not to trust me, too,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

But one thing you could trust him on: Stewart had fun Friday.

“It was fun to come back here,” Stewart said. “It’s fun to watch the style these kids run. You could tell that their trucks felt good out of the gate. And they were aggressive. Like, ‘Man, I wish I had the confidence to do that.’ It was getting more fun when the balance was getting where it needed to be.”

Other NASCAR notes from Friday

— Stewart wasn’t the only high-profile driver to leave Daytona early Friday. Cleetus McFarland, a motorsports YouTube sensation, ran this race and was knocked out by Lap 7 after spinning out by himself. He told reporters after the race that such a sequence of events was “100 percent on me.” Other star drivers in the field and their respective finishes: X Games legend Travis Pastrana (P15), former actor Frankie Muniz (P16), Cup driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (P6), Cup driver John Hunter Nemechek (P5), Cup driver Michael McDowell (P24) and Cup driver Carson Hocevar (P35).

— Chandler Smith took home the checkered flag in a wild, overtime finish. The race leaders after the last turn of the last lap — Gio Ruggiero and Christian Eckes, specifically — all tried to go to the high side in last few feet of racetrack, and Smith took advantage and eked out the victory on the inside.