Tony Stewart is returning to his roots this season, and he's determined to bring NASCAR fans with him.

He's also bringing a few racing friends along for ride. Sprint car legends Sammy Swindell and Danny Lasoski will join Stewart, who retired from the NASCAR Cup Series in 2016, and current NASCAR Trucks Series driver Christopher Bell as Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) hosts a two-night show on its dirt track on Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8.

Tony Stewart's Sprint Car Nationals will give fans in town for Sunday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race a chance to see the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) national tour in action.

On the strength of two wins in the first two ASCS races, Sam Hafertepe Jr. leads the series. Hafertepe has two previous victories on this track, in 2014 and 2016, and he is looking to continue his perfect run in Texas. His two wins this year came in a two-night show on March 17-18 at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas.

Seth Bergman also has a pair of wins at TMS, and by the numbers, he gets the tiebreaker. He snatched the checkered flags back-to-back in 2014 and 2015. While he is tied in wins with Hafertepe, he has led more laps than his rival at the track.

"Of course we want to roll in and win again but our goal is still this championship," Bergman said. "It's one thing that's eluded me, so winning at Texas early in the season is important, especially coming off our run at the Devil's Bowl, to put ourselves in contention to be players in this thing."

Bergman finished fifth and fourth at Devil's Bowl and sits fourth in the standings. 

He is coming off a rough show last weekend in New Mexico. Bergman flipped his sprinter in an ASCS Southwest Region race at Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces.

"As bad as last weekend was for us getting upside down the first night, then not finishing the second night, even with that I feel like it wasn't such a bad thing, because it's put some things in place to realize how easy it is to have to those good weekends and how quickly it can all go wrong," Bergman said. "It's really opened my eyes to get going again. Right now, we're going over the cars and making sure that we roll in with our best foot forward."

Swindell's entry in the Texas Sprint Car Nationals will mark his return to TMS for the first time in more than a dozen years. He was last there in a World of Outlaws sprint car in 2004. He narrowly missed the top 10 with an 11th, but he was one of the hardest chargers. Swindell started 23rd in that race. 

"It's been a while, but I thought it was a nice race track," Swindell said. "It's laid out pretty nice and has a good size to it where you carry some speed there."



Josh Baughman intends to make both nights' A-Main features this weekend, which is something he failed to do in a packed field at Devil's Bowl. The task will not be easier at TMS.

"It's probably going to be one of the hardest ASCS races we'll be at all year with the quality of cars," Baughman said. "We're pretty good at TMS. We'll go test Thursday night and see if we have everything right."

There is a reason to hopeful. Baughman has finished in the top 10 in each of three previous visits to the track.