Truck Series headed back to the dirt

The format of the race is undecided, and it could include heat races.

"We are looking at how races are competed at dirt tracks historically with heat races or last chance races," O'Donnell said. "As Tony said, we think we're going to have huge interest, not only from the series, but young up and coming dirt racers, veteran dirt racers. We think it will be a pretty compelling format. It will be a points race on the schedule, but probably some different variables included in the event."

Stewart and Austin Dillon participated in an October compatibility test to determine if the trucks were a fit at Eldora, and Stewart said Wednesday that rain had made the conditions less than favorable. But aside from removing the splitter from the trucks, Stewart said there were no issues.

At the time, Stewart believed it was just a test. But because it went so well, he quickly determined he had a real shot at landing a race at his speedway.

"I didn't actually honestly believe that it was going to gain the momentum that it had," he said. "Obviously, this year when the discussions came up again, the interest was there, I was definitely pleased and caught off guard by it for sure. But definitely at that point, realizing that everyone at NASCAR was genuinely interested in doing it, it was something we put the full court press on."