Fresh off his first NHRA Top Fuel win this past Sunday in Las Vegas, Tony Stewart has been flying high. But when he was asked if he’d consider racing in the Indianapolis 500 again — the last time he raced there was 2001 — Stewart’s answer was quite uncharacteristic.
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He basically said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’
The same guy who won three NASCAR Cup championships, two Indy Racing League (now IndyCar) championships, and is now a winner in the NHRA’s quickest class of cars, has no aspirations to return to Indianapolis for another shot at winning on the fabled Brickyard.
Is Tony Stewart uncharacteristically afraid? No, it’s more like he’s realistic.
“The last time I was in an Indy car was 2001,” Stewart said during an NHRA press conference Tuesday. “So, 20-plus years now, to go there and even think I’d be competitive, is in my opinion, very unrealistic.
“Do I feel like I can make the race and have a solid showing? I do feel I could do that, but I don’t feel like I have what it takes, not being in these cars for so long.
“(IndyCar drivers) are so good in these cars and have such a good feel and read on what these cars are and what the car needs, I don’t feel like I would have that input to give to the team to help us make the right decisions to put the package together to have a winning car.
“I already have enough participation awards from Indy. We finished fifth there (in 1997), which was our best finish. The only way I want to go back to try and race the Indy 500 is if I truly feel like I have a shot to win the Indy 500.”
“I think whatever team I would end up with would be capable, but I don’t think I’d be capable just because of seat time. So, I just don’t think it’s in my cards.”
Stewart said, “I can promise you that there’s a guy that during the month of May that I’ll be watching that I don’t get a chance to watch very often.”
Of course, Stewart was referring to Kyle Larson, who makes a second consecutive attempt at completing The Double — the Indianapolis 500 in the late morning and early afternoon, then flies to Charlotte for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 nightcap.
While Stewart’s cards are now coming from the NHRA deck, he’s hinted this could very well be his best and last year as a drag racer. Even if that eventually proves to be true, just like he’s done in every other racing series he’s been in during his career, when it comes to the NHRA, Stewart is in it to win it.
“I feel like what we did (in Las Vegas) is history-making in motorsports as a whole,” Stewart said, per Motorsport.com. “I don’t think there’s ever been a driver to win an IndyCar race, a NASCAR race, a (USAC) Triple Crown, and win an NHRA Top Fuel race.
“To do this and do it with our own team and our family. … I think probably the one thing that may not sink in as much right now, but it’s already starting to, is when (his wife Leah Pruett) brought (5-month-old son Dominic) up on the stage there when we were doing the interviews after that, that’s an emotion that you can’t even think about or dream of.
“When I saw (Leah) coming up those steps with (Dominic), my heart stopped. As much as I love winning this race for our team and for myself and for our family, seeing her bring (Dominic) up there, that was a feeling I’ve never had in my life before.
Stewart compared his win at Las Vegas to his surprise win in the 2009 NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“It brought me back to a moment back in 2009 when we started Stewart-Haas Racing, and I remember winning the All-Star Race at Charlotte and getting to victory lane,” Stewart told Motorsport.com. “I was in that mode.
“People were telling me I was crazy to leave Joe Gibbs Racing to go to a team that had a car 34th and 36th in the points, and I had ruined my career by doing it. Here we were from February to May … we won the highest-paying event of the year with the All-Star Race.
“I remember looking on, and half of those guys were in tears. I looked at the guys and I’m like, ‘What is wrong? What happened?’ They said that group of guys had never won a NASCAR Cup Series race. That moment, I realized it was not about me; it was not about me proving to all the naysayers that I was going to fail with Stewart-Haas.
“It was way deeper than that. It was about the guys and the people that we had put together and the people we had kept from Haas Racing, and what it meant to all of us. That’s exactly what Sunday turned into as well (after his NHRA win in Las Vegas.”
Now that Stewart has won his first NHRA Top Fuel race, the future looks bright for several more wins, potentially en route to the Top Fuel championship. And if he were to win the NHRA crown, Stewart would be the first driver to win a NASCAR Cup championship (did it three times), IndyCar (twice), a sprint car Triple Crown (once), and the NHRA championship.
Even though he turns 54 next month, Stewart’s pursuit of wins and championships won’t just end with NHRA Top Fuel. Who knows, maybe he’ll try golf as his next challenge!
