Tony Stewart supposedly retired from racing after his last NASCAR event in 2016. But this is Tony Stewart. He’s not happy if he isn’t going fast. And last Sunday, the now 53-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer added yet another “first win” to his lengthy racing resume, capturing Top Fuel honors in the 25th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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Stewart becomes the first driver in motorsports history to win races in NASCAR, IndyCar (the former Indy Racing League), and now NHRA racing.
After qualifying fifth and sailing through the first two rounds of eliminations, Stewart’s winning run of 3.870 seconds at 317.42 mph in his 11,000 horsepower Dodge/SRT dragster narrowly beat runner-up and defending NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown (3.912 seconds at 302.35 mph) at the finish line.
It was clear that it would be a matter of when, not if, Stewart would earn his first Top Fuel victory. It almost came in the last race, the iconic Winternationals, two weeks ago in Pomona, Calif. (a suburb of Los Angeles).
“It’s unreal,” said Stewart, who won Rookie of the Year honors in his first season as a professional drag racer last season. “I haven’t been around the NHRA that long, and I realize it takes a long time to win a race in this series.
“But everything in my career, I never had to wait over a year to win a race. I always figured it out in the first year, and multiple ones normally, so I’m just very appreciative of this win.”
Making Sunday’s victory all the more special was when Stewart’s wife, Leah Pruett, and their five-month-old son Dominic, went to the winner’s circle to celebrate his high-speed achievement.
“When Leah brought Dom up on the stage there, that’s an emotion that you can’t even think about or dream of,” Stewart said. “When I saw her coming up those steps with him, my heart stopped.
“That was a feeling I’ve never had in my life before, and I have a feeling when we lay down and put my head on a pillow tonight, that’s going to be the one thing that I want to reflect on the most tonight.”
The win also propelled Stewart into second place in the NHRA Top Fuel rankings.
Sunday wasn’t just a win, it was also vindication for Stewart
In addition to having his wife and son in attendance, another element that made Sunday’s victory all the sweeter was that it was vindication after some of last year’s struggles.
Because he was Tony Stewart, some fans expected him to be a winner right off the bat, but driving a dragster was unlike anything he had ever done before, at speeds over 100 mph faster than anything he had ever driven before in NASCAR or IndyCar.
So he needed a bit of time to successfully graduate from his learning curve. Admittedly, Stewart did win a race in the Sportsman Top Alcohol class in 2023 (and finished second in the final standings), but that category is considered more of a semi-pro league rather than the most popular all-pro Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock ranks at the top of the NHRA heap.
“Last year was so stressful after Leah (Pruett, wife) almost won a world championship (in 2023), and I get in the car last year, and the people in the stands think I’m the reason the car sucks,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t that we had bad people tuning on it, it was just it was a different combination.
“There were different variables that change. My body weight is different, tubing changes from rules changes, but it was still really frustrating, we could not get on a path to where we could make gains last year.”
Suffice it to say that after Sunday’s win, Stewart is definitely now on the right path.
