“That Stings a Little”: Tony Stewart on Being Upstaged by Kyle Larson in 2011

Tony Stewart has certainly tasted a lot of success in a lot of racecars on a lot of racetracks throughout his illustrious career. But there have to be some moments that stand over the rest, achievements that eclipse the successes. This was something that Stewart recently opened up on.

During a conversation with his NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe, Stewart revealed the moment in his career that he cherishes a lot. “I think Eldora Speedway, the four crown nationals, winning the midget race, winning the sprint car race, and then running second to Jack Hewitt in Silver Crown car, that’s one that not everybody’s gonna understand that,” Stewart said.

“But for the open wheel industry and for us dirt track guys, that was a race and a moment at a track that is hard to be good at. To pull off two wins and a second on the same night was pretty impressive.”

This prompted Briscoe to ask whether it still stings, knowing that he was so close, to which Stewart replied, “Especially after Kyle Larson in his first trip to the racetrack won the midget, sprint car, and the silver crown and not by a little, he won all of them by a lot.”

“So that stings a little bit that I couldn’t at least match his record.”

Having said that, Stewart added that it’s fun to have such iconic moments for him even though everybody else may not fully understand it. “It wasn’t always the surface value that made it special,” he said.

Tony Stewart deems this as his greatest NASCAR achievement

While Stewart ended up winning 3 Cup titles in his NASCAR career with 49 wins, his 2011 title over Carl Edwards. He said, “I think probably the one that is the easiest answer and the one that’s a natural number one is probably the Homestead race from 2011. The battle with Carl Edwards.”

“That was probably the iconic moment in my career.”

It’s also worth mentioning at this point how 2011 was the year Tony Stewart got his 3rd Cup title, the best moment of his career, and it was also in the same year Kyle Larson won his historic four-crown. In fact, Larson’s career exploded after that night.

In many ways, it was in 2011 that Larson emerged as the perfect candidate to fill in the big shoes of Tony Stewart in NASCAR and in the American car racing scene as a whole.