Tony Stewart has to be pregnant. How else can you explain the cherub-like glow on his face, the smile that rarely turns into a frown, and the lighter-than-air pep in his step? While that may be a medical impossibility, Stewart is happier than he has been in a long time, both personally and professionally.
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While his time in NASCAR led to three Cup championships and induction into the sport’s Hall of Fame, Stewart is not a fan of the way NASCAR is run today. And he has moved on and found joy, bliss rather, elsewhere.
Stewart, arguably the most versatile racer in the world, has competed in NASCAR, IndyCar, sprint cars, midgets, sports cars, and now NHRA — pretty much any sport that has four tires and a steering wheel in it. But NHRA, one of the most simplistic forms of motorsport there is, because all you have to do is mash the gas pedal and keep the car straight, has renewed Stewart’s love of racing.
Drag racing is a form of motorsport in which he can continue to excel at an age when most race car drivers have long retired. Stewart is 53 now. No, make that soon-to-be 54 — on Tuesday, in fact — which means he gave himself an early birthday present with Sunday’s win in the NHRA drag race at Route 66 Raceway.
“When you come to NHRA, it is like Fantasy Island on its own over here. Every Friday, I keep expecting Tatu to walk through in a white tuxedo and go and ref the races on Friday,” Stewart said after the victory.
“[Drag racing] is drastically different, but that is also what I’ve embraced about this, too. It is a unique and different challenge that I didn’t think at this part of my life that I would have an opportunity or had desire to try,” he added.
The doors to drag racing opened up for Stewart through his wife, Leah Pruett, a former NHRA Top Fuel dragster.
“But when I met Leah, that opened this opportunity up, and because of her passion and because of Matt’s [teammate and Funny Car driver Matt Hagan] passion, Dodge’s passion, I wanted to learn more,” revealed Stewart.
“It’s like setting a hook — and I’m stupid. I’m genuinely 100% certifiably stupid because all you’ve got to do is get me there one time, and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to try this’,” he added.
Stewart has always had this innate drive to try out racing in its different forms. And once he tries something that involves speed, he invariably falls in love with it. Drag racing was no different.
“I’ve always tried everything, so you get me there, you get me in there, you get the hook set, and the next thing you know, I’m going to Vegas, I’m driving Leah’s car to a test session. [Leah’s late team owner] Don Schumacher says, ‘Oh, you’ll be fine’. Leah says, ‘Oh, you’ll be fine’,” recalled Stewart.
“Dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I was not ready to drive a 300-mile-an-hour dragster because my brain was not conditioned and ready to drive a 300-mile-an-hour dragster,” he added.
But after falling in love with drag racing and the woman who became his wife, the question is which one Stewart — committed bachelor up to that point and a guy who never turned down a four-wheeled thrill — fell in love with first.
While drag racing may have been an afterthought to Stewart during the first 50 years of his life, now it is his life. And he couldn’t be happier.
He’s got everything he wants and needs: a beautiful wife, a bouncing six-month-old baby boy, he’s won two of the last three NHRA Top Fuel races, and he’s leading the Top Fuel points standings for the first time in his life.
And Stewart is only in his second year in the Top Fuel class, the so-called ‘Kings of the Sport’. And to think of it, Stewart may never have given drag racing a second thought before he met Pruett.
A drag racing legend set Stewart up on a life-changing first date
Since being set up with Pruett on a first date by none other than matchmaker and one of drag racing’s icons — Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme — Stewart is a changed man. He’s no longer the moody, brooding Cup driver turned Cup co-team owner.
While he still criticizes NASCAR, he’s been able to walk away from that world and has found love, family, happiness, and success. What more could a man want?
If only he’d started drag racing sooner, who knows where Stewart would be in today’s straight-line racing world? Would he have become the next “Big Daddy” Don Garlits? Could he perhaps someday overtake John Force as the sport’s most popular driver?
Or maybe change his own nickname of ‘Smoke’ to ‘Snake’ as an homage to the legend who put him and Leah together?
Although Stewart has hinted he may step out of his dragster if Leah wants to reclaim her seat, I don’t see that happening. Stewart is hooked, as he says.
Speed is a tough vice to leave behind, and there’s no way Stewart likely could ever go back to watching again from the sidelines instead of being behind the wheel. Given that he’s still healthy and obviously hasn’t lost much of his racing prowess, Stewart could stay relevant and successful for at least another decade or more.
In drag racing years, 54 is still young. Heck, Stewart was a 52-year-old rookie when he started in the Top Fuel class. Don’t forget, Force was 75 and still racing before his terrible, career-ending crash last June 23rd near Richmond, VA.
And instead of three-hour-plus and 200-or-more-lap races that he used to endure in NASCAR, Stewart’s average work day in an NHRA national event typically lasts maybe 16 seconds or less. And that’s only if he goes all the way to the final round on race day.
Stewart has reinvented himself in a way that not only has surprised his fans but, even more so, surprised himself. Like the McDonald’s commercials say — and Tony is somewhat of an expert about McDonald’s — when it comes to drag racing, Stewart’s lovin’ it indeed. Even if he’s not pregnant!
