“I will step out of that car and not blink. I’ll probably be crying at the same time.” Tony Stewart said these words in March, as his wife Leah Pruett hinted at returning to her Top Fuel seat. However, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion does not give up an endeavor without winning. So he turned his tears into a solid effort in the NHRA. It involved heartbreaks, progress, and finally, success.

Back in December 2023, 11-time Top Fuel winner Leah Pruett set aside her career to focus on motherhood. Her husband, Tony Stewart, undertook her duties, finishing in 9th place in the 2024 championship. His 2024 season was a teaser as the legend got accustomed to the rigor of drag racing. Stewart also traveled back and forth from Pomona to Phoenix during the semi-finals to witness the birth of his son, Dominic, late last year. However, with a full off-season to prepare and experience under his belt, he has already taken his level of achievement a notch higher in 2025.

Tony Stewart basks in victory sunshine

We all knew that the 53-year-old still had it in him. It has been 9 years since Tony Stewart wrapped up his NASCAR career. The legend stamped his last and 49th Cup Series victory at Sonoma Raceway in 2016, following which his Victory Lane celebrations fell silent. However, when Stewart embarked on fulfilling his wife Leah Pruett’s duties, he was a man on a mission. From securing his first NHRA Top Fuel elimination round-wins to securing a Championship berth, he achieved a lot in 2024. Two weeks ago, he narrowly missed his first win in the final round of the Lucas Oil Winternationals at In-N-Out Pomona Dragway. But Stewart predicted then that “it” was coming.

And it came with a bang. Tony Stewart picked up his first Top Fuel victory during the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He went 3.870 seconds at 317.42 mph in his dragster to hold off Brown at the finish line. After achieving NHRA Rookie of the Year in 2024 and reaching the final round two weeks ago, Stewart said it was a great feeling. “You sure as hell appreciate it more when you struggle like that. I am so appreciative of our guys. All the credit goes to this team… I’m so proud of my guys. There’s so many great partners here, and I have a great team standing there. I have a feeling I’m really going to be hurting in the morning, but it sure as hell is going to be worth it.”

Stewart also reflected on how tough NHRA drag racing is, as it is the only sport he has taken part in where it took him over a year to get his first win! “It’s unreal. 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 have 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,” Stewart said. And he’s not wrong here.

Stewart won three races during his rookie year in the Cup Series in 1999. However, Stewart was no rookie in a racing sense, as he had already secured an IndyCar championship in just his second year of racing in 1997! He was used to hitting the ground running, but NHRA showed him how difficult that can be. However, if you know anything about Smoke, losing never stops his drive to win.

The former world champion in NASCAR and IndyCar ranks overcame a slew of challenges en route to this victory. At Pomona, Stewart had to yield to drag racing veteran Clay Millican, but he made sure to make up for it in Las Vegas. Stewart boldly predicted in late March, “The day I get upset with losing is the day I retire from racing.” He added, “I’m very proud of the whole team, and it just wasn’t our time yet…We are improving, and things are going in the right direction.” And things went in the right direction. Stewart defeated a quad that included reigning world champion Antron Brown, Jasmine Salinas, and Justin Ashley.

Evidently, Tony Stewart lived up to his own expectations. Many motivational factors may have propelled him to this success. But we all know what the overarching one is.

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Harnessing energy from his little one

While Leah Pruett enjoys motherhood at home, Tony Stewart is also enjoying fatherhood from the racetrack. The impact of it has been phenomenal, to say the least. We all saw what a beautiful effect Bubba Wallace’s child, Becks Hayden, is having on him in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 23XI Racing driver admittedly said that he does not get upset at poor finishes anymore. Even after losing a possible win or runner-up finish in Homestead, Wallace had the good spirits to crack a joke with his No. 23 Toyota team. He attributed that to his son’s influence. Tony Stewart’s five-month-old son Dominic also has a similar impact on him.

Dale Earnhardt Jr told Tony Stewart about the joys of parenthood earlier. “This is what’s missing in your life that you don’t realize you’re missing.” And Stewart now understands every word of that line, as he admitted in March this year. “It’s like I didn’t realize what this was going to mean until we got here and got to the track – and it’s the best feeling in the world.” He added Dominic’s special responsibility in Tony Stewart Racing: “If you have a bad run and you get a chance to go back to the bus just for five minutes and he’s awake and you see him smile one time, that bad run doesn’t seem so bad anymore. So I think this kid’s going to play a really crucial role in this team.”

After his victory lane appearance in Vegas, it was Leah Pruett bringing Dominic to the stage that left the racer with an emotion he had never felt before. Stewart said, “I think probably the one thing that may not sink in as much right now, but when Leah brought [son] Dom up on the stage there, that’s an emotion that you can’t even think about or dream of. 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.”

Despite his veteran status, Tony Stewart is fully motivated to add more laurels to his already dazzling resume. With a Top Fuel accolade in hand and the support of his loving wife and son alongside, expect to see Stewart in victory lane again soon!