He might be 52 years old but Tony Stewart is yet to fully retire from racing. Earlier this year, it was announced that the 3-time Cup Series champion would replace his wife Leah Pruett in the NHRA drag racing series in 2024. Ahead of his full-time debut, Stewart sang the praises of the NHRA racing experience and explained how it was a unique experience.

Tony Stewart was not even supposed to be racing in the NHRA next season. His wife, Leah Pruett, was a driver in his team. However, when Pruett decided to take a break from racing to start a family, her husband stepped in her shoes. The decision received mixed reactions but Stewart himself was quite excited about the opportunity.

Tony Stewart hails the in-person viewing experience of NHRA racing

In a recent interview with EPARTRADE, Racer, and Speed Sport as part of Race Industry Week 2023, Stewart expressed his love for NHRA racing, something he had done in the past as well. The 52-year-old especially had high words on the experience that one gets while attending such a race live in person, rather than sitting at home and watching it on TV. As per the three-time Cup Series champion, the experience is unlike anything in any other sport.

“It is 10 times better and I am telling you as a race fan first, it is 10 times better to be there versus watching it just on TV. Because what TV can’t show you is the concussion, the smells, the feel. When you’re sitting in the grandstands and you feel the organs inside your body moving because of the concussion of the exhaust, it’s not painful,” the Indiana native said. 

“It’s like going to an amusement park and that feeling when you ride the rollercoaster. To be able to go to an NHRA race and feel, see, smell, interact, those are things you don’t get with any other sport,” Tony Stewart said.

A lot of people may beg to differ with the “things you don’t get with any other sport” part but it did not take Tony Stewart long to say the same thing about NASCAR. He also revealed that he was never much of a NASCAR fan before he got to the track.

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Midway through answering the question, Stewart might have remembered his love for NASCAR and stock car racing as well and he said the same things about the two racing competitions. In a nutshell, the smell and the feel he talked about are perhaps unique to motorsports in general. And yes, that’s something all motorsports fans can get behind.

“The TV side is very important to all of us obviously but people coming to the races, that is also huge as well and that’s something that I, as a fan first, truly recommend. Just go on a Saturday or go for a weekend to a drag race. Go and vote for yourself whether you like it. I wasn’t a huge fan of NASCAR or NHRA. I loved watching it on TV but I wasn’t an adamant fan. It was not until I had the opportunity to go to an event and really be a part of it and see it, smell it, feel it that drew me in and really set that hook,” the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing added.

Do you think Tony Stewart will be successful in the NHRA drag racing series? Let us know what you think.

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