“That’s Why He Had to Wrestle”: Tony Stewart Takes a Wild Dig at WWE Icon Goldberg’s Racing Talent

Tony Stewart is arguably the most versatile driver ever to compete on the racetracks. This is why, after he retired from NASCAR racing, he received a lot of invites to jump into different race cars and work his magic. However, after his stints in Sprint cars, the IndyCar, and NASCAR, he chose to compete in the NHRA races.

Goodwood Festival of Speed is one event on the driver’s bucket list. But for some reason or another, Stewart hasn’t been able to compete at the event due to his tight schedule. However, WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg did try his hand at running at Goodwood, an experiment that went downhill after he couldn’t keep his truck pointed in the right direction. This allowed Stewart to throw shades at Goldberg, highlighting that he was out of place trying to compete in an auto-racing event.

Tony Stewart held no punches in making mockery of Goldberg

Having retired from his wrestling career, Goldberg tried to test his racing skills at the Goodwood Festival. The special event is held every year in the countryside of West Sussex, England, and features both modern and vintage race cars. The difficult terrain with hills certainly makes this circuit stand out and often leads to big crashes and wrecks.

There are no restrictions on how the teams and drivers want to set up their race cars. Goldberg opted to compete in a NASCAR-spec Toyota Tundra pickup truck, and although his initial run looked good, he crashed into the hay bales. This crash happened back in 2018, but looking at the clip, Stewart just couldn’t help himself in taking a dig at Goldberg.

Speaking on the Adam Carolla show, Stewart opined, “I’m actually going to be on the phone with him Thursday. I cannot wait to talk to him. You know what that is? That’s just running out of talent right there; that’s a prime example. That’s why he had to wrestle. This looks like an episode of like Austin Powers right now; he can’t even back up, go forward, back up, go forward at this point.”

Goldberg was driving a former NASCAR Truck Series champion Mike Skinner’s truck at the Goodwood. Although the former WWE star junked the Toyota Tundra running it into the hay bales, Stewart really admired Skinner’s craft in tuning his race machines.

Mike Skinner eclipsed his record at the Goodwood Festival in 2018

At the time when Goldberg just wrecked into the hay bales, the former Truck Series champion was hoping to break his record at the hill climb. During the practice sessions, he piloted his truck named “Skinner Special” and wowed the crowd with his darting run across the hilly course. He clocked 47.98 seconds running the entire course and broke his personal record, which he set in 2015.

During the podcast, Tony Stewart touched upon Mike Skinner’s talents that stretched beyond the racing circuits. “Mike takes that extremely seriously. I mean, he’s taken a Craftsman truck, and he’s done all kinds of things that you could not do to it under the NASCAR rules. He’s massaged on it really nice right now.”

But apparently, the finely tuned truck that broke the record at Goodwood when piloted by Goldberg ended up in the haystacks. Even the host of the Adam Carolla couldn’t help but take a dig at the former WWE wrestler. “And Goldberg took the thing into the hay bale; that’s what I recall. I’m not shocked you let a wrestler drive your truck; you’re going to hit hay.”

This only goes on to show how tough it is to drive a race car and the skill required to excel at it. Hopefully, we see Smoke hop into one of these trucks or vintage cars and compete at the Goodwood festival.