NASCAR, IndyCar, USAC, and now NHRA. Tony Stewart does not seem to want to catch a break. At the NHRA DENSO Sonoma Nationals, he started exactly from where he left in 2016 after winning his last cup series. While he narrowly missed the landmark of becoming the first driver to win major professional races in four disciplines, he has already made waves with his solid starting line skills. But is it a chance encounter for Stewart?

In the latest episode of Query & Company, Tony Stewart talked about how drag racing wasn’t ever part of his plans. However, as the opportunity presented itself, he took it, as he loved the challenge. He said, “I have always liked that. You look back at my history. I have driven so many different types of cars and I did it because I like the challenge. I like learning something new. Honestly, this wasn’t part of the master plan tho.” 

He is driving his wife, Leah Pruett‘s 11,000 horsepower car in the Top Fuel Dragster series. Leah stepped out mid-season as the couple is expecting their first child in November this year. So we can not deny that it all started as a substitution for his wife.

The multiple-time champion is now a rookie in drag racing. To learn about the craft, Stewart also attended Frank Hawley School of Drag Racing in Florida in 2021. Where he found a new sense of appreciation and respect for drag racing. Stewart had run on the school’s Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster machines at Florida’s Bradenton Motorsports Park. His mastery in the sport shone there also as he had all the praise from Hawley, a two-time NHRA Funny Car world champion.

“We use that setup to allow new drivers to learn the routine you would use to drive an A/Fuel [Dragster] or Top Fuel car, but they’re still plenty fast. We want them to see how it steers and handles and what you can and can’t do with it. Obviously, for someone like Tony who is used to seeing the world at 200 mph or faster, that wasn’t an issue,” Hawley had said. But drag racing is remarkably different from everything else in motorsports.

The fire gear here is unimaginably thick. It might feel like putting on a heating blanket in midsummer. Alongside, the material is also as thick as a solid substance. The thickness of the suits used in NASCAR or other pavement/road-racing series comes nowhere close to this. Next let’s look at the cars.

Because of the G-forces, each limb has some specific work to do. The left foot is on the clutch pedal (the machines are centrifugally actuated with engine RPM, but the pedal controls launch and low-speed drives). The right foot is with the throttle. The left hand is fixed on the butterfly steering wheel, while the right hand is used to pull a lever-brake. Taking all these together, the cars are mechanical powerhouses that are a test of precision and discipline.

In drag racing, driving straight is the goal, but one needs to control a machine that can blow the tires off at any speed. So it requires subtle counter-steer without going up to the extent of driving the car offline or disturbing the chassis’ careful limit when loaded up on the slicks. But Tony Stewart is not the one to stop. In April this year, he earned his first NHRA Top Fuel elimination round-wins at the Arizona Nationals. He’s doing it all and is enjoying every bit of it.

Reiterating this he said, “When you watch it on TV, it looks like that just fire the car up, the crew chief adjusts the knob on the injector and you do a burnout and you back up and twist on the knob some more, you line up and you hit the gas. There is so much more to it. I think the more that I learned.” According to Tony, the more he drove in the drag race, the more he grew to like it. We can not agree more.

As a rookie dragster, Tony has already picked up some upset victories. As a No. 11 qualifier, Stewart upset No. 4 qualifier and title contender Shawn Langdon in the opening round. Next, he pulled off a mini-coup, and put up a better reaction time than top leaver Justin Ashley to book his spot in the semis. He reached the final round by defeating upstart Ron August, who was the last qualifier among the entrants.

In the final round, Stewart faced former world champion Antron Brown. Despite a quicker reaction time, Brown outpaced Stewart with a 3.746 to 3.774 finish. Notably, as he indicated, the level of fan involvement in this sport is perhaps one of his favorite parts of the game.

Tony Stewart suggests that fans get their money’s worth in NHRA

Without fans, any sport would diminish in value and enjoyment. There is something unique about drag racing. Fans have access to places where you wouldn’t usually find fans. This is something Stewart is amused by. Further in the conversation, he said, “The ticket that they buy when they come to the race gets them everywhere but right behind the car on the starting line. So they can watch their favorite drivers run. The pro classes run and people can get up and go in the pits if they want to stay and watch sportsmen, all kinds of cars to watch run.”

The NASCAR legend finds it very interesting how fans are inside the pits when the crew chiefs and all the members of the crew are working. Wow! Who wouldn’t want to be in the pit of their favorite racer? Reiterating this, he said, “They can literally watch them go down the track, get out of their seats, walk down the pit area, watch the crews disassemble motors put them back together. Literally, be within 15-20 feet of the car while they are doing that.”

Hopefully, Stewart will enjoy the same success that he has in all the other motorsports. The 53-year-old is truly unbelievable. What do you think his career in drag racing would be like? Let us know in the comments below.