Tony Stewart Rubbishes Fans’ ‘Inaccurate Vibes’ Around NHRA, Reveals Drag Racing’s High Stakes That Surpass NASCAR & IndyCar

NASCAR and NHRA have been the topic of much discussion over which one is better. Take the three-time Funny Car champion Robert Hight’s opinion for example as he emphasized years ago that NHRA fans can spend more time, see the workings of the car, and get autographs of their favorite Drag Racing drivers. However, this isn’t the case with NASCAR. But there is one person who has experienced both forms of racing and is hence, a better fit to address the debate – Tony Stewart.

Tony Stewart recently put forth his views on Drag Racing as he believes “there are a ton of things that people don’t realize” about it. The Stewart-Haas Racing owner didn’t shy away from shunning the fans’ ideology circling the NHRA by taking charge to emphasize its superior aspect over NASCAR and IndyCar.

Tony Stewart clears the air about NHRA allegedly being just a straight drag

During EPARTRADE’s Race Industry Week 2023 discussion with the 3x NASCAR Cup Series champion, host Joseph Castello asked about how NHRA is not aptly valued in the eyes of motorsport fans. He expressed how he felt about Drag Racing not being an actual race and just a straight-line acceleration and said, “I feel like because the sport doesn’t turn, it kind of gets cast into its own little bubble, right? Like yeah not really racing, it’s acceleration, it’s not racing. Do you get that vibe? Can you explain that?”

Even though Stewart has not experienced such a thing yet, he cleared the mindset about NHRA being only a race of high acceleration and straight-line rush and replied, “I don’t get it, but if it’s there, it’s a very ‘inaccurate vibe’ because even though the track goes straight, if you stand directly behind those cars, there’s hardly any of them, especially in the Pro Classes, there’s hardly any of them that ever goes dead straight!”

Stewart then expressed his firsthand experience when he took charge of the top alcohol dragster, as his wife Leah Pruett, is on a break from racing, and explained, “It’s not just about holding the wheel straight, stabbing the gas and it just rifles down there at Mach 12, you have to be on top of it. Driving the alcohol car this year gives me a taste of what Matt and Leah go through when they drive and have to make decisions.”

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Stewart made it clear that NHRA isn’t only about the gas and breaks, but something far more complex than that, making decisions, following which he unfurled the aspect where it surpasses NASCAR and IndyCar.

Stewart weighs in on NHRA’s superiority over NASCAR and IndyCar

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An error during a NASCAR race or an IndyCar race could be neutralized owing to the lengthy races that give ample time to a team to make a comeback on the tracks. However, the case with NHRA is in complete contrast.

Stewart emphasized NHRA’s supremacy over NASCAR and said, “The split-second decisions we made in IndyCar and NASCAR and Sprint Car racing, then you fraction out that even more, and that’s how fast your brain has to process information that happens and how you have to make those ‘split-second decisions.'”

He then unveiled the high stakes that come into the picture during the short but highly competitive 3.7-second run and said, “There are so many things that go on in a 3.7-second run in a Top Fuel car and there’s a list of things that can go wrong in that run and those drivers not only have to keep it in the groove but they have to be ready at any moment during that run to have to make a correction or an adjustment or make a decision to either pedal the car or just abort the run altogether.”

“There are a ton of things that people don’t realize that go into what these drivers go through driving these racecars,” Stewart concluded.

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Stewart was forthright in clearing the doubt about the piece-of-cake mindset surrounding Drag Racing. Which category of race do you think requires maximum information processing in a very short time frame?