Tony Stewart Savagely Compares 86-Year-Old Racer Father With a Monkey, Shutting His NHRA Quick Rod Ambitions

Tony Stewart’s legacy as a race car driver stretched far beyond NASCAR borders. Starting his journey in Sprint Car racing, he has managed to create history in both the IndyCar Series and NASCAR over the years. And in 2024, he embarked on another racing adventure, competing in the NHRA Top Fuel Drag Racing Series.

The SHR co-owner is following in his father Nelson Stewart’s footsteps by carrying on the family’s racing legacy. Nelson, at 86, is intrigued by his son’s foray into NHRA drag racing, and he was curious to know if he too was capable of running in the Super Comp division. An idea that was instantly shut down by Stewart’s hilarious comparison between his father and a monkey.

Tony Stewart isn’t fueling the idea of his father looking to compete in a drag racing series

Stewart is documenting his NHRA Top Fuel journey through his unfiltered vlog on YouTube. Just before taking on his first competitive race of the season, he and his father, Nelson, were discussing the key differences between the Comp cars in different divisions. One of the fans even asked Stewart to compete alongside his father in the Super Comp, an idea that was put to bed by the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Speaking about the difficulty of running a Super Comp car, “You ran on a pro tree versus a sportsman tree but they hit the button, when the light goes they can tell if they’re late or early and then they go onto this box and bump it with their thumb before the car even leaves. So there’s all kinds of things you got to do that you’re not ready to do.”

Out of curiosity, Tony’s father responded, “Can I learn?” To which Tony then replied, “I mean, hell, they can teach a monkey to fly a spaceship, so yeah, probably.” Leaving everyone in splits. It has to be noted that Nelson Stewart still competes in the 3-quarter midget races, so it’s not a surprise to see Tony going strong even after his prime years of racing in NASCAR.

While Tony Stewart got off to a decent start in his debut run, he is looking to get more confident and get better results going forward in the next race at the Winternationals in Pomona.

Stewart is hoping for better results going into his next Top Fuel race weekend

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Stepping into his next racing adventure, Tony Stewart was paired against Justin Ashley in the elimination round of the first Top Fuel race event at Gatornationals. Driving the 11,000 horsepower dragster, he was off to a lightning-quick start at.021, but Ashley was quick in adjusting his ride after a shaky start off the line and beat Stewart to take home the win. Moving onto the next race, Stewart is expecting a turnaround after building confidence from his first event.

“As a team, we’re just going to keep jelling more and more, it was quite the experience. But it was fun, just moments like that show what this team’s about. It’s about a bunch of racers that enjoy being around each other all the time; these guys make it fun for me. We just got to take the momentum we’ve built this weekend and go to Pomona. I’m going to be a little more confident race car driver, and these guys have a little more confidence in me too, so we’ll just keep building on it,” Stewart said.

With the first race in Top Fuel proving to be a learning curve, Tony Stewart will look to overturn his fortunes in the season’s next race at Pomona on March 24.

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