For someone who will soon lose his NASCAR team forever, Tony Stewart has certainly not been idle for even a second. While Stewart-Haas struggles with average results, his drag racing team has been setting the NHRA world ablaze. Only this past weekend, Smoke almost won his first Top Fuel event at the Sonoma Nationals. This comes only a few months after he won his first-ever rounds at Phoenix, replacing his wife Leah Pruett in what would’ve been her TSR Dragster this year. But Pruett is thinking of focusing on her family with Tony and in her place, her husband has been her best substitution in the eyes of many.

One of those people is surely Antron Brown, the man who kept Stewart from winning his first Wally in 2024 at Sonoma. These two competitors certainly put up a commendable duel for the fans in the grand finale. But once the dust settled, a heartfelt exchange between Stewart and Brown shed light on an interesting dynamic.

Antron Brown respectfully holds off Tony Stewart for 5th Sonoma victory

In his 12th professional Top Fuel event, Tony Stewart went against a former world champion and a 76-time race winner for the ultimate prize. En route to the final round against Brown, he took down Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley, and Ron August Jr. Claiming his spot on the lane across from Stewart, Brown had to beat Shawn Reed, Steve Torrence, and Brittany Force. Neither of those drivers had an easy path to the finals, but as fate would have it, in the end, it was Antron Brown and Tony Stewart.

When their respective Nitro-powered Dragsters finally fired off, Stewart recorded a better response time. However, that wouldn’t be enough as Brown’s Matco Tools/Toyota machine eventually crossed the finish line milliseconds ahead of Stewart’s 3.774-second run in his TSR Rinnai Dodge//SRT dragster.

Although it must be heartbreaking for Smoke, Antron Brown’s glorious 3.746-second attempt helped him to his 77th career race win in NHRA. He also tied Doug Kalitta for the most wins (5) at the Sonoma dragstrip with his third victory of the 2024 season. If that’s not all, Brown also reduced Justin Ashley’s fourth-place lead over him in the points table to just one point. In contrast, Stewart is slowly making his way up the table, currently sitting in 9th.

Regardless, when the two were finally done teeing off for glory at Sonoma, NHRA’s official Twitter handle shared an encouraging video starring both rivals on the platform. In it, Tony Stewart approached Brown post-race to congratulate him with a few words. As the two men embraced each other, Stewart said, “Hey, No matter how this thing ended up, you’re a big part of why I’m here today! I just want you to know I never forgot that.” To this, Brown cheekily replied, “Well, you left on my b*tt.” Adding his sardonic twist to the whole dialogue, Smoke then trailed off, “Did something right today!”

Now, before anyone wishes to take Brown’s words out of context, here’s what he told the media after his win at Sonoma: “Me and Tony know each other well.” He continued to elaborate with a more fan-friendly account, “When I started as a team owner he was putting together TSR, we talked a lot about budgets and spreadsheets and all that… He was also a hero of mine when he ran NASCAR and IndyCar. I know how good of a driver he is. He understands the science so as soon as he showed up I knew what he could do. I did tell him to come on over but there are a lot of sharks in the water here. His time is coming and it won’t be one win. It will be a lot of them…”

Yes, it is a well-established fact that Tony Stewart’s been winless in NHRA this season. But just like Antron Brown, many are optimistic that this year will indeed be the one where Smoke becomes the first man to win a race across NASCAR, IndyCar, USAC & NHRA. As for now, fellow owner/driver Brown does look more likely to claim a race win than Stewart does in the latter’s rookie season in the Top Fuel category. But as Smoke iterated in his own words to the media earlier, “This was a much better weekend than I anticipated.” And honestly, many others felt that way too, for that matter of fact.

However, while he remains winless, his Funny Car teammate, Matt Hagan has been waving the TSR banner high in all its glory.

Matt Hagan prepares for championship chase

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Matt Hagan has two wins in his category this season, and they came on back-to-back weekends. First, he won the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Concord, NC for his 50th career victory. Two weeks later, Hagan defeated the iconic John Force at the Route 66 Raceway for his 51st. Interestingly, Antron Brown won his first Top Fuel Race this season alongside Hagan’s second in Funny Car at the Joliet, IL facility.

However, this weekend, Hagan bowed out from the semi-finals, courtesy of the 2024 NHRA Sonoma National Funny Car runners-up, Ron Capps. Tony Stewart’s teammate was only 0.010 seconds slower than Capps, who is known to also share a close relationship with Smoke. Ironically, Capps is also an owner-driver and is only the third, alongside Stewart and Antron Brown, to have launched his NHRA team after 2021.

Now, as for the unofficial Funny Car standings after Sonoma, Matt Hagan is running third followed by Capps in fifth separated by J.R. Todd in fourth place and around 160+ points. Slowly approaching the grueling championship grind, Hagan told the media, “We’ll get in our ‘Countdown’ mindset now. You have to win a couple of races in the ‘Countdown’ to have a shot at the championship. We have some work to do. It’s never easy in this sport. So, when you win it, it does feel so good…” 

The 41-year-old Virginia native is already a 4-time NHRA world champion. Hence, what Hagan is truly excited about is his teammate/employer’s advances in his respective division. He explained, “We are usually good in the ‘Countdown’ and that’s our goal again. I’m really excited for Tony and his crew to go to the final round. This is a team effort with TSR.”

Nevertheless, both these high-speed demons backed by 11,000-hp will be making their next stop at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota from August 15-18. With the stakes rising higher than ever, it feels like only a matter of time till Tony Stewart pulls out the extraordinary.