The list of disciplines Tony Stewart has raced in is an ever-growing book.
Stock cars, Indy cars, sprint cars, midgets, TQ midgets, sports cars and late models are among the first that comes to mind.
After Monday’s announcement that the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will make his NHRA debut during this weekend’s at the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Stewart can add a Top Alcohol dragster to that list.
Stewart’s decision to go drag racing shouldn’t be a surprise.
What started as a subtle 300-plus mph drag racing school experiment in December of 2020, turned into a two-car NHRA race team 10 months later with his wife, Leah Pruett, and Matt Hagan driving.
Any racer who’s around a different discipline long enough, is bound to get the racing itch.
For the 51-year-old three-time NASCAR champion, it was only a matter of time before he was diving into competition.
“I think if you’ve followed my career, I don’t have a history of being a very good spectator,” Stewart said with a smirk. “I’ll watch and then I get that urge to want to know what it feels like in the driver’s seat. When I went and started with Leah (Pruett), and we started dating and I got to go to the races, I had a lot of questions. You stand there, you’re in the pit hanging out with the team, but the biggest thing is just you try to stay out of their way.
“The longer you’re there, the more that you see stuff, and that creates questions. Every answer I got to a question created three more questions. Here we are, over two years later now.”
The NASCAR Hall of Famer has quickly found a new passion through drag racing, one he feels stands apart from other forms of motorsports.
“I just genuinely love the sport of drag racing now,” Stewart said. “Of all the forms of motorsports I’ve been apart of, the NHRA and drag racing in general is off on it’s own island compared to everything else that kind of lumps together. Every car and every series I’ve ever ran in have their unique characteristics, but drag racing is just off on its own island.
“I shouldn’t say everything’s different, but there’s a lot of things that are different, and a lot of things that are the same compared to what we’re used to. Just to see how powerful these cars are and how much speed they can run is incredible.”
With Stewart competing in a Top Alcohol Dragster this weekend in Las Vegas, he’s had a handful of opportunities to learn the distinct car.
Though the 1997 IndyCar Series champion has extensive experience topping out well over 230 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the raw power of a Top Fuel dragster left Stewart in disbelief.
“The hardest part for me was really getting my brain to learn to process the information as fast as it is happening,” Stewart said. “It’s hard to explain that to people. Literally, you step on the gas in the Top Fuel car and you get to the 330 (foot) cone and your brain is 100 feet behind the car. Your hands and your rear end that’s feeling everything the car is doing are in time, but your brain is sitting there trying to process everything that has happened in that first 330 feet.
“That’s been the biggest challenge for me, is just getting my brain to learn to process the information as fast as it’s happening.”
For Stewart, it’s a simple mindset with minimal expectations as he looks to gain more experience this weekend.
With three qualifying runs and a first-round elimination run guaranteed, he believes he’ll get a “full experience” of what it’s like to compete, regardless if he’s eliminated after one round or not.
“I’ve been getting questions from a lot of people about, ‘When are you going to compete?’ Then there’s people that say, ‘Do you want to compete?’ I said, ‘I really don’t know, because I haven’t done it yet,’ Stewart said. “I think this weekend is a good weekend to find out how much interest I really have as far as down the road and what I want to compete in.”
As Stewart looks to process the thrill and advance throughout the weekend, one question may remain when it’s all said and done — what’s the next step?
“This is kind of the introductory weekend, which going to a national event right out of the gate is definitely not the easiest way to do that by any means,” Stewart said. “The positive to it is I’ve got good people that are going to be there as well, to rely on. I think there’s positives to it being a national event. There are some negatives to it being a national event.
“I don’t know, I don’t know what the future’s going to hold with it.”
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