Tony Stewart Overcomes Weighty Issue to Win First Career NHRA Top Fuel Rounds

After first-round losses to Justin Ashley at Gainesville, Fla., and Steve Torrence at Pomona, Calif., Tony Stewart earned his first NHRA Top Fuel elimination round-wins Sunday morning at the Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park.

Stewart, racing in his first season in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series for the first season and starting out of the No. 15 spot on the 16-car grid, defeated No. 2 qualifier Brittany Force. Afterward, he acknowledged that it's a rather difficult kind of race car to master.

However, he said, "One of the hardest things is my wife [Leah Pruett] drove this car last year, and she's 55 pounds lighter than I am. So [crew chiefs] Neil [Strausbaugh] and Mike [Domagala] and Ryan [car chief McGilvry] and all these guys in this Direct Connection Dodge team with this Top Fuel car, they're having to figure out how to get my fat butt going, getting it started."