Tony Stewart Says the NHRA 'Made Racing Fun Again for Me'

Tony Stewart’s championship bucket is overflowing with titles, but there’s one he’s chasing this year that he never foresaw in his future—NHRA Top Alcohol dragster.

For Stewart, there’s no agenda, no professional ladder to climb. He’s simply drag racing for fun with McPhillips Racing.

“I’ve raced over 44, 45 years now and you know really quick if it’s a group of people you enjoy working with,” Stewart says. “I knew I had that with them right out of the box. They’ve made racing fun again for me.

“I get to help work on a car. There’s two guys that are dedicated to my car. When we get done with a run, we come in, we get it up on jacks … I change into race clothes … and start on the left side of the motor. I couldn’t do that anywhere else. Now, I’m not doing anything that’s difficult. I’m doing stuff they can teach a primate to do in five-to-10 minutes, but somebody has to do it and it just saves time for those guys and lets them get a head start on their work.”

When Stewart decided to compete in Top Alcohol dragster, he was concerned about the reception he would receive, but he found it to be the opposite of what he expected.

“I had people I had never met in the class, crew guys, drivers go, ‘Man, we’re so happy you’re running with us this weekend. You bring so much attention to this class,’” Stewart recounted about his inaugural Top Alcohol dragster event.

With three national events remaining in the season, Stewart finds himself locked in a tight duel for the championship with Julie Nataas. Stewart entered the Betway Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway with a 64-point lead over Nataas, but then his team suffered a setback shortly before eliminations began. The McPhillips Racing dragster was disqualified due to unapproved ignition parts, i.e., the magneto. Stewart received no points from the event, while Nataas won it. Stewart lost the points lead to Nataas and left zMAX Dragway in second with a 21-point deficit.

Still, in Stewart’s first full season of drag racing the motorsports icon is surprised to be in contention for the championship “to a certain degree.”

“The team was capable of it, I just wasn’t sure if I was going to be capable of it,” Stewart says. “If something happens and we don’t win this thing (championship), I’m not going to look at it as a disappointment by any means or a failure. I think to have won four races up to this point is a huge accomplishment for somebody that’s never been in this form of motorsports. So, if we don’t win another race, we don’t win the championship, I’m proud of what we’ve done this year. Very, very proud!”

Stewart is the only person with championships in open wheel, stock car and sprint car. He’s already in a class to himself, but if he adds a NHRA championship to his racing resume he will only further solidify himself as one of the greatest racing talents. However, that doesn’t mean his eyes are set on competing in NHRA Top Fuel, where his wife Leah Pruett is embroiled in a championship battle. Stewart discovered when he tested for Pruett last fall at Las Vegas that in two of the three runs he struggled to feel the tires spinning.

“A lot of that is because I’m so far behind these cars because of how fast they’re accelerating,” says the 52-year-old Stewart. “You’re just trying to get your brain to keep up. Those two runs in particular I said, ‘This is stupid! I’m going to end up getting myself hurt because I’m not caught up with this race car right now. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my life.’ I just ran enough to realize I wasn’t ready to drive the Top Fuel car.”

Stewart was told the only solution was to make runs on the dragstrip.

“So anytime there was an opportunity that it wasn’t important that Leah necessarily be the one to drive the car, then I got invited to drive it,” Stewart says.

Overall, Stewart has made 19 runs in a Top Fuel car and says he’s “way far away from knowing whatever I would need to know to actually try to compete in one.”

“I’m past the fearful part of driving them and I enjoy driving it when I get a chance, but it gets your undivided attention, more than anything you will ever drive in your life,” Stewart says.