There is hardly any driver as accomplished as Tony Stewart in motorsports. And why not? He is an A-lister in most racing events, from NASCAR to NHRA. He ain’t called ‘Smoke’ for no reason! “I don’t care how good you are, you have to have that feeling in your gut that you want to win every week when you go out there,” he once said. And this is something he has been following since his dirt racing days. He would spin his tires and smoke the track. If someone wants to understand what versatility means, he should study Smoke’s racing career. And now, after the recent win, there is another feather in his crown.
Stewart took up his wife Leah Pruett’s Top Fuel ride last year after she got pregnant. And he is now running his second one in the Top Fuel Dragster, and he’s already in victory lane. We won’t be surprised if someday he just hops into a Formula One car and drives it to the victory lane. But regardless, Kevin Harvick has a new title for the veteran!
Tony Stewart is now an all-encompassing champion
Stewart has bagged his first win at Las Vegas. And he did it in style, defeating a quad that included reigning world champion Antron Brown, Jasmine Salinas, and Justin Ashley at the 25th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. And this was no fluke. Stewart’s got the 11,000-horsepower car all figured out. He almost beat Clay Millican in the race before the Vegas one, at the Pomona Dragstrip. Anyway, the point is that Stewart is yet again proving to be the greatest driver in racing history. Kevin Harvick’s put him on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR, replacing Rick Hendrick’s four-time champion Jeff Gordon.
On the recent episode of Harvick’s ‘Happy Hour’ podcast, his co-host Mamba Smith asked, “Well, speaking of greatness, there’s a guy named Tony Freaking Stewart who has literally won in everything that he’s ever sat in..Now, my question for you, Kevin, does this put him… Is he on the Mount Rushmore of all-time race car drivers?” To which Harvick replied, “He was already there. And here’s the thing that people don’t understand about Tony Stewart: Tony’s a legendary race driver. We can’t even call him a race car driver, he’s now just a race driver.” That’s a huge compliment.
And for the folks who don’t know, the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR is the top 4 drivers of the sport. And since three of them are Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Jimmie Johnson, it is obvious that Jeff Gordon would have to be the one to make room. The other three are basically irreplaceable. And not only because they are 7 time Cup Series champions, their accomplishments are impeccable. Petty’s 200 Cup wins, the Intimidator being the most loved driver of the sport, and Jimmie won the most consecutive championships (5). And Tony joins the list of winning everything!
According to Kevin Harvick, it’s Stewart’s ability as a leader that makes him great. “This is pretty obvious that he’s also a great leader, being able to build a team, put the right people in place, find the sponsors, and get the performance out of the car by being a leader. It takes leaders to build things. You know, he and Leah obviously are in this together, but Tony Stewart is a winner. And when you’re a winner, you figure out how to lead, and he’s absolutely proven his off-the-track worth again in this type of situation—building this team and putting himself in victory lane behind the wheel.” It is a testament to Smoke’s resilience and hard work.
Naturally, Tony Stewart was over the moon with this win, which also reminded him of his NASCAR days. And there might be some good news about him coming back to the sport!
Is Tony Stewart coming back to NASCAR?
Folks, Stewart’s journey in Top Fuel hasn’t been the easiest. The racing forms that he dominated in the past were usually in circuits with many laps. But in Top Fuel, it’s a drag race that’s on a strip. And the driver runs several rounds in a 1v1 battle until the field is narrowed to just two finalists. And pulling the perfect drag race in each round is no joke. That’s probably why this win means so much to him.
He said, “It’s never taken me more than a year to a win a race in a series. I’ve always figured it out in the first year—with multiple wins, normally. We all needed it, after [his wife] Leah almost won the NHRA Top Fuel World Championship two years ago—we could not get on a path where we could make gains last year. It was super frustrating.” And for some reason, this win reminded him of his NASCAR win from 2009.
It was the All-Star Race at Charlotte. Stewart was running for Stewart Haas Racing, and if you recall, they weren’t as good back then. And many doubted Stewart to make this switch, thinking he would certainly fail. And same was the case with his Top Fuel career so far. But he proved everyone wrong then, and he proved everyone wrong now. “They said that group of guys had never won a NASCAR Cup Series race. That moment, I realized it was not about me, it was not about me proving to all the naysayers that I was going to fail with Stewart-Haas…That’s exactly what Sunday turned into as well (after his NHRA win).”
Also, Stewart is planning a comeback to NASCAR, maybe just for one-offs, but he is! “I’m definitely planning on coming back to NASCAR races. As a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, I get a hard card. I don’t know if NASCAR has the ability to revoke that or not, but until they do revoke it, I’m going to take advantage of having a hard card, and I definitely want to come back and see everybody,” he added.
Folks, what do you think of Tony Stewart’s versatility? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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