Tony Stewart wins his first drag racing premier class victory

Stewart, who began his high-level career in 1996, has transitioned to drag racing in recent years. He entered Top Fuel, the National Hot Rod Association's (NHRA) most powerful and fastest class, last year. The Indiana driver replaces his wife, Leah Pruett, who put her career on hold to start a family. Their son, Dominic, was born on November 17, while Stewart was competing in the championship finale. A few hours later, he received the Top Fuel Rookie of the Year award. These dragsters can reach 545 mph in just 300 feet of racing.

Having reached the final of the Las Vegas round, which is contested with four cars abreast as opposed to the usual two-car rounds, Tony Stewart triumphed ahead of reigning world champion Anton Brown, Justin Ashley and Jasmine Salinas. His dragster reached a speed of 511 km/h, allowing him to cross the line in 3. Very emotional, Tony Stewart measured the importance of this victory, he who has often been singled out as the main reason for the decline in the hierarchy of his team, Tony Stewart Racing.

“It’s unreal. I haven’t been in NHRA that long and I realize it takes a long time to win a race in this series, but throughout my career, I’ve never had to wait more than a year to win a race. I’ve always figured it out the first year, and many times normally, so I really appreciate this win,” Stewart said. “Last year was so stressful after Leah (Pruett, his wife) almost won a world championship, and I got in the car last year, and people in the stands thought it was me that made the car suck. It wasn’t that we had bad people setting up the car, it was just the combination was different. There were different variables changing—my body weight is different, the tubing changes because of the rule changes—but it was still really frustrating not being able to get on a path that would allow us to make gains last year.” »

Tony Stewart is now second in the championship after the first four rounds of a twenty-round season.

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