“I promise he’s hustling at heart”: When Tony Stewart gave his unfiltered reaction to F1 royalty Lewis Hamilton driving a NASCAR car

Tony Stewart once shared his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton driving his NASCAR car in 2011. Impressed with Hamilton's lap times, Stewart said the F1 driver was hustling at heart pushing the car despite tricky track conditions around Watkins Glen.

At the time, Stewart was driving for his own race team, Stewart-Haas Racing, in the Cup Series. Meanwhile, Hamilton was signed by McLaren in Formula 1. The British driver also brought his McLaren F1 car to upstate New York for Stewart to try.

When asked about Lewis Hamilton quickly adapting to a stock car, Tony Stewart replied (via @sin ⁴⁴/X:

"The hard part is I don't have a monitor to see his lap, which... it's killing me. I want to watch his laps running around there because, you know, you can tell it's drying out and getting some of the grip back." [0:32]

"I can promise you, he's hustling as hard as he can," he added.

After Hamilton got out of the car, the then-one-time F1 champion told Stewart:

"I think we have to swap jobs." [3:59]

Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton's seat swap was a promotional event organized by ExxonMobil Lubricants, an oil company sponsoring both parties.

Later in the same year, Stewart won his third NASCAR Cup Series championship in a tiebreaker with Carl Edwards.

This, however, wasn't the first time motorsports fan witnessed a NASCAR-F1 crossover. In 2003, Jeff Gordon swapped seats with Juan Pablo Montoya, allowing him to drive the Williams F1 car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson also swapped seats with two-time F1 champ Fernando Alonso in 2018. Johnson drove the McLaren F1 overseas at the Bahrain International Circuit.

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Tony Stewart set to return to NHRA Top Fuel class

Tony Stewart may have retired from NASCAR in 2016 but competes full-time in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association). This year, he is set to return to the Top Fuel class following winning the Rookie of the Year award.

For the uninitiated, Stewart substituted for his wife, Leah Pruett, in the Top Fuel class last year. Pruett focused on family planning and welcomed their firstborn son in November 2024. She decided to sit out another year to look after Dominic James.

Speaking with EPARTRADE, Tony Stewart shared the family's plan for the 2025 NHRA season, saying [17:30]:

"I'm going to be back in the Top Fuel car again next year. Leah has decided she wants to be a mom this first year, and I'll be honest, she is literally just over two weeks from having Dominic and I'm pretty confident in about two to three weeks she would be ready to get back in a Top Fuel car."

"She absolutely looks amazing. Looking at her, you wouldn't even tell that she delivered a little boy to us so it's just amazing how strong and tough my wife is," he added.

The upcoming season also marks the first year Stewart isn't involved in NASCAR. His Stewart-Haas Racing team ceased operations after the 2024 Cup Series season, though it was rebranded as Haas Factory Team and downsized to one charter entry (from four).