Kurt Busch relished NHRA trackside invite from Tony Stewart

This past weekend, Tony Stewart invited his old NASCAR Cup Series teammate, Kurt Busch, to come to the zMax Dragway in Concord, NC, to witness the American Rebel Light NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. Busch shared some photographs of his visit to the drag racing event earlier today, along with a note thanking his former Cup Series peer for the invite. The drivers met up at the event, and Busch got a chance to enjoy some nitro-fueled racing.

Busch shared the images, as well as a caption indicating his gratefulness towards the three-time Cup Series champion on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

"Damn good day at the race track. Great to see everyone on the @nhra side again. Nice invite from @TonyStewart to get the nitro fix, and see my friends in Pro-Stock."

Kurt Busch joined the Tony Stewart-owned Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, making the two long-time competitors teammates. They would drive under the same banner until 2016, which was Stewart's last year racing in NASCAR.

The 53-year-old driver, driving the Top Fuel dragster of his team, Tony Stewart Racing, qualified in eighth place at the North Carolina event, and the weekend ended with Stewart securing a third-place finish at the 4-Wide Nationals race.

Tony Stewart is in his second year of competing in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing series, after he replaced his wife, Leah Pruett, at the start of the 2024 season. After scoring runner-up finishes this year and last year, the 49-time Cup Series race winner secured his first-ever Top Fuel Dragster win last weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in its NHRA 4-Wide Nationals event.

Tony Stewart highlights the importance of historic moments in the world of racing

Tony Stewart during qualifying for the American Rebel Light Four Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway, April 26th 2025 - Source: Imagn

This past weekend's NHRA event was the 1,000th race in the series, and Tony Stewart got to be a part of it. The driver was also there during NASCAR's 50th Anniversary in 1998 when he raced with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series. With next year marking NHRA's 75th Anniversary, Stewart explained how it's meaningful to him to be a part of all these milestones.

Speaking ahead of the NHRA event, which took place on Sunday, April 27th, the Top Fuel race winner said [via NHRA]:

“It’s going to make going to Charlotte that much better, especially being the 1,000th Top Fuel race. Me being a part of the sport, going into their 1,000th race, and knowing that NHRA’s 75th anniversary is next year and being a part of that in some capacity is really cool to be a part of and it’s awesome. I got to be a part of NASCAR's 50th [anniversary], and I just know how important historic moments like these are.”

With a break in the schedule, the next NHRA event where Stewart will compete is the 'Route 66 NHRA Nationals', which will take place at the Route 66 Raceway on Sunday, May 18th.