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Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Tony Stewart, famously known as "Smoke," recently shared a glimpse of celebrating his major win at the NHRA Awards with his team. He took to his X account and shared the exciting news with his fans.
Stewart has had a versatile career since he ventured into professional racing. He competed in the IndyCar Series and clinched a title in 1997 before moving to stock car racing. He moved to the Cup Series in 1999 and won three titles during his 18-year stint in NASCAR. Additionally, he is the only motorsports driver to win a title in both series.
After a successful run in stock car racing, Stewart debuted in the NHRA Top Fuel class last year. In the 2024 season, he drove the McPhillips Racing Top Alcohol Dragster in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division 3 and secured his first divisional championship win.
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The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver entered the racing weekend 21 points behind his season rival Gary Pritchett. But in the winner-take-all battle at the NHRA North Central Division race in St. Louis, Stewart defeated Pritchett with an ET of 5.216 seconds at 274.16 mph and took home his first win.
Tony Stewart clinched the North Central Region championship title and shared a post celebrating his win with his team, McPhillips Racing. He wrote:
"Such an awesome night celebrating our 2024 Top Alcohol Dragster @NHRA North Central Championship with McPhillips Racing."
Earlier, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion elucidated the difference between the NASCAR and NHRA series.
"It's drastically different": Tony Stewart explains the difference between NASCAR and NHRA
Tony Stewart was featured on NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick's Happy Hours podcast in October 2024 and explained how the two series are 'drastically' different.
The former Cup Series driver emphasized that there are significant differences between these two series starting from the race timings. He highlighted that NASCAR races usually last about three hours, whereas NHRA series races last only for a few seconds.
“It’s not like what you and I were used to where we’ve got a three-and-a-half-hour race. We’ve got six, eight pit stops that we’re going to have during the day, and we got three, four, five hundred laps to get the job done. If we make a mistake, we’re going to fix it," explained Stewart.
“Drag racing, it’s the opposite of that. Instead of being in the car for three and a half hours, you’re literally driving the car three and a half seconds, and going from zero to 330 miles per hour in 3.6, 3.7 seconds on a good run. So it’s drastically different," he added.
Tony Stewart also highlighted that around 70 percent of the performance in stock car racing depends on the driver's skill set and only 30 percent of the race depends on the crew. Meanwhile, in the NHRA Series, the performance highly depends on the crew building and tuning the car.
