The biggest weekend in drag racing is here, and Tony Stewart is rolling into the 71st annual NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with plenty on the line. The Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel driver enters Indy sitting second in the championship standings, just 45 points behind Shawn Langdon, and with a shot at both a regular season title and his first U.S. Nationals crown.
For Stewart, whose trophy room already holds victories from IndyCar, NASCAR, USAC, World of Outlaws, IROC, and beyond, the chance to add a U.S. Nationals Wally to that collection would be a career highlight.
“It’s a pretty diverse trophy room, which is really cool. It’s not something I take lightly,” Stewart said. “If you can add a crown jewel event like the U.S. Nationals to that, and win a regular season championship or a world championship, that puts you in such an elite category. Look at what AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti did. I don’t think that would put me in the same class, but I feel like it would be close.”
Stewart knows exactly what makes the U.S. Nationals different. From the moment you drive through the gates, he says, there’s a distinct energy that separates Indy from every other stop on tour. “You definitely can tell when you’re in the pit area that it’s not just another stop on the tour,” Stewart said. “You know immediately how big it is when you drive on the grounds and see all of these rigs and cars parked in every available spot. You realize how big that event actually is.”
The U.S. Nationals isn’t just about prestige – it’s also about points. Round wins in Indy are worth 1.5x more than any other race on the schedule, making every matchup critical in the push toward the Countdown to the Championship. Stewart is quick to credit his TSR team for putting him in position to contend.
“It’d be great to win the regular season championship. We’ve been really consistent this year until the last couple races, but we’ve been in a way better position than we were at this time last year,” Stewart said. “I’m proud of our team and proud of everyone’s effort. There’s no better way to reward the entire team than with a bonus from winning the regular season championship, so I’m excited about that.”
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Stewart admits that his rookie season brought more pressure than expected, especially as his wife and teammate Leah Pruett battled for a championship in the final round. The learning curve was steep, and outside criticism only added to the weight.
“For me to get in a car that you knew was capable, and then for last season to go the way it did and listen to comments and people going, ‘man, they need to get rid of him,’ that’s the frustrating part,” Stewart said. “I think it’s redemption this year that we’ve won two races, we’ve led the point standings for a while, and we’re in the hunt for the regular season and hopefully in position to try to be a contender for a world championship at the end of the season.”
Managing expectations has been part of Stewart’s evolution as a Top Fuel driver. In IndyCar or NASCAR, he estimates he was 70 percent of the equation. In Top Fuel, the car and crew chief play a much larger role.
“I can’t make it go faster, but there’s 14 ways I can screw it up,” Stewart explained. “For me it is managing expectations. I have to manage my emotions to make sure that I keep the crew chiefs comfortable and in the right frame of mind. It’s about taking my level of intensity and making sure that I’m managing it in a way that’s productive for our crew chiefs to do their job and for them to be relaxed and comfortable, to do theirs to the best of their ability.”
This weekend, Stewart will chase history at a venue that’s already been the site of some of his greatest moments – from winning the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to now contending in Top Fuel at drag racing’s most prestigious race. Adding Indy glory in an NHRA car would be another landmark in a career defined by versatility and big-stage victories.
And for Tony Stewart, it all comes back to that first moment when you roll through the gates at Indy: “You realize how big it really is.”
This story was originally published on August 27, 2025. 
