Motorsport racing, irrespective of the type of car, demands a lot from the drivers. However, Tony Stewart is one of the mentally strongest personalities in the sport. Keeping true to his love and passion to try different formats, Stewart has entered the drag-racing arena. Despite having immense experience and knowledge, the 51-year-old recently explained how drag racing often turns out to be an expensive affair.

Amazingly, Stewart recently won his first-ever NHRA national event win at Las Vegas. In just his fourth national event start, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion achieved this victory. While it speaks volumes about Stewart’s talents, it wouldn’t have been possible had he not changed his approach.

Tony Stewart explains the expensive mistakes that come with drag racing

It is no secret how drag racing is drastically different when compared to stock car racing. There is a massive difference in speed and it is surely not everyone’s cup of tea. While Tony Stewart is not getting any younger, it is truly amazing how he took up the challenge of drag racing this late in his career.

Interestingly, he spoke with FloRacing after his first NHRA National Event win. There, Stewart discussed the challenges that come with drag racing, especially for someone who hasn’t driven cars that fast. He said, “People don’t realize that it is really hard when you haven’t drag-raced and you haven’t driven cars that accelerate that fast. It’s hard for your brain to process the information as fast.”

He cited a familiar example to prove his point. The Indiana-born driver said, “You know you hear police officers talk about in pursuits when they’re following somebody, how they get tunnel vision like that and it’s literally what it was like in the top fuel car. It just is so explosive, it’s so powerful and you are accelerating so fast that your brain’s going what the hell is going on here.”

Having said that, Stewart explained an incident from last year. He said, “Last year in the car and the last two runs I spun the tires from about 200 feet out and didn’t realize I was spinning the tires.” The Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner then explained the consequences if spinning tires are not caught. He said, “If you don’t catch it [spinning tires], you blow the thing up, blow the blower up or you blow the motor up and uh that’s expensive mistakes.”

Drag Race Devotee Tony Stewart Anticipates Repercussions From NASCAR While Exposing the Sad Reality of Stock Car Racing

So, it is after this incident that Stewart changed his approach and grew into the drag-racing arena. Certainly, it is one of the major reasons which helped him win his first-ever NHRA national event win in Vegas. The other is, of course, his winners’ mindset.

Tony Stewart was ecstatic after registering his first success in Top Alcohol Dragster

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There is almost nothing that Tony Stewart has not achieved. Being the only driver to have won the NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar championship, Stewart still carries the winning mentality.

He was quite delighted with his first win of the 2023 Top Alcohol Dragster season. Speaking after the race, he said, “When we raced here last fall, I was just ecstatic to make the finals. But today, I told Leah [Pruett], ‘I’m not happy to just be in the finals today. I said I want this.’  As racers, you always want to win; nobody likes losing.”

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Stewart added, “I thoroughly enjoyed [the four-wide racing]. I’ll be honest—to me, it feels like it kind of brings that short track feel, like the first few rounds it felt like heat races … It’s hard not like it when you win, but I think it’s a cool deal.” He surely deserves to cherish his victory. It is fascinating how the NASCAR veteran’s hunger to win never seems to end.