Tony Stewart is going to remember last Sunday for a long time. But for reasons he can’t even remember anymore. During the NHRA Reading Nationals’ second round at Maple Grove Raceway this past weekend, cameras captured a harrowing picture: As Doug Kallita crossed the finish line at 335.73 mph, the front wheel of his Mac Tools collapsed, swerving him left toward Stewart’s Dodge Direct Connection Dragster. Going at a staggering 326.71 mph, the impact immediately flipped the former NASCAR racer’s car to its left. Stewart later revealed, “The first thing I remember, they were waking me up here, so not sure what happened.” His wife, Leah Pruett, revealed more.

Taking it on Instagram on September 15, the semi-retired racer shared videos of the incident and informed, “Just want to say thanks to so many for reaching out to make sure Tony and team were alright after yesterday’s on track incident,” before adding, “The car we’ve raced with all year is totaled, but both drivers walked away. Very grateful the Lord kept everyone safe. Our Dodge Direct Connection team got our back-up car out, and I was able to make a couple laps in it today to get ready for Tony and the team to continue to run hard in this countdown. See yall in Charlotte in a couple days.”

Notably, this comes a short while after Stewart had informed how he had “one hell of a headache, and it banged my left hand up…We’re fine, I promise. We’re fine”. Yet, the fact that the car “totaled” just shows how destructive the incident was, as Top Fuel dragsters are precision-built machines that can rarely be salvaged after such heavy contact. Just to give you some idea of how bad it could’ve gone, even the commentator was left saying, “Thank goodness, Tony Stewart’s car came back up on all four wheels when it made its move to the wall,” while watching a replay of the incident. As for Kalitta, even his car seemed to take significant damage as sparks enveloped the rear busted tire, before he came to a stop.

“It was just unfortunate, really. It just happened so quick that there was nothing I could really do,” the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel Champion said. Later, Stewart himself took to X to thank everyone. “I just wanted to thank all of our fans, teammates, and most of all our racing family for checking on us yesterday. Wasn’t the day we had planned, but thankful to the @NHRA Safety Safari and Dr. Surface for making sure we did all the right things in that situation.” 

Thankfully, as Stewart appears to be out of danger, let’s look at…

How does the NHRA Top Fuel championship picture look like?

With the green light to race again, the 3-time NASCAR Cup champion isn’t slowing down. In just a few days, Stewart, Pruett, and their team will line up at the 4-Wide Carolina Nationals from September 18 to 21. But Maple Grove’s crash rattled the championship picture for sure. The 2024 NHRA Rookie of the Year slipped to second in the standings, now trailing by 18 points to Kalitta.

For Stewart, the chase is still wide open, but Kalitta, an NHRA Top Fuel champion with 57 career wins, is not going to give an inch so easily. The showdown between them is turning out like experience vs fresh fire, a battle that could define the season.

Meanwhile, Leah Pruett will be right there in his corner, cheering him on, and waiting for her own chance to jump back behind the wheel.