When Anthony Wayne Stewart climbed into a go-kart for the first time in 1979, at the precocious age of just eight years old, he had dreams and a bucket list that, at first, was fairly small. All he wanted to do was win one race, to prove to himself and everyone else that he could do it.

It took him just a few weeks to earn that first win at a tiny kart track in the little town of Westport, in his home state of Indiana. Once he got that first win, suddenly Stewart’s bucket list grew quickly. Next up was hoping he’d win a championship, maybe in a few years.

Guess what? Less than one year later and at the ripe old age of nine, he won his first-ever local track championship in a go-kart.

There was no stopping him from that point on, with numerous other go-kart and track championships in the Hoosier State and throughout the Midwest.

And now, even at the age of 54, Stewart is still chasing race wins and championships. The cars and the racing series may have changed over the years, but the man with the colorful nickname of “Smoke” continues to prove he is still a winner and champion.

After making his fame and fortune as a three-time NASCAR Cup champion and Hall of Famer, Stewart isn’t going easily into retirement. In fact, instead of slowing down, he’s going faster than he ever has, trading a 200-mph stock car for a 340-mph NHRA Top Fuel dragster.

Stewart has taken to NHRA drag racing perhaps quicker than any other series he’s ever competed In

Stewart continued to expound on his latest career change by winning Sunday’s Top Fuel final round of the NHRA’s iconic Winternationals at In-n-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Southern California – his third career Top Fuel win in just over a year, and in only his third full season in a 12,000-horsepower dragster, mind you (that’s only about 11,250-horsepower more than a NASCAR Cup car).

You would think that after all his wins and championships in countless different racing series and radically different race cars, Stewart would be tired of still having a need for speed. But Sunday’s win – albeit just one win in the 20-race NHRA season – and his third overall Top Fuel win in less than one calendar year, you can see that look in Stewart’s eyes.

He’s hungry not just for more wins, but he wants to add yet another “first” in auto racing history: in addition to be the first driver to ever win championships in each of NASCAR Cup, IndyCar, USAC Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown, Superstar Racing Experience, he now wants to be the first driver to earn all those honors as well as become a NHRA Top Fuel champ.

For nearly 50 years, Stewart, who turns 55 early next month, has never lost the thrill of winning races or championships. Like what came first, the chicken or the egg, Stewart knows that to win championships, you first have to win races. And by winning Sunday in Pomona, he threw down the gauntlet that he’s ready to add yet another championship trophy to his massive trophy room.

Heck, he’s still relatively young by drag racing standards – plenty of drivers are still going strong in their late 50s and into their 60s – so much so that he may have to add a whole new room or wing to his house for all his NHRA trophies and championships still to come.

Why Stewart is the most versatile driver in auto racing history

As I looked over the final statistics of Sunday’s race, something hit me – something that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen or heard of before: Stewart is without question the most successful overall VERSATILE (that’s a very key qualifier to understand) driver in auto racing history.

I know, that’s an extremely bold statement. But hear me out.

I’m not saying Stewart is the greatest driver ever or the winningest driver, but he IS the only driver who can claim so many different championships in so many different series.

Many of you might ask, what about Richard Petty’s 200 NASCAR Cup wins and seven Cup championships? What about Dale Earnhardt and his Petty-tying seven championships, or how about Jimmie Johnson’s 83 career Cup wins and also tied with Petty and Earnhardt with seven Cup crowns?

What about the immortal A.J. Foyt and his 171 major wins (if you count all levels of competition, dating back to when he first started more than 80 years ago), plus over 100 USAC races including midget, sprint, stock and sports cars, his four Indianapolis 500 wins and his seven IndyCar championships, his seven NASCAR Cup wins, 24 Hours of LeMans winner, two-time 24 Hours of Daytona (now the Rolex 24)?

Foyt indeed has more race wins and open wheel and stock car championships than Stewart, but Super Tex never won an NHRA title or an SRX crown.

What about Michael Schumacher? Sure, he started racing go-karts at the age of just four years old, would go on to win Seven Formula One championships, several lower-level Formula titles and kart crowns. But again, he never won in the variety of disciplines that Stewart has.

Speaking of that, let’s look at Stewart’s career scorecard:

* 49 career Cup wins and three Cup championships (2002, 2005 and 2011).

* Although no championships in either series, he also has 11 O’Reilly Auto Parts and 2 Truck Series race wins.

* Won the 1997 IndyCar (known then as the Indy Racing League) championship, as well as three race wins.

* In 1995 became the first driver to win USAC’s Triple Crown – the Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown championships, all in one season.

* Won the 1994 USAC Midget championship.

* Won the 2006 IROC championship.

* Captured the first Superstar Racing Experience championship in 2021.

* Captured the 2014 NASCAR Cup championship as co-owner.

Take a look at Stewart’s overall record and particularly the variety of different championships and no one comes close, full stop. In a sense, Stewart has a Midas-like touch: of every racing series he’s ever competed full-time in, he’s ultimately won at least one championship.

And with the way he won the third race in NHRA’s 20-race season already this year, not only is Stewart likely to win even more races this season, I’m going to go out on a limb and make him the early favorite to win that Top Fuel championship.

The only two things Stewart has failed to check off his bucket list were to win his biggest dream race, the Indianapolis 500 in IndyCar, and the Daytona 500 in NASCAR Cup (although he did win it in 2017 as a team co-owner).

Stewart already has one NHRA championship of sorts on his resume: even though he fell short of winning last season’s NHRA Top Fuel season championship (finished fifth), he did win the regular season crown – so that has to count for something.

Stewart now has three NHRA Top Fuel wins in less than one year

With his first two Top Fuel wins last season (while substituting for wife Leah Pruett on his own team, Tony Stewart Racing), Stewart became the first NASCAR Cup Series Champion (2002, 2005 and 2011) and IndyCar Series champion (1997) to ever win an NHRA Top Fuel “Wally” (the ceremonial winner’s trophy in honor of NHRA founder, the late Wally Parks) when he was victorious a month apart from each other in Las Vegas and Chicago (Joliet).

Now, Stewart has added a third “Wally” in what is also the NHRA’s 75 anniversary year. You don’t think Stewart wouldn’t want to win the championship in such a monumental and meritorious season?

If he continues winning races in Top Fuel this season for Elite Motorsports, Stewart would once again become the first driver to win yet another championship in another racing series – something no one has ever done, not even Foyt – and likely will never do: capturing Cup, IndyCar, USAC, SRX, go-kart and NHRA championships.

After accepting his winner’s trophy at Pomona, Stewart kind of reflected back on his career and all the different types of vehicles and race series he’s competed in, and what it meant to give Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman his first win as a Top Fuel team owner (Elite only expanded into Top Fuel this season).

“I literally told Richard and Royce Freeman (Richard’s brother) on Friday, I know I’m relatively new to drag racing, but I’ve been racing for 47 years, I’ve been a part of a lot of different programs and worked with a lot of different people,” Stewart said.

“But I promise you, all the ingredients are here to win. You can see it. I can tell. I’ve just been a part of enough programs to know when it’s right. I don’t know when it’s going to click and when it’s all going to come together, but all the stuff that you need to be successful is right here, right now. It just has to come in its own time.

“I had no idea just 48-hours later that it was going to come together.”

Stewart goes for two wins in a row at the next NHRA event, the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 24-26.

At the rate he’s going, heck, if there was a forklift racing series, Stewart would probably wind up being a champion in that as well. Wait, scratch that, don’t give him any ideas for what he may want to put next on his bucket list after – not if, but when – he wins his first NHRA championship.