Tony Stewart wins Top Alcohol Dragster Wally at Four-Wide Nationals in Vegas.
By three ten-thousandths of a second, Tony Stewart added “NHRA drag-racing winner” to his already resplendent résumé Sunday at the Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Minutes after Stewart claimed the Top Alcohol Dragster trophy, his Funny Car driver, Matt Hagan, put the team’s Haas Automation Dodge Hellcat into the winners circle, establishing his command over the class with his third triumph in the season’s first four races.
Borrowing a line from the movie Talladega Nights, Stewart wisecracked, “I feel like Ricky Bobby. I don’t know what to do with my hands” at the top end of the track shortly after climbing from his Mobil 1 Dragster. Within minutes, he put those hands to use, high-fiving his team for its first double-up victory.
“I got tired of looking at Leah’s Wallys, and I wanted to know what it feels like to have one of my own,” Stewart said after edging runner-up Todd Bruce in the final so-called “quad” in just his fourth national event.
The four-wide format, which has befuddled and aggravated seasoned drag-racing veterans, hasn’t fazed Stewart. He said he figures it’s a bit of a counterweight.
Tony Stewart won by three ten-thousandths of a second Sunday.
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“I’m pretty excited about it, honestly,” he said. “I looked forward to this event when we were doing the schedule. I got excited about it, because there’s no way I’m going to sit here and say I’m not at a disadvantage when you’re going up against guys who have been drag racing for years. But they don’t race four-wide a lot. So that kind of get ’em out of their comfort zone . . . and it’s all different for me. If anything, this would be a bit of an equalizer and I wouldn’t be at quite a disadvantage. I embraced it.
“There wasn’t anything that caught me off-guard, necessarily,” he said. “There’s nothing about the four-wide that I haven’t liked so far. I feel like the approach I’ve been going with every round of qualifying has been a very solid approach. You hear drivers talk about getting disoriented on which light they’re looking at. I’ve found the lights to be easy to stay with.”
He likened this unconventional style to “having the opportunity to run a road course or dirt track in the [NASCAR] Cup Series, do something that’s a little different. So, doing the four-wide version, I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s kind of like heat-race format, I guess, for short-track racing. You don’t have to win. You just got to finish in the top two until you get to the finals. Then you’ve got to go for the win, obviously.”
All in all, he said, “I think it’s pretty cool. I’m excited and appreciative that I get to run it here at Vegas and can’t wait to go to Charlotte and do it again.”
The NHRA’s next stop on its 21-race tour will be April 28-30 at Concord, N.C.’s zMAX Dragway with the Circle K Four-Wide Nationals.
As for whether his business associates in other endeavors are weary of hearing about his excitement for NHRA drag racing, Stewart said, “I don’t give a s—. I don’t care if NASCAR is mad. I don’t care if anybody’s mad. I’m having fun, living my life now. I’m able to control my life. I don’t have to do all the things that I had to do with my previous jobs. I have more control of my life. I have great teammates that drive for us, a great wife, and [Pruett and Hagan] have been the best teachers you can ask for and get advice from.
“They all know I’m having fun. I think it’s the opposite of what you thought,” he said. “The comment I get the most is how happy I am: ‘You look happy. You look at peace.’ And I haven’t had that for a long time. So I’m at a very good spot in my life right now.”
And his team is at a really strong spot right now. Hagan is the Funny Car points leader. Pruett is fifth in the standings among the Top Fuel leaders after winning her opening round Sunday and advancing to the semifinal. And Stewart has mastered the track that denied him in the final in his previous appearance here last fall.
Stewart has won at every venue on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway property now.
“The Bullring is their pavement short track, and we won in a USAC spring and a USAC midget car on the same night,” he said. “We’ve won on the dirt track in a 360 winged sprint car. And I won my first USAC Silver Crown race at the dirt track . . . then in the Cup car on the big track . . . and here today. Plus in 1997, our only IndyCar championship finished here at Vegas.”
Keyword: Tony Stewart Is Now an NHRA Winning Driver