TONY STEWART SCORES 1st NHRA TOP FUEL DRAGSTER WIN AT THE 4-WIDE NATIONALS IN LAS VEGAS!

Stewart went 3.870-seconds at 317.42 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Rayce Rudeen Foundation Dodge//SRT dragster to hold off Brown at the finish line, claiming his first career victory in the Top Fuel ranks and adding to the Hall of Famer’s long list of accolades. The former world champion in the NASCAR and IndyCar ranks won NHRA Rookie of the Year honors a year ago, and then went to the final round two weeks ago in Pomona before racing to the victory on Sunday in Las Vegas.

The team had performed well early in the season and then added to it in Las Vegas, qualifying fifth and then winning both of the first two quads on holeshots. He quickly tracked down Ashley and then Salinas, getting by Brown just before the finish line to claim a memorable win. He’s now won at every track on the property at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Stewart was certainly thrilled with Sunday’s result.

“It’s unreal. I haven’t been around an NHRA that long and I realize it takes a long time to win a race in this series, but everything in my career, I never had to wait over a year to win a race. I always figured it out in the first year, and multiple ones normally, so I’m just very appreciative of this win,” Stewart said.

“Last year was so stressful after Leah (Pruett, wife) almost won a world championship, and I get in the car last year, and the people in the stands think I’m the reason the car sucks. It wasn’t that we had bad people tuning on it, it was just it was a different combination. There were different variables that change my body weight is different, tubing changes from rules changes but it was still really frustrating we could not get on a path to where we could make gains last year.

“I think probably the one thing that may not sink in as much right now, but when Leah brought [son] Dom up on the stage there, that’s an emotion that you can’t even think about or dream of. When I saw her coming up those steps with him, my heart stopped. That was a feeling I’ve never had in my life before, and I have a feeling when we lay down and put my head on a pillow tonight, that’s going to be the one thing that I want to reflect on the most tonight.”

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action April 25-27 with the 15th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.