INDIANAPOLIS — Tony Stewart returns “home” with a different perspective, both in life and an on-track overhaul of his NHRA racing career.
Stewart, a 54-year-old from Columbus, Ind., sits second in the Top Fuel standings, 45 points behind Shawn Langdon and locked into the NHRA countdown to the championship. But the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, two-time Brickyard 400 winner and five-time Indy 500 starter has added pressure this weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
“The hard thing about Nationals for me is just the fact that it’s still a home race,” Stewart told IndyStar in a sitdown conversation. “Any time we raced at IMS, I always put extra pressure on myself; not on purpose, but just the fact that you’ve got friends and family there, you want to perform well in front of them. It’s hard when you’re competitive to not put pressure on yourself when it’s the biggest race of your season and when it’s a home race.”
Stewart this season has two wins in four final round appearances and was the No. 1 qualifier at Bristol on June 7.
He entered last year’s U.S. Nationals in jeopardy of missing the countdown to the championship with one bad run. The turnaround for this season, his second, began after a disastrous start in February at the Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Florida. Stewart only made three successful runs, leaving frustration after an offseason of work to remedy what went wrong the season before.
“Three-out-of-14 runs, the car makes it down the racetrack and that’s an epic failure,” Stewart said. “I felt like we were in a worse spot than we were when we finished the year.”
There was a pivotal moment of growth during a rather upsetting weekend. Stewart and his wife, Leah Pruett, welcomed Dominic Stewart, their first child together, into the world in November. As a new father, Stewart’s perspective changed that weekend.
“I told the crew I was going back (to the motorhome) to get a sandwich. I wasn’t even hungry. I just needed to get out of the pit, get out of the trailer and just rest for a minute. I was just frustrated,” Stewart said. “I walked into the motorhome and Dom’s bassinet was right there at the top of the steps. I looked over the top of it and he leaned his head back and looked up at me and he just smiled.
“At that moment, I realized what’s going on with that racecar is just not as important as what it used to be.”
Still, the Tony Stewart Racing crew rebuilt the car and headed for the season-opening Gatornationals March 6-9. The team found a big change after two days of testing and 10 runs over the weekend.
“Eight of those 10 runs, the car made it down the racetrack,” Stewart said. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, it’s the polar opposite of what we did three weeks ago.’ Before I got excited, I’m like, ‘Well, we’ll go to Phoenix, see how Phoenix goes.’”
He made the quarterfinals in Phoenix, and then the finals at Pomona. Stewart and his team built confidence and consistency knowing they had a competitive car.
“It’s like, ‘Holy crap. This wasn’t a fluke at Gainsville,’” Stewart said. “You sit there and go, ‘Whatever we did, we hit on it.’ Even the crew chiefs noticed that the window of balance in the car got wider.”
The momentum continued to build with his first NHRA Top Fuel win in Las Vegas, then another finals appearance in Charlotte a month later, and a second win May 18 in Joliet, Illinois. He further established himself as a Top Fuel championship contender with four straight semifinal appearances after that win.
“It gives you confidence knowing what we’ve done in the first half of the season and knowing that you don’t have to bring anything extra to the countdown. Once you get to the countdown, you have to think about every run you make. There’s points available and it can come down to three or less points to win this thing,” Stewart said. “I’m really happy about the way this year is going for me. I’m happier about the car going down the racetrack and being one of the most consistent cars running. To me, I can win more races with a car that goes down the racetrack every time, than I can with a car that goes 343 mph.”
And Stewart hopes this newfound happiness leads to more memorable moments with his family, such as that first win March 30 at Las Vegas, at U.S. Nationals and beyond.
“When they do the post-race interview, you’re facing down the track because of the camera set up for the video feed. I’m doing the interview, and I see the guy that’s giving the interview look over his right shoulder and I’m facing him,” Stewart said. “I look over my left shoulder and see Leah walking up the steps with Dom. I literally, as a 54-year-old grown man, started crying. That’s when I realized how much that moment meant to me.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Tony Stewart: Father, wife, child, NHRA US Nationals, stats, results