Name a car, name a track, name a series; chances are Tony Stewart has already wheeled it, won it, and moved on to the next challenge. If anything, this serial overachiever behind the wheel is showing no signs of taking time off racing. Now, at 54 years old, he is still very much in the action, wheeling his Tony Stewart Racing car at the NHRA level, with four career wins to his name. That is impressive, and Dale Jr. is tipping his hat in respect, from one NASCAR Hall of Famer to another.

After 20 years of raising the bar in NASCAR, with 18 of those seasons spent battling at the Cup Series level, Tony Stewart finally stepped out of the stock car scene in 2016. But that wasn’t retirement; it was just a pivot. He slid right into co-owning the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing with Gene Haas while scratching his own competitive edge with sprint cars and dragsters. ‘Smoke’ still has gas left in the tank, and Dale Junior didn’t hold back in acknowledging the veteran’s grit and passion for racing.

On the Dale Jr. Download, it all started with a mention of a list of the greatest race car drivers in the world over the course of the last century, and Junior says that Stewart is on it: “You were in it because of your diversity and all the different types of cars that you drove. But I feel like with the success that you’ve been able to experience in this short period of time you drove drag racing, that you’ve kind of—and I know you won’t take this mantle—but you’ve sort of put yourself at the top of that list because all the guys on that list all raced ovals, any car, stock cars, this, that, and the other dirt, but nobody has done what you’ve done to run short, dragsters, and quarter miles, and so forth, and coming out of, you know, at your age when we should be done learning new things. Pretty impressive.”

It’s a no-brainer. Tony Stewart‘s record book is out of this world. He is the first and still the only driver to pull off championships in stock cars, IndyCars, and USAC’s open-wheel triple threat of Midget, Sprint, and Silver Crown machines. Three NASCAR Cup Series titles put him with other elite drivers boasting multiple titles—a feat only 17 have achieved, one that places him in rare air alongside legends like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, and Lee Petty, to name a few.

The highlight reel doesn’t stop there: two Brickyard 400 trophies in 2005 and 2007, seven Daytona Xfinity Series wins, two Chili Bowl crowns, and signature USAC triumphs like the Cooper World Classic, Turkey Night Grand Prix, and 4-Crown Nationals. Where the biggest races are held, odds are Tony Stewart’s name is etched somewhere on the winners’ list. Fast forward to today, and the NHRA driver is beginning a new chapter with dirt car racer Rico Abreu in the High Limit Series, shaking hands on a deal set for 2026. Work never stops for the NASCAR veteran, and now he has recently dropped the hammer on his plan to retire.

Tony Stewart puts his retirement on hold

There is no hitting the brakes now. At 54, Tony Stewart is still charging forward, ready to square off with the younger generation without hesitation. In fact, the veteran has confirmed his return to the NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals event in Concord, North Carolina, this weekend after a horrifying crash on September 15 at the NHRA event at the Maple Grove Raceway. On the DJD, “Smoke” made it crystal clear that retirement isn’t on his radar.

He said, “I don’t see an end anytime near in the future. We’ve had a lot of our friends that have sat there and said, you know, ‘when’s enough going to be enough?’ You know, and I’m like, I don’t know, but my brain doesn’t say that this is it yet.”

And if anyone needs proof, just look at his 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign. Tony Stewart currently sits second, and the standings are 2,167 points, a razor-thin 18 points behind Doug Kalitta. All season long, he has been mixing it up with heavy hitters like Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley, and Brittany Force, stacking up multiple top-five runs. His breakthrough came with a massive NHRA Top Fuel win at the Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Illinois—a milestone that silenced doubters and cemented his reputation as a threat in drag racing. It’s obvious; Tony Stewart is not slowing down, not even a little, not even at all.