Tony Stewart has always been that guy who lives for the rush of racing, turning every moment on the track into a hard-earned lesson fueled by pure determination. As a NASCAR Hall of Famer with three Cup Series titles to his name, he’s racked up championships in IndyCar, midgets, sprints, and USAC Silver Crown cars, always pushing for the next win without letting up. But when it comes to NHRA Top Fuel dragsters—machines that rocket past 330 mph and hit over 4 Gs in an instant—that’s a whole different beast. Even someone like Stewart, with all his experience, hits walls that remind you growth in this sport doesn’t come easy.

Look at what happened at the NHRA Reading Nationals back on September 14, 2025, when his dragster had a tire blowout and smashed into Doug Kalitta’s ride at more than 325 mph, flipping him into the wall and knocking him out cold for a bit. He shook it off fast, though, and was back racing at the Carolina Nationals not long after, proving the toughness that’s marked his time in NHRA since he jumped in for the 2024 season. As he keeps at it in this high-octane scene, one takeaway stands out: you never stop learning. And Stewart recently opened up on just how brutal that learning curve has been.

Tony Stewart’s eye-opening journey in Top Fuel

During a chat on the Dale Jr. Download podcast recently, Tony Stewart got real about the tough road to getting a handle on an NHRA Top Fuel car, pulling from those early days that showed how these 330-mph machines don’t mess around. “It’s funny for me because I went to Frank Holly’s driving school, and it literally was from sitting there and listening to Leah talk to her crew chiefs. And I’m sitting in the debrief, and I don’t want to be in there because, you know, it’s in the lounge, just like we had our lounge in CUP. And I’m listening to the crew chiefs and her talk and she’s talking about a run that went 3.7 seconds, and she’s taking 20 minutes to talk about all the stuff that happened that she felt,” he said, looking back.

That time spent listening to his wife, Leah Pruett, a longtime NHRA pro who took a break in 2024 to focus on starting a family, got him interested at first, but it also made clear the big differences between his NASCAR days and the lightning-fast world of drag racing. In the Cup Series, races stretch out over hours with plenty of room for planning, but Top Fuel is all about razor-sharp senses in less than four seconds, something Stewart figured out he couldn’t just carry over from circling ovals.

To get the basics down, Stewart went to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School, which has been around since 1985 and has helped thousands learn the ropes of dragsters. He kicked off with a super comp car, then moved up to an alcohol dragster that topped out at 220 mph. “I got in his alcohol. I don’t know how fast his super comp car ran, but his alcohol car ran 220 miles an hour. And I remember leaving that, and she goes, if you had to give yourself a grade, what would it be? I said, a C,” he admitted, knocking himself for messing up some steps even if the runs went okay.

Leah played a big role in helping him sharpen up, like telling him to snap his eyes from the Christmas tree to the track quicker on a follow-up trip three months later. Those sessions really drove home what sets Top Fuel apart: these cars blast to 82 mph in just the first 60 feet, way faster than anything he’d dealt with in NASCAR, where it’s more about keeping speed steady than exploding off the line.

The tough stuff really kicked in during real Top Fuel tests. “But that is literally the hardest thing about driving and learning how to drive a top fuel car. That’s, you know, in the first 60 feet, it’s running 82 miles an hour already, and 60 feet… So it’s insane how quickly these cars accelerate. So the first cone that the fans see is the 330 cone out there. And the car would be at 330 feet, and my brain’s back at 200 feet going, wait, what the hell’s going on now?” he described.

After a handful of runs in Leah’s car at Las Vegas, seven in total, and three more after Charlotte, he reached a point where his mind just couldn’t keep up with the speed, a dangerous spot in NHRA where slip-ups at those velocities can sideline you for good. That realization pushed him to dial it back to a 280-mph setup to adjust better, much like advice from folks like Rico Abreu on taking things step by step. What really stands out about this challenge is the raw force of Top Fuel, handling 11,000-horsepower rides that hit 100 mph in under a second, where Stewart’s NASCAR know-how gave him a start but wasn’t enough on its own.

Yet Stewart’s story doesn’t end with personal hurdles; it’s intertwined with broader shifts in his racing empire, where fresh alliances signal exciting changes ahead.

Rico Abreu opens up on Stewart’s hidden strengths

Rico Abreu, who’s gearing up to team up with Tony Stewart Racing for the 2026 High Limit season, shared some thoughts on a softer side of Stewart that doesn’t always show through his rough-and-tumble image. “People see the other side of Tony Stewart. The part of him that is a gruff hard a– but all I’ve ever seen from Tony is kindness. Someone kept breaking into our shop, and Tony told me to come over and work out of his place, and I was reluctant to at first,” Abreu recalled. This kind act during a rough patch for Abreu’s crew shows Stewart’s willingness to help out, building on a friendship that started back at the 2012 Chili Bowl.

The partnership brings Abreu’s group into TSR, including key people like Ricky Warner, who’s got 10 World of Outlaws championships under his belt. “I called him and ran the idea by him that we could bring my entire team with me and run it under the TSR banner,” Abreu explained, pointing out how their setups mesh well for chasing titles. With Abreu topping the High Limit points and grabbing nine wins in 2025, this setup looks primed to shake things up for TSR after a dry spell in World of Outlaws.

Abreu doesn’t hold back on his respect, saying Stewart helped him feel like he fit in. “He always treated me respect. He respected me as a racer. I haven’t always had confidence as a little person, believing that I fit in here, but he always made me feel like I belonged,” he added. This guidance comes as TSR moves on from Donny Schatz after 18 years together, setting the stage for big things in High Limit with Stewart’s experience and Abreu’s fresh energy.