{"id":100829,"date":"2025-05-22T16:18:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T16:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tony-stewart-fires-back-at-critics-takes-over-top-fuel-points-lead-with-statement-win-in-chicago\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T16:18:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T16:18:23","slug":"tony-stewart-fires-back-at-critics-takes-over-top-fuel-points-lead-with-statement-win-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tony-stewart-fires-back-at-critics-takes-over-top-fuel-points-lead-with-statement-win-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart Fires Back at Critics, Takes Over Top Fuel Points Lead with Statement Win in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart left nothing unsaid after claiming his second Top Fuel victory at the 25th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK on Sunday. The motorsports icon didn\u2019t just win \u2014 he made a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make a big mistake of reading social media, which I think we all make \u2014 very vital, critical mistakes \u2014 by reading the keyboard warriors that are dumbasses that sit in their mother\u2019s basements and don\u2019t do a damn thing and haven\u2019t accomplished anything in their life and tell you how bad you are at what you do,\u201d Stewart said in a raw, emotional post-race press conference<\/a>. \u201cBut they can\u2019t tell you to your face. I\u2019ve never stood at the ropes and had anybody come up there and go, \u2018You really are bad at this, and you should put your wife in the car.\u2019 But I read it on the internet \u2014 \u2018Why is he driving the car? His wife\u2019s way better. She almost won a world championship.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWell now they can kiss my ass. They literally can kiss my ass. And I\u2019ll sit there and stick it out for them too, because they don\u2019t do a damn thing. They\u2019ve never accomplished anything in their life. They don\u2019t know how to work hard to be successful in anything. That\u2019s why they say the shit they say on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart, driving the Rinnai Top Fuel dragster, powered to a 3.777-second run at 329.10 mph to defeat<\/a> Justin Ashley in the final round. It marked his fourth consecutive final and vaulted him to the top of the NHRA Top Fuel points standings \u2014 a career first.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo sit there and have to fight and prove these people wrong, that\u2019s the pride I take now. That\u2019s the pride I\u2019m leaving here with tonight,\u201d Stewart continued. \u201cI\u2019m going on vacation with Buddy Hull and his family. We\u2019re going and having a great week this week. I\u2019m gonna celebrate this because this is for all those people that say that I suck, I\u2019m no good, I\u2019m terrible, I\u2019ve never been anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have anything to show for it. I got two silver Wallys this year to show for it. We\u2019ve proven these guys wrong. So they can say what they want to say now. Now they just look stupid when they say it. That\u2019s the pride I take in what we have, what we\u2019ve done today and what we\u2019re accomplishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory comes on the heels of shoulder surgery and what Stewart described as too much idle time scrolling through toxic online commentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a lot of crap when Leah decided to make the change to get out of the car. I had shoulder surgery at the same time, so I couldn\u2019t do anything for literally six weeks, and I sat there and spent way too much time reading stupid people\u2019s comments,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I let it get the best of me for a while. But at the same time, it was my motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese idiots don\u2019t realize \u2014 the more they talk shit about me, the more they motivate me to be better. That\u2019s my best motivation. So I encourage them: keep doing it. Keep coming, keep coming at me. The more you come at me, the more I\u2019m gonna prove you wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the fire, Stewart balanced his frustration with an outpouring of appreciation for the NHRA community \u2014 something he says makes drag racing unlike any other motorsport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like where I\u2019m at. I like the atmosphere that NHRA provides. I\u2019m very happy about my decision to be where I\u2019m at,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when you go up against Davis\u2019 team, and you go up against Skagg and Randy and his program, and you race against Justin Ashley \u2014 I guarantee you, I can go in my cell phone right now and there\u2019s a text message from Justin Ashley and Mike Ashley congratulating us. And probably Randy as well. And Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the camaraderie in the sport that I think is underestimated. As much as NHRA wants the drama because they think they gotta be like NASCAR \u2014 they don\u2019t have to be like NASCAR. They have something nobody has. They have an atmosphere here that is family-friendly, that is fan-friendly, that is competitor-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled camping out with fellow racer Steve Torrence and his wife Natalie the night before the final, sharing laughs and building friendships off the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just\u2026 we\u2019re camping together. And that\u2019s the stuff I like about our sport,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

And when it comes time to race?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you line up against them, you wanna beat them. We joke around saying, yeah, you wanna put your foot on their throat and make their face turn blue,\u201d Stewart said, grinning. \u201cBut that\u2019s competitors \u2014 and that only lasts for three and a half seconds. But when you get to the top end, whoever loses, you congratulate each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be cutthroat all the time. It\u2019s respect. And that\u2019s what NHRA has \u2014 these teams, these drivers, they all respect each other. And that\u2019s what I really love about the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on May 22, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Tony Stewart Fires Back at Critics, Takes Over Top Fuel Points Lead with Statement Win in Chicago<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart left nothing unsaid after claiming his second Top Fuel victory at the 25th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK on Sunday. The motorsports icon didn\u2019t just win \u2014 he made a statement. \u201cI make a big mistake of reading social media, which I think we all make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}