{"id":102160,"date":"2025-09-09T03:45:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T03:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tony-stewart-opens-up-on-first-nhra-regular-season-championship-countdown-more\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T03:45:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T03:45:44","slug":"tony-stewart-opens-up-on-first-nhra-regular-season-championship-countdown-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tony-stewart-opens-up-on-first-nhra-regular-season-championship-countdown-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Stewart Opens Up on First NHRA Regular Season Championship, Countdown & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart has hoisted just about every trophy imaginable in motorsports, but his latest milestone is one no one had ever accomplished before. With his Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel dragster, Stewart became the first driver in NHRA history to clinch a Mission Foods Regular Season Championship. Now, as the six-race Countdown to the Championship begins this weekend at Maple Grove Raceway, Stewart is focused on turning that regular season success into the world title he came here for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very different picture than a year ago,\u201d Stewart admitted during NHRA\u2019s Countdown press availability. \u201cLast year we were ninth at the end of the season and really struggled the entire year with the car. To see where we\u2019ve turned the program around this year, that\u2019s not because of us as drivers. It\u2019s Neil Strausbaugh, Mike Domagala, Phil Shuler \u2013 good people that worked their tails off in the offseason to get us back on track. Instead of rolling into the racetrack last year hoping it would just go down the track, now we roll in every week knowing we\u2019re racing. That\u2019s a nice mindset to be in as a driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stewart\u2019s turnaround season carried him to the top of the points by the U.S. Nationals, where he locked up the first-ever NHRA regular season crown. That accomplishment, he says, is only a stepping stone. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to do something last weekend that\u2019s never been done in motorsports,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cGranted it\u2019s just a regular season championship, not a world championship, but to add that to the resume was really big. The only thing that can make it bigger is to add a world championship at the end of the season. We\u2019re going to buckle down and fight as hard as we can to try to accomplish that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Countdown format is familiar territory for Stewart, who cut his teeth in NASCAR\u2019s playoff system, but he\u2019s quick to point out the difference in drag racing: there are no second chances. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn drag racing you don\u2019t get that next lap or pit stop,\u201d he explained. \u201cEvery time you tow that car to the line, it matters. Whether it\u2019s qualifying or eliminations, you have to treat every run like it\u2019s for a championship. That\u2019s where your focus has to be \u2013 attention to detail. Crew guys double-checking each other\u2019s work, crew chiefs reminding us of spots on the racetrack, drivers protecting parts. This is where all those little things matter the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also knows how quickly fortunes can swing in this six-race dash. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWe watched it two years ago with Doug [Kalitta],\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t necessarily struggle through the regular season, but Maple Grove literally changed the tone of the championship for them. It\u2019s a reminder you can\u2019t take anybody for granted. Teams further back than us three here are capable of making a run. You can\u2019t overlook anything. You can\u2019t take anybody for granted. What we can control is what we do with our own program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he prefers being the hunter or the hunted, Stewart didn\u2019t hesitate. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been both in my career,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I always feel like it\u2019s a better situation if you can start on top. If they\u2019re focusing on you and trying to catch you, that\u2019s better than being the guy chasing. But you can\u2019t get spun up if you leave Maple Grove and you\u2019re fifth in points. You can\u2019t lose your mind and think you\u2019re out of it. We\u2019ve all seen how things can shift literally from one race to the next. At the end of the day you don\u2019t care how you get there, you just care that at Pomona they\u2019re giving you the big check and the big trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Stewart, Maple Grove is a chance to keep momentum rolling. It will be his 35th career Top Fuel start and his second at the Pennsylvania facility, where he won in Top Alcohol Dragster in 2023. He enters as the Countdown\u2019s No. 1 seed, 16 points ahead of Shawn Langdon, with Doug Kalitta close behind. The intensity is not lost on the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe sense of urgency goes up now,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cEvery round of qualifying, every round of eliminations, that intensity ratchets up. Hopefully by the time we get to Pomona, we\u2019re in a position to be fighting for this thing at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

He balances that urgency with the perspective of a driver who has seen it all across multiple disciplines. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou see some of the wildest things happen in championship chases,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I try to emphasize to our team is just stay focused. Don\u2019t change routines. Don\u2019t let anything be overlooked. We\u2019ve worked too hard to get here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove is the 40th edition of the event, and the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. Stewart\u2019s Tony Stewart Racing teammate Matt Hagan enters the Funny Car Countdown ranked third, chasing Austin Prock and Jack Beckman. Direct Connection backs both TSR entries, putting muscle car heritage and modern horsepower front and center in Reading. Stewart, meanwhile, knows he has history within reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a unique opportunity, one that was never even on the radar for me,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cBut here we are, leading the points heading into the Countdown. We\u2019ve got a car and a team that I feel like are on top of their game right now. I don\u2019t know that you could ask for more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on September 8, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Tony Stewart Opens Up on First NHRA Regular Season Championship, Countdown & More<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart has hoisted just about every trophy imaginable in motorsports, but his latest milestone is one no one had ever accomplished before. With his Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel dragster, Stewart became the first driver in NHRA history to clinch a Mission Foods Regular Season Championship. Now, as the six-race Countdown to the Championship […]<\/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-102160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102160","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=102160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}