By advancing to the finals at the NHRA North Central Division race at St. Louis and defeating Gary Pritchett, Tony Stewart clinched his championship title in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division 3 on Saturday.
Going into St. Louis, Stewart and his McPhillips Racing team were 21 points behind Pritchett, so if the two met in the finals, Stewart had to earn the win to claim the title.
This marks Stewart’s first divisional championship in the Top Alcohol Dragster class in two years of competition. He finished second in both the NHRA North Central Division and World Championship in 2023.
“It was a pretty cool deal today,” Stewart began. “This is redemption from last year at this same event. When we were here a year ago, all we had to do was get through the first round and we would have clinched the division championship. Obviously, we were also racing for the world championship points as well. But, we had a problem. The car shook and the competitor we ran against had their best run of the season against us. It was a bitter pill to swallow. We were having to come from behind today.
“Even with two wins and a runner-up coming into today, if he (Gary Pritchett) made it to the finals, we had to beat him to win this thing. Out of five races this season, we ran Gary in four of them and we were in the finals together in all four. To win three against him is awesome,” Stewart continued.
“He’s a tough competitor and Randy Meyer’s team always does a great job. I’m really proud of my McPhillips Racing team. These guys did an awesome job. It’s a nice redemption weekend for us. We struggled here last weekend in the Top Fuel car. To be able to come here and win the race and have low ET of the event in the finals and win the division championship is just really cool.
“For everything we’ve done in motorsports, to be able to add this to our resume is really special.”
Stewart earned low ET (elapsed time) during each round of eliminations on Saturday.
The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be back behind the wheel of the Mobil 1 Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series at the Texas NHRA FallNationals Oct. 11-13 at Texas Motorplex. He’s currently ninth in the Top Fuel standings, 194 points behind points leader Antron Brown.