BROWNSBURG, Ind. — While a typical racing season has downtime during the holidays where cars aren’t on a race track, teams and drivers are consistently busy planning for the next year.
For Tony Stewart Racing, 24 years of consistent work and effort have come and gone with a monumental 25th season fast approaching for the championship-winning organization.
Ahead of the annual Performance Race Industry trade show in Indianapolis, TSR took the time to stop and celebrate what its accomplished as it embarks on year No. 25 in 2025.
Among the highlights of the celebration included team owner and three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, alongside wife and drag racer Leah Pruett, sprint car driver Donny Schatz and Funny Car star Matt Hagan reflecting on the journey.
For Stewart, the opportunity to look back was “the first time in a long time” he and his team have taken the time to reflect.
“I think as racers, you win a race, you might celebrate and think about it for 24 hours,” Stewart began. “But as soon as that 24 hours is up, we always catch ourselves sitting there focused on, ‘What are we going to do the next weekend to try to get the same results?’ So, it’s hard to think back when you’re always thinking forward.
“Coming into a 25th anniversary season, really, I guess, forced us to a certain degree to stop for just a small moment and look over our shoulder and look in the past and look at what we’ve done as an organization.”
Prior to a brief question-and-answer period, TSR officials played a highlight reel of some of the team’s most memorable victories.
From TSR’s first driver, Danny Lasoski with the World of Outlaws, to USAC Hall of Famer Levi Jones, who snagged seven USAC national points titles during his tenure with the team, an often steel-eyed Stewart had a smile and slight misty-eyed look as the video played.
“Seeing videos of Danny winning the first Knoxville Nationals for TSR and Levi’s wins and (Bryan) Clauson, we’ve had so many great drivers drive for us,” Stewart said. “I catch myself saying that like it’s over and it’s not.
“It’s just a checkpoint in time and a milestone of 25 years coming up.
“But it makes me proud of what we’ve been able to do on the USAC side, the World of Outlaw side, now the NHRA side with that. Our three-quarter midget program that we have here in Indiana.
“We have spent and dedicated our whole life to putting everything back that I’ve made in motorsports, putting it back in motorsports and continuing a legacy.”
Like most teams, TSR’s legacy started with humble beginnings.
After Stewart approached a disgruntled Lasoski at the annual Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., and learned of Lasoski’s fear of where he’d be competing the following year in a 410 sprint car, ‘Smoke’ stepped in.
Forming TSR in November of 2000, Stewart tapped Lasoski to be the driving force for the team.
“I think we did it the right way,” Stewart said. “Danny Lasoski was our first driver, and Jimmy Carr was his crew chief at the time and they were already with an established World of Outlaws team.
“We knew we were going to make the change at the end of the next season. So, it gave us a year to get the shop ready. Literally, our first shop was at Danny’s house. It was out of his garage. That’s where Jimmy lived, that’s where Danny was at and so that’s where we started the first team.”
While the Days of Thunder-esque shop made for a great grassroots story, growth was imminent as Stewart and TSR underwent expansion with a USAC program as the team moved to a purpose-built race shop.
“But once we got into the USAC side, then we had to get a shop and get all the parts and equipment,” Stewart said. “USAC program’s a way more in-depth program, because you’ve got midgets, sprint cars, silver crown cars,and dirt and pavement of all those.
“So, way more labor-intensive to get all that ready. That led us to eventually ending up in the shop we’re in today. But, eventually, we got out of the USAC side, mainly because I just didn’t have the time to go watch my cars race.
“So, we stuck with the World of Outlaw side.”
With the addition of two full-time drag racing teams, TSR’s 25,000-square-foot facility has hit its max.
“We definitely don’t have extra room,” Stewart laughed. “We’ve got all the room we need, but we’re full right now in this building.
“It’s just neat to see the transition over the years of having USAC cars on this side and then having the World of Outlaw team move over to this side and our merchandise go to the other side. Then moving that out, moving the World of Outlaw team back over, now moving the Nitro teams over here.
“It’s neat to see the evolution of it. But the one thing that’s kind of a common denominator is everything we do in this building is about doing the best we can at the shop to build winning race cars and go out and win races and contend for championships.”
While cars, drivers and crew members may change over 24 years, the heart of TSR remains unchanged as Stewart described the mantra of one of racing’s most successful organizations.
“Somebody asked me, they said, ‘Why don’t you have a sign on the door? TSR sign on the door?’ Because we don’t give tours. We don’t sell souvenirs out of it. We build race cars out of here,” Stewart said.
“We all know where we work. We all know where it’s at. We don’t need a sign to show us where we’re going to work.
“We just literally are a building full of racers that want to go out and win races and contend for championships.”
