Tony Stewart Says NHRA Success Depends on Crew, Not Driver

Tony Stewart Says NHRA Success Depends on CrewMediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images - Getty Images

Tony Stewart’s championships have come in ever form of racing—open wheel, stock, and sprint cars—but the Indiana native says a drag racer’s crew plays a bigger role in a team’s success than the driver.

“Everything I drove before I got to drag racing, I was 70 percent of the equation,” Stewart explained. “If the car wasn’t a 100 percent right, there were things I could do with my hands and feet. I could manipulate it a little bit and I could sometimes band-aid it and make it better.”

However, it’s different in drag racing where Stewart says he’s only 30 percent of the equation.

“The tuners, the crew chiefs, those two crew chiefs with their computers. They’re the success or the failure of the race car itself,” Stewart said. “I still have that 30 percent of the equation of making sure I cut a good light, keep it in the groove, catch it if it spins or shakes too hard. At this part of my life, it’s fun for me to watch the crew… that’s the people that you’re excited for because you know how integral a part and how big a percentage of the success of that car is that group of guys.

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“Every time they’ve got to flip this thing and get it ready in 40 minutes to make the next run, one guy makes one mistake, he screws the whole run up and you’ve lost your chance to win. I feel like this is a much bigger team sport because … those crew guys that touch that race car, how big of an impact they make on it.”

Stewart won the season’s third NHRA Top Fuel event at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip and he gave his Elite Motorsports team 24 hours to celebrate that organization’s first-ever Top Fuel victory. After finishing their at-track, post-race duties, they immediately headed to an In-N-Out Burger near the dragway.