Tony Stewart, Driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster
Round wins are worth 1.5 times more at Indianapolis. With one race remaining in the regular season, what are your goals at this year’s NHRA U.S. Nationals prior to the Countdown to the Championship?
“Obviously, the points and a half situation make it a little more stressful if you’re staring at the point standings, which we can’t ignore. But, at the same time, we’re trying to look forward and not look at the points until the end of the day on Monday. We just need to stay focused on continuing with the momentum we built through the Sonoma and Brainerd weekends. Testing went well Monday after Brainerd and I feel like we’re making gains with this race car and are finally in a realm where we’re respectable. We’ve just kind of been getting by up until this point of the year, but I finally feel like we have a race car now that that we can race. We would love to have two more events to try to work it before the U.S. Nationals, but it just didn’t work out that way. At least we’re finally getting the car in a position where we feel like we’re racing every weekend, so now we just have to focus on doing the best we can. Obviously, the U.S. Nationals is the biggest race of the year for drag racing and it’s a home race for us personally, so I put a lot of pressure on it from that standpoint, so that the points won’t be the main focus. The focus is just going to be having a great weekend and if we can do that, the points will take care of itself.”
You and teammate Matt Hagan will be running unique schemes in commemoration of Direct Connection’s 50th Anniversary. How special will it be sporting their red, white and blue colors for the NHRA’s biggest event?
“I haven’t even been able to see the new paint scheme for the Nationals and that’s mainly because they (the team) know that I have a history of leaking out information on new paint schemes before it’s time to get released. I’m very excited to have two really cool paint schemes on both my car and Matt’s car. We’re both going to be proud to represent Dodge and their anniversary coming up, so I think we’re both going to be really excited to have a new cool paint scheme to support.”
Matt Hagan, Driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car
You’re coming off of a runner-up finish at Brainerd International Raceway and you also got to test following the race. What momentum does that give you coming into the NHRA U.S. Nationals, knowing that round wins are worth 1.5 times more at Indianapolis?
“It was nice to have a runner-up finish at Brainerd. We’ve kind of been digging our way out of qualifying all year long. We’re not used to being in the back half like we have all season. We’ve been able to dig on Sunday and work past the adversity. It was great to go to the Finals. Obviously, I red lit and I felt like I let my team down. As a driver, you have to have broad shoulders. You get to celebrate and hold a trophy when you do well, but you also have to take the brunt of it when you don’t. I feel like I have to make it up to my guys. I won on a couple holeshot wins the last couple races, but at the end of the day, they pay me to win races. I’m carrying a little bit of that burden into Indy, but I do feel like we race well on Sunday overall. I’m hoping we can have a little better qualifying position in Indy and have a better-looking ladder for race day. I’ve been blessed to win Indy before. It’s a special race and it means a lot when you win it. We were able to test after Brainerd, which didn’t go great. We smoked the tires three times and then put a cylinder out the fourth time, but I feel like we found some power. Things are promising, we just have to figure out how to apply everything. If anyone can do that, it’s our team. I believe in Dickie Venables (crew chief), Mike Knudsen (co-crew chief), Alex Conaway (car chief) and all the guys. They’re smart and we’ll go out there swinging. We’ll have a full week in Indy and we’re going to enjoy it.”
You and teammate Tony Stewart will be running unique schemes in commemoration of Direct Connection’s 50th Anniversary. How special will it be sporting their red, white and blue colors for the NHRA’s biggest event?
“Being able to fly the Dodge banner for almost 15 years and win four championships with them is really special. All of my 51 career wins have been with them. Hopefully people can look back down the road and say ‘Wow, they made history.’ It’s really cool to be able to commemorate Direct Connection’s 50th anniversary. Their whole group is great and we love having Mark Whitney at the track. We’re really excited to be able to fly a new scheme for them. We always have a great time doing it and they make it fun for us. Hopefully the new scheme is fast. We’ll go out there and put on a show like we always do and hopefully we can get them the win.”
Tony Stewart Racing
