An Old Dog Learns New Tricks - DJD Classics w/ Tony Stewart

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode Title: An Old Dog Learns New Tricks - DJD Classics w/ Tony Stewart
Release Date: November 25, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (plus DJD team)
Guest: Tony Stewart
Podcast by: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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Overview

In a deeply candid, wide-ranging episode, Dale Jr. sits down with NASCAR legend Tony Stewart for a heartfelt, entertaining discussion about racing, reinvention, and the ongoing journey of life on and off the track. The main theme: adapting to change and learning new tricks—whether that’s in health, career, personal life, or racing disciplines. Stewart opens up about weight loss, marriage, his transition into drag racing, ownership roles, and the enduring drive that keeps him trying new challenges at 50.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Health & Lifestyle Transformation

[01:15–05:32]

• Stewart’s New Diet & Weight Loss Journey:
  • Uses a weekly appetite-suppressing shot, resulting in 14 pounds lost over 12 weeks.
    • “I went for 27 and a half hours before I ate my first meal... wasn’t hungry. And I’m like, why am I tired, why do I have a headache? Yeah, because I haven’t ate.” (Tony Stewart, 01:49)
  • Credits “cutting back 30%” on eating, inspired by colleagues who tried Ozempic.
  • Stewart’s wife, Leah, is highly active—hiking, biking—encouraging healthier choices.
• Dale Jr. Relates:
  • Describes fluctuating weight, the mental toll, and struggle for balance.
    • “You get depressed and get disappointed, and then you gotta bust your ass to try to lose 15 pounds… trying to find some lifestyle that will sustain what you want to be is tough. It’s not easy.” (Dale Earnhardt Jr., 03:15)
• Impact of Spouses:
  • Both Stewart and Dale Jr. note how their wives’ habits positively influence their choices and routines.

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2. Roots & Relocating: Where Is Home?

[05:32–10:58]

• No Set Routine: Stewart splits time between several places—Havasu, Florida, races, and Indiana, adjusting to life after meeting Leah right before COVID.
• The Columbus, Indiana Estate:
  • Stewart explains nearly selling his custom-built home to move closer to surf/lake life.
    • “Everybody was mental at that time… people were buying any land they could find.” (Tony Stewart, 07:31)
  • The joy of nature and tranquility at home persuades him to take it off the market.
    • “Saw a deer… then two turkeys… seven elk… I turned into a kid when I went down the driveway the other day.” (Tony Stewart, 10:46)

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3. Sprint Car & Series Ownership: New Chapters

[10:59–13:56]

• Current Roles:
  • Stewart owns a World of Outlaws sprint car team, the All Star Circuit of Champions (a sprint car series), and Eldora Speedway.
  • Personally, he hasn’t actively driven sprint cars in two years—feels unable to stay competitive against younger, full-time racers.
    • “If you’re going to run with those guys, you better be running 60, 70 nights a year… I don’t go to the gym. You know, at 50, it’s hard to run with those kids.” (Tony Stewart, 11:50)
• On the Need for Constant Reps:
  • Cites the extreme challenge of jumping in part time.
    • “The only way… to be competitive is to be doing it every single week.” (Dale Jr., 13:47)

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4. Drivers Who Can Do Anything—Kyle Larson & The Old School

[13:56–16:36]

• The “Alien” Factor:
  • Dale Jr. draws parallels between Kyle Larson and all-time greats like Stewart himself, A.J. Foyt, and Mario Andretti.
    • “He’s the guy that can take off a month, jump right back in one, and be the fastest guy there… It’s kind of like you were in your prime.” (Dale Jr., 15:37)
  • Stewart praises Larson’s multi-discipline dominance but notes even he keeps sharp by running multiple nights a week.

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5. Legend Lore: The Old Days & Tony Stories

[16:36–19:02]

• Memorable Tale:
  • Stewart once ran multiple races in a single night at Tioga/Shangri-La, scored a dramatic retaliation with a chunk of styrofoam after being wrecked, and then won other races—earning a reputation for both on-track fire and fan excitement.
    • “...You took a big old chunk of that Styrofoam and waited for him to come around. And when he did, you wedged that son of a ... right into the front!” (Tony’s friend, 17:36)
  • Stewart humorously acknowledges, “That’s life. That’s the ultimate lie.”

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6. Owning a Racing Series: Hard Lessons & Thick Skin

[19:18–22:11]

• Advice to Dale Jr. and Other New Series Owners:
  • Warns that, no matter how flawlessly a night runs, someone will complain—and you’ll always be the target.
  • Cites Mike Helton’s advice: “Don’t make it personal.”
    • “If you listen to what they have to say and let them get it out, you’re halfway to the solution.” (Tony Stewart, 21:05)

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7. SRX Series: The Modern IROC and Navigating Motorsports Politics

[25:47–32:36]

• SRX Identity:
  • Born as a modern twist on IROC, focusing on fan engagement, relatable formats, and allowing driver/car adjustments.
  • Highlights tracks like Slinger: “Probably the most fun race we’ve ran in SRX this year.” (Tony Stewart, 27:37)
• Relationship with NASCAR (and other series):
  • Admits initial pushback from Steve Phelps and others, but demonstrates SRX supports, not competes with, NASCAR and IndyCar.
    • “It’s not meant to take away from anything. It’s meant to add for everybody.” (Tony Stewart, 29:23)
  • Running SRX on Thursday nights to be supplementary and not encroach on major weekends.
• Driver and Track Selection:
  • Tony puts together a “wish list” of drivers each season and works logistics around six consecutive race weeks—laments that some great tracks (e.g., Vegas Bullring, Irwindale) are hard to include due to logistics.

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8. The Entertainer and the Villain: Paul Tracy & SRX Dynamics

[32:36–34:30]

• Stewart on Paul Tracy:
  • Embraces Tracy’s “chaos” as vital to entertainment: “You’ve never bought a comic book or read a comic book that had a hero that didn’t have a villain… You have to have the villain for the hero to be the hero.” (Tony Stewart, 33:12)

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9. Surprises in SRX: Marco Andretti, Ernie Francis, and More

[34:30–38:28]

• Marco Andretti:
  • Surprises Stewart with success on ovals and short tracks—credits iRacing for his preparation and determination.
  • “He prepares for every event before we get there. It’s crazy how much effort he’s put into it and work.” (Tony Stewart, 34:40)
• Ernie Francis:
  • Ray Evernham’s pick. Impressed the SRX paddock, even drawing “tough love” from Stewart for driving etiquette.
  • Stewart: “I was mad at Ernie because I love Ernie so much… I said, don’t be like them. You’re better than that.” (Tony Stewart, 36:07)

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10. Marriage & Personal Life Transformation

[40:39–47:29]

• Meeting Leah Pruett (NHRA Star):
  • Stewart shares the story of “Snake” Prudhomme pushing them to meet before either was available; their first date was the day before COVID lockdown.
  • Romantic and humorous—Tony drives overnight to Gainesville to meet, then they take a 2-hour Uber to Daytona Bike Week on their first day.
    • “At 6:30 on the nose, she… beats on the door. We go to lunch at the campus there in Gainesville, and they’re like, now what are we going to do? So she’s like, you ever been to bike week?” (Tony Stewart, 42:13)
  • COVID turns a few days together into four and a half months in Havasu—“live with somebody you don’t know for four and a half weeks or four and a half months… It worked. 24/7 with each other and it didn’t take long.” (Tony Stewart, 45:53)
• Navigating Professional Conflicts:
  • Leah is sponsored by Pennzoil/Dodge, Tony by Mobil1/Ford—they solve it through careful branding arrangements.

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11. The Drag Racing Adventure

[47:38–65:58]

• Tony Becomes a Drag Racer:
  • Immerses himself in NHRA because of Leah—finds the open paddock and direct fan access refreshing.
    • “When fans come to a drag race, when they buy a ticket, it gets them everywhere... and it is a cool atmosphere and way more laid back than what we've been used to.” (Tony Stewart, 49:55)
  • Attends Frank Hawley's drag racing school, learning the complexity and cadence of burnouts, staging, and technical discipline.
• On Testing Limits:
  • Initially doubts he'd be ready, but Leah and his new team push him forward.
  • “I left the test session… that’s crazy because when we started driving different cars, you just work up to it… in drag racing it’s all off the timers… I said, I'm done testing with you guys.” (Tony Stewart, 59:29)
• Close Call in Vegas:
  • Debuts at Vegas, makes the finals, loses by one inch to 19-year-old Madison. Stewart admires her composure:
  • “There’s 15,840 inches in a quarter mile and I lost by 1 inch, 2/10,000 of a second. And as much as I wanted to be disappointed… I thought, this is really cool... To see her win her first national… no shame in saying I got beat by a 19-year-old girl in that scenario.” (Tony Stewart, 63:49)
• On Saying No:
  • Admits he rarely says no to new adventures but draws the line at driving a Funny Car—though team pressure is mounting.
    • “Hagen absolutely wears me out about driving that funny car… If that thing blows up in the dragster, it’s behind me. You blow up [in a funny car], you drive right into the fire.” (Tony Stewart, 68:21)
• Broadcasting:
  • Loves the booth experience, citing the fan response as motivation and enjoying working with Clint Bowyer and Mike Joy.
    • “I love it… I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it or not, and I think it was more the fans response… but I thoroughly enjoy it though.” (Tony Stewart, 71:04)

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12. Stewart-Haas Racing & Delegation

[72:51–76:30]

• Stewart on Ownership:
  • Not as hands-on with daily technical setup—focuses on hiring good people and jumping in on big decisions.
    • “My job is putting the right people together … you have to guide the ship, but you have to have people that can also pull the rope and do the work and know your vision and how you want it.” (Tony Stewart, 74:36)
  • Insists he's still passionate about NASCAR, despite his multitude of new ventures.
• On Kevin Harvick:
  • Praises Harvick’s leadership, team-building skills, and the pairing with Rodney Childers:
    • “Kevin hand-picked those guys… built that four car team, and that's why they have the success… He was one of the most well-rounded drivers that NASCAR has right now.” (Tony Stewart, 77:45)

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Notable Quotes

• On Change:
  • “I never thought I'd own a racetrack. I never dreamed of owning a race team, never dreamed of owning a series. None of this stuff was ever planned… So I'm not going to sit here and say, no, I won't try to drive a Top Fuel car…”
    (Tony Stewart, 68:21)
• On Drag Racing’s Difficulty:
  • “People think these things just go in a straight line down through there. They don’t.”
    (Tony Stewart, 53:32)
• On Team Leadership:
  • “I can't fix a problem if I don’t know there’s a problem.”
    (Tony Stewart, 74:36)
• Classic Dale Jr. on Stewart’s Life:
  • “Your life has changed tremendously… find this balance… you do a damn good job. I admire how you’re able to juggle all the things you do…”
    (Dale Earnhardt Jr., 79:10)
• Stewart on Learning & Humility:
  • “At your age and everything you’ve ever done… you’re transparent enough to admit, hey man, I wasn’t sure whether I needed to do this or not...”
    (Dale Jr., 63:22 with Stewart responding)

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• Stewart explains his 14-lb weight loss: [01:21–02:59]
• Tony’s wildlife encounter at his Indiana home: [10:12–10:58]
• His comedy about being a “creepy 50-year-old” at spring break in Havasu: [08:24]
• Styrofoam revenge at Shangri-La: [17:34–18:10]
• Tony describes marriage origins with Leah: [40:39–47:29]
• Losing the drag race by one inch: [63:49]
• Refusing to drive a Funny Car & teammate peer pressure: [68:21–69:38]

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Conclusion

Tony Stewart’s story in this episode is one of continuous growth and reinvention. He remains remarkably humble, honest, and driven—never shying from new challenges, whether that’s personal health, business, or entirely new racing disciplines. Through humor, war stories, and candor, Stewart and Dale Jr. offer listeners insights into the persistence, vulnerability, and excitement of living as a true racer—at any age.

Transcript

[Tony Stewart]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Home Media.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Hey, let's rewind a DJD classic.

[Tony Stewart]

Enjoy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thanks for coming.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, in town all week.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Oh, here's your water if you want one. We got other stuff. We have beer if you want.

[Tony Stewart]

I wish. Man, I'm on a diet. Are you? Dude, I've lost £14 in two and 12 weeks. Yeah, it's stupid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I thought you.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

What are you.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Are you eating?

[Tony Stewart]

Shot. Oh, so it's like once a week for 12 weeks. And I went for 27 and a half hours before I ate my first meal. After, I got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait a minute. Now you did what? You got what's in your arm.

[Tony Stewart]

You get shots. You get a shot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get a shot once a week. And what is this shot for?

[Tony Stewart]

It to help you lose weight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay, so it, what it does is.

[Tony Stewart]

It curbs your appetite. Like, went for 27 hours and I'm like, still wasn't hungry. And I'm like, why am I tired and why do I have a massive headache? Yeah, Because I have an eight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So it's protein.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I noticed, man, that you've. You've been slimming down. But. But for months. Like, I mean, I thought, yeah, I thought you'd lost a little bit of weight over, you know, the last 10.

[Tony Stewart]

Months, but now here, drinking as much beer. Yeah. And. And literally it was as simple as quit cramming so much crap down your throat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

But you know, cut it back 30% and. And I started seeing difference. So then you do that and you got serious. Well, and then after a while, then that 30%. Now you go, ah, I cut it back another 20 because that, that becomes your, your baseline again. And then I, you know, I heard Heard a couple guys in our industry that had done the Ozempic deal, and I asked our doctor, and she goes, I got something way better than that. And the lady, that one of the nurses in the office, she goes, I'm starting at 2 tomorrow. I said, well, I'll come in tomorrow too. I'll start with you. And I've seen her every week because we get her shots the same day. Plus she works there, but, but she's, I can see the difference in her too. And she goes, I can see the difference in you. So it's, it definitely is working.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I was watch went the screen grab. I've seen you on social media and TV and stuff over the last 10 months, and I've been seeing a noticeable difference in your, in, in, in your health and how you look. And then on Kenny's show, the screen grab that he used to advertise it on YouTube, I can't, you, I don't even recognize you almost because you look so much better, man, I'm really happy for you. And that's tough. I mean, it's tough to, like, you say, like, I, I, I fluctuate a lot with my weight. I go like 172 to 190 back and forth every probably two or three years and try. I don't, I get, you know, when I get to 190, it's like my pants stop fitting. And you get depressed and get disappointed, and then you got to bust your ass to try to lose 15 pounds. And then you get happy again, and then you just go back the other direction and trying to find some, you know, lifestyle that will sustain what you want to be where you want to be is tough. It's not easy.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, my wife is very healthy and athletic. I mean, hikes a lot, runs a lot. We bike. We bike some. She's got me hiking with her out there in Arizona. And you hike up the hills. There's one hill, we hike a lot, and I die twice on it. And she waits, and then we get to the top and hang out for a little bit, and then we hike down. Going down, I kick her ass. Going downhill.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

Because I got gravity and momentum on my side, but it is helping. I mean, it's just all those things. And she eats a little healthier. She eats a lot healthier than I do. But, yeah, it's starting to get me to eat a little healthier as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had the same experience when I got with Amy, and she has a, you know, she's got her own lifestyle in terms of how she eats and how she works out and all that stuff. And I'll never. I'll never be as dedicated to it as she is, but I think. Have you experienced just being around her, how that's changed some of the decisions you make? And you're more influenced to make the better decision now when it comes to, you know, what you're going to eat for dinner, what you're going to do with some, you know, a couple hours of free time in the middle of the week.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. And I don't know if you've met my wife or not, but she has that uncanny ability to sit there and go, are you sure you really want that?

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

She says, somebody else gets that, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Now I feel better.

[Tony Stewart]

And it's. She's not saying, no, you can't have it, but she's saying, no, you can't have it. That's a good decision. It's just a translation is all it is. Yeah, it's like, you sure you really want that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Tony Stewart]

Nah, I probably want this instead. You're right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where do you spend most your time these days?

[Tony Stewart]

Man, we're still trying to get a pattern. We just haven't had a pattern. I mean, we met the Monday before COVID hit, and from that moment on, my life has totally been different. Her life has been quite a bit different. This year. We started the year, we went to Havasu for a couple weeks, flew to Florida the week before Daytona, did the sprint car stuff for a week, was at Daytona for a week, went to Gainesville to do preseason testing. I flew out to LA for the Coliseum race, came back to Florida, was in Florida another week for testing and baby Gator Nationals and then Gator Nationals. We were down there for five straight weeks, then left there, went, did the show at Atlanta, flew from Atlanta back to Havasu, and we've really been in Havasu until this week. And I'm finally back here. And then after here, we'll go back to Indy and we start back on the east coast races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, what does. So I saw probably six months ago. So you. You got this house, right? You got this property. Where is it at exactly?

[Tony Stewart]

In Columbus, Indiana.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Indiana. Sorry. So you're. I've been, you know, watching you for years. Massages land and. And shape it like you want. And you got this incredible house and this massive helmet collection and your own, you know, the old Indy car hanging on the wall. And you were going to sell it. And I thought, wow, why would he do that? And so, you know, I was, it was, I was, I got a little sad almost because I was thinking, man, you just built this thing.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Like, have you been there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, but I mean, he's sad over.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

The couch he's not even been to.

[Tony Stewart]

If he, if he comes to it, he's really going to be sad if I sell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like he built this in his own, you know, he did this with his own work, hard work, right? All the, all the, all the years of racing and grinding through all the cup schedules year after year, that was the result, right?

[Tony Stewart]

But it's simple though. This is why we did it. Everybody was mental at that time. I mean, if you had an acre of land that had rocks on it, people were buying it because they just were buying land. And I thought, we'll throw a number out there and if somebody wants to buy it, they can have it. And the other reason was Leah and I like to surf a lot. Wake surf. Well, for us to go wake surf where we live, it's an hour, hour and 15 minutes by the time you get the boat ready, get to the water, get it in the water, and then it's an hour and a half coming back. So you gotta take all the time to clean it and dry it when you get it out. So I thought, well, we'll look at it if it sells, we'll find someplace on a lake where we can literally just drop the boat in and go surf. And it's not a production to go, go surf for a day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you and her, when you and her talk about where y' all want to put roots, like what do y' all have those conversations and what is, what is like the conversation?

[Tony Stewart]

Like it's like a tug of war match with two evenly matched teams. It just keeps going back and forth. I mean, I like Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu is fun. I mean you can, we literally, from where our house is now, we can buy four blocks and be in the desert. Go up the, go up the hill, you can boat, you can surf, you can hang out in the channel. Spring break is insane there, which it's cool to be around. Except for you don't like to be that creepy 50 year old guy that's watching all these kids on spring break. But it's a fun town and it's got a lot of racers. You wouldn't believe all the racers there. Wayne Rainey, the motorcycle rider, one of the supercross riders that's retired, lives out there. Billy Moyer, senior, the dirt late model guy, has a house there. But it's A big car culture town. So you got. Every Thursday, they shut this main. Well, they don't shut the main drag down, but everybody parks in the parking spots with their cars. Yeah. And it's. It's a really cool deal. So it's just a very, very laid back town. And from the atmosphere that you and I are used to being in all the time, it's nice to live in a town where people know who you are. But they also are just chilled out and respectful and just hang out. They don't make a big deal about it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It sounds fun, man. I mean, I know you probably got some cars that are fun to take out to things like that. I've got a few. And when the community gets together and everybody's kind of showing off their stuff and admiring each other's cars and it could be. It can be a great experience. But.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Well, wait a second. Did you said that you got sad when he was about to sell? Did it?

[Tony Stewart]

Actually, no. We took it off the market.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You took it off. So I'm ending for you, Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So what's the plan? Do you go there? Yeah, actually, I will stay there.

[Tony Stewart]

I went there the other day. Like I said, we've been in Arizona, and I had an appearance in Nebraska, and I got to come home for three days. I landed, and I'm like, man, I probably should stop at the gas station down here and ask for directions. But got to stay there for three days. And it was crazy because. And I even called Leah when I. When I got everything unloaded, I'm like, I started down the driveway and I saw a deer, and I stopped and watched that one doe go across there. Then I got down, I saw two turkeys go across the driveway. Then I went past and went. Actually went past the house across the dam a little bit and looked out in the field to the left, and seven elk are down there. There's two more turkey running across. There's deer everywhere. Saw a raccoon. I'm like, why did I put this thing on the market in the first place? I couldn't believe I turned into a kid when I went down the driveway the other day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's awesome.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Amazing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you're so busy and you're all over the country. You. What is your involvement with sprint cars where you're a team owner? What. What all do you have going on in dirt racing?

[Tony Stewart]

This is the part where it's actually legitimately sad. So the happy part is I still have Donnie Schatz, and he's running full time with the World of Outlaws still have the All Star circuit of champions sprint car series.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You own a series?

[Tony Stewart]

A series, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I want to talk to you about that.

[Tony Stewart]

And then we still have Eldora, obviously, but my side of the sprint car stuff, I haven't ran a sprint car for two years, except for doing. I've done some testing with Donnie and the team, and I did the who's your tire test at the end of the year for the new sprint car tire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. So you just literally don't have time in the day to do it.

[Tony Stewart]

I could go run a race here or there, but the sprint car series is so competitive, and these. You got these young kids that are coming in, and I mean, they stand on the gas. I mean, and the cars are getting so good that even when the tracks get slick, they're. They're flying around there. Right. And if you're going to run with those guys, you better be running 60, 70 nights a year. You can't run a dozen nights a year and expect to run with them. Right. And I don't go to the gym. You know, at 50, it's hard to run with those kids. So, you know, physically. Yeah. So if I'm going to do it, I don't want to do it, to just do it. If I went and tried to run a sprint car race right now, it'd be an accomplishment just to make the. A main each night against the competitors that are out there. There's so many good sprint car teams.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You're feeling that in late models, aren't you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So when we had the. We had Casey Kane here, and I was talking to him about racing, this was a couple years ago, but he was like, man, I said, you're going to run your wing car a little bit this year. And he goes, yeah. I was like, you know, it seems like it's tough for you to have. Get the results. And he's like, I need to run every week for six months to be able to get to where they are.

[Tony Stewart]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I get it now. You know, I mean, that discipline is so unique and so damn challenging. I've been going out to Millbridge with our family and all the people in this industry and, you know, that go over there and just. That just watching it from that perspective, it's a. It's. It's a bit of a sample, small sample size toward, you know, what a guy might experience in World Outlaw. But our stock car guys and all these guys that don't know dirt, they get out there and. And get their get their butts kicked. And the only way for them to ever really get reasonably competitive is to be doing it every single week. And, you know, nobody has. Nobody at the truck Xfinity level really has to be the time to be able to put into it. So I was talking to Josh Barry last night. He's like, I wrecked. I wrecked the micro. And I was like, damn. I was like, you know, take it easy, buddy. And he says, man, every time I get in, it's like, starting over. I. I'll. I don't drive. I got to drive it every single week, because every time I get in it, I have to relearn everything.

[Tony Stewart]

But that's the way all of motorsports is now. I mean, back in the day, you remember guys that used to. Even the guys that ran the Indy 500 the night before, they'd go run a dirt race the night before and then go run the Indianapolis 500 the next day. And it's like, we look at that now and go, these guys are insane.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

And nobody does that. But, you know, it's kind of a. We. We see a trend now where everybody really gets focused and tunneled down one goal, and you have to. I mean, you have to work that hard to get there. But the encouraging part is you got guys like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe and these guys that will sit there and Alex Bowman sneak off and go run dirt races when they can. And when you and I were running, it was hard to get our car owners to let us do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

So. And for the exact reason of what happened to Chase Briscoe with breaking his finger. But that's. That's. I think what makes these guys even better when they get back in a Cup car is just. You don't get stuck in one field.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But isn't a guy like. So some of these guys, it seems like, you know, I think it's. I love the fact that. That, you know, a Bowman or Briscoe will go out and do those things, and I like to see him in different disciplines. But isn't Larson like this alien where he. He's the guy that can take off a month, jump right back in one, and be the fastest guy there. He's the. He's kind of like you were in your prime. AJ Foy, a Mario Andretti, a guy that can jump in anything and been. You know, Mario Andrade can jump in a Cup car and win a Daytona 500, you know, and A.J. foy could come be competitive after not driving a Cup car for Six months and vice. So on the. On the. On the other end of the spectrum, Larson. I know he races a lot of dirt, but there are times when he has to take breaks or get away from it. Goes right back to it, right back to winning. Do you see? Like, I mean, I know this is common knowledge, but you're.

[Tony Stewart]

You're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're smart enough to know a little bit more than we do. When you're watching him race, he's. He's special.

[Tony Stewart]

Absolutely. No doubt. I mean, the funny thing about that kid, it's like you just pick him up, you put him in the car, go play nice with the other kids. Just send him off. You don't have to tell him anything. You just send him off and let him drive and he figures it out. Yeah, that kid can take a. He can take a couple weeks off. It doesn't phase him. But you got to remember in the weeks before that, he's running three nights a week, four nights a week somewhere. So he's current. You can take small breaks, but. But when you're trying to run against guys like that, I mean, what he does, going from late models to sprint cars and then getting in the cup car and how good he is at all of them, you don't find guys like that anymore. He. He is the diamond in the rough for sure.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Can I just say, though, I'm hearing all you guys talk about this, and I remember a night. This may turn into Tony story hour here, and that's okay, but I'm just saying is that, you know, you guys did used to go break away from the cup schedule and maybe like a Watkins Glen weekend or something and go hit some. Some tracks, appearance stuff. You wouldn't drive. You'd flag it, maybe sign some autographs. You, on the other hand, I remember specifically because I was there with Spencer in 2003. I want to say it was that old Shangri La that got turned into Tioga, that now no longer is a. Anything, maybe just a cow pasture. But the. You ran in several races, several divisions, one, two of them, I think, that night. And it was a late model. It was something else. And then there was the one that you didn't. I think it was in a modified. You were leading and somebody wrecked you. And if we're just going to take this all the way through, you guys, I don't know if you remember this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You got put into what I think was a big styrofoam wall on the front stretch. You got out and you took a big old Chunk of that Styrofoam and waited for him to come around. And when he did, you wedged that son of a. Right into the front.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

Do you remember this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I loved it.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

The place, Dale. It was going bananas, man. Everybody was up on the fence. Tony, this was the first race that night. He goes in and wins the next one in some other division. And I'm like, wow. Tony on a Cup weekend breaks away, goes to this animal House. And that is exactly what it was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It really was.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

It was an animal house. I got punched in an autogr. So I cut the line at Spencer. Line one of Spitzer. God was not going to have any of it, right. Jimmy loved it. So. So. So this Animal House, and Tony goes in there, wins a couple races, gets in a fight, goes back to go, runs a cup deal the next day. I was like, that's the man right there.

[Tony Stewart]

That's life. That's the ultimate lie.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

I'm going to tell you something. I'm sorry. Kyle Larson doesn't do that. I don't see the guy.

[Tony Stewart]

He's good.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

I got it. But I'm still. Tony's the guy that could do that.

[Tony Stewart]

Kyle's not a fighter. I got a fight after the Bubba incident at Las Vegas, and I was like, listen, I understand him pushing you once, but the second time he did it, that's enough. And the third time he pushed you, I laid his ass out. I said, what are you doing? He goes, man, I've never been in a fight in my life, and I didn't want to get my ass kicked in front of all these people. It's like, I get it. All right. We're going to teach you how to fight, though, bud.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So going back to talking about the dirt stuff, you bought the Series, right? So me and Harvick and Burton and Justin Marks bought into a series of our own. Give me some advice.

[Tony Stewart]

Get thick skin real quick, because you'll go run an event, and it'll go flawlessly. And from the outside looking in and from your perspective, there's not going to be anything wrong. And somebody's going to complain about something. Somebody's going to have had a bad night, and somehow you're going to be the blame of it. And what I've learned, and it took a long time because I don't, you know, guy gets in my face and starts yelling, I yell back normally. And what I learned with having the Series, and I always go back to Mike Helton because Mike's probably taught me more life lessons than anybody in my life. And he always goes, don't make it personal. I said, okay. So I think about it from their side when they're doing it and they're trying to. They're yelling at you and they're kind of making you feel like it's your fault, that it's like, it's really not personal. It's not that they're mad about this. They're mad about the outcome of how it affected them. So as a series owner, at the end of the night when somebody comes up and they're mad, I just listen to everything they've got to say until they're kind of done talking about it and they're waiting on me to say something finally. Well, by the time you get to that point, they're halfway calmed down because they've just got it off their chest. And even if they don't like the solution at the end of it, if you say this is goes back to the Hilton deal, if you show them this is why we have to do it this way, even at the end of it, if they don't agree or like what you said, they'll their temperament's way calmer. You know, you agree to disagree sometimes and you go on and go the next night and go race again. But I think it's. I've gained a lot of respect from our guys that run our series and races because you at least listen and take the time and not argue with them and go, well, you're stupid. You're dumb. You did this. Not, it wasn't our fault. It was your fault. You were supposed to do this. You did this. Just listen to what they have to say and let them get it out. And you're halfway to the solution.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, owning a race team, owning a racetrack, owning a series, like, what's your, is there no, is there no objective in terms of like, here's where I want to be in 15 years with all of this, or is it, are you just. These are things you're doing just because you love being a part of that world?

[Tony Stewart]

Well, that and I think it, you know, take the sprint car side, for example, the All Star series. There were, there was this a couple of the car owners that were splitting away from it and starting a new group. Well, neither group was probably going to survive because they weren't going to have enough cars on either one of them to make it work. And it was going to kill a series that was the original touring sprint car series in the country. And I bought it just to try to save it and make everybody happy. That the owner of the series was the problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

So we bought him out, got him out of it. The other group decided, you know, we all got together and brought it back to one and we built it and it's healthier than it's ever been now. So now I'm all right if somebody wants to come and buy it. It's like, I don't need the extra work. I don't have any extra time right now. But I enjoy making it healthier and better for the competitors and the tracks that we go to and seeing the crowds that are coming, that's the reward for it. It's not necessarily monetary value. It's that attachment of knowing that you're doing something good for the sport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You talked about being 50 years old and how difficult it is to get behind the wheel of a sprint car these days, do you feel a clock running out before there's a time when you won't physically be able to get back in there and drive?

[Tony Stewart]

And that's the thing. It's like the sprint car. Could I go run a race? Absolutely. Could I run? Well, yeah, but can I be that. Be in that elite group nowadays? No. And after you've been there to just do it. As much as I love it, I'm still way too competitive to want to settle for 10th, 15th, 18th, knowing that I used to be a guy. I mean, I used to be like Larson. I could show up at a world outlaw race and actually be competitive and won a couple races. But to sit there nowadays, life's priorities are starting to change. And now running a sprint car 60, 70 nights a year with my wife and what she does for a living and, you know, all the projects we've got going on, it's. I'm okay with not doing that. It's. It's okay to let that aspect of my life go now. It doesn't mean, you know, we're still going to run the SRX series this year. I'm still going to race with my dad, who my. If my dad's an example, what the rest of my life's going to be like. We'll be fine. He's 85 and still racing a three quarter midget.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

So I still go race with him a couple nights a year with the TQ series in Indiana. And you know, until I physically feel like it's, it's hurting me or I don't feel like I'm competitive, I think it's the worst thing I could do is stop racing. I mean, that's what, that's. My sister and I, we use my dad as an example. It's like if we told him he couldn't race anymore, he'd go downhill immediately. But he's energetic, he's got a goal, he's passionate about it and he loves what he's doing. So it's kind of the path I'm taking of, you know, the day that I feel like I'm not as good as I need to be to do a good job in the race car, I'll stay doing it till I can't do it anymore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's the identity of the SRX series.

[Tony Stewart]

As far as, well, what is it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you want that to become? You know, I think what is it to you right now?

[Tony Stewart]

I. When Ray came to me with the idea. It was. It was about reviving the IROC series, but with a twist. And it was like, you know, the basic format of the IROC series was very basic, very simple, very easy to understand. And then having the opportunity to run heat races and to have a crew chief and you could actually make changes to your car. You and I both ran iroc, and you'd get in a car and you're like, man, this thing is way too tight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

And it's like, man, if we could. If we could just get them to make a change, then we'd be okay. Because you can't have 12 drivers and they all drive the exact same setup, you know, and that was the whole premise of iroc was you had to do it all the same for everybody and let them drive it. But some guys like tight cars, some guys like loose cars. So you get the different tracks, and it worked out different for everybody. But I like the opportunity to make changes. I like having different celebrity crew chiefs come in and work on the cars with us and get an opportunity to race for them and, you know, go to these cool short tracks that. That need attention. So, you know, we've been to some cool places. I'd never been to Slinger, right. And Slinger was my favorite of all the races we've ran with srx. I mean, we went there, and I walked up the fence. I'm like, oh, my God, all of our cars are going to be destroyed by the time we leave here. I'm like, how we. And I watched the first set of hot laps, and I'm like, my God, that's one car going around there, and there's not enough. I don't feel like there's enough room for one car. How are we going to run 2? And Luke Finhaus and I ran about 40 laps side by side and had a blast. I mean, they had sprayed some VHT on the top, and I got it and got it cut in finally. And him and I ran side by side, and it's like you'd feel the tire get hot and get greasy, and then you'd have to back off a little bit. And then he'd go by and he'd pull away for a little bit, and then he'd get his tire hot, and then I'd run him back down. And it just. That was probably the most fun race we've ran in SRX this year. But I think in the big picture, though, we just want to keep doing what we're doing. I mean, There's a lot of interest overseas, even about bringing srx. So, you know, the hard part is you got a small crew that's trying to maintain 15 race cars and the logistics of it. I mean, some big things would have to happen for us to be able to expand more than what we're doing right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the things that I'm noticing about the series is the, the drivers that you guys are bringing in are now current cup drivers. How does that, how do you have, how do you, how do you handshake with nascar? Right, to make sure that they're, they're, they're perfectly comfortable with their stars going and doing this. And how are you, if. If at all, an asset, you know, to, to NASCAR in that way?

[Tony Stewart]

At first it was a big challenge. I mean, Steve Phelps was not happy about it. Others in upper management were not happy about it. But there were others in upper management that thought it was great. And so they were conflicted in their own organization. But what we explained to them is it's like we're not trying to be a competitor. IROC was fine, but it was fine then because NASCAR had a hand in it. So because they didn't have a hand in this, then it. Then it was ruffling their feathers. But I said, we have the ability. When Chase Elliott came and got to race against Bill, that's a huge story. He never got to do that. So to get to do that and then go run the race the next day. Well, then the next day they were talking about it during the broadcast. So it's a way for us to help promote nascar, and that's what it's been all along. It's supposed to help IndyCar with IndyCar drivers, supposed to help promote NASCAR, supposed to help all these other series that guys are coming from. It's not meant to take away from anything. It's meant to add for everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Did you specifically have to go do all that? I don't want to call it politicking, but the fact is that I feel like that you have a rapport. I mean, you got such a heavy presence in the series already that anything less than you yourself probably wouldn't have succeeded as well in getting people to understand your identity.

[Tony Stewart]

Is that the case as far as far as trying to get everybody.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Yeah, especially nascar. Because again, I think, listen, I was blown away. The fact that you had a TV deal in year one and then you're packing them out. The grandstands are slam full in year one. If I don't have my Hand in it. I would look at it as a threat.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, but it's not meant to be. And that's, and that's what we had to convince these guys of. This isn't, this isn't in any way, shape or form going to hurt you.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You're not trying to grow this thing into a, you know, a competitor series in which the drivers then want to go 36 races of SRX, is what you're saying.

[Tony Stewart]

No, exactly. And that's not what it's going to grow to be. I mean, and that's part of the reason we went back to Thursday nights. You know, we said, hey, I'm telling you, this is going to be way bigger if we can get it on Thursday nights. I know it's a weekday deal, but that's how I got to nascar. Thursday night Thunder was how people knew who I was and saw me race. So it gives these guys an opportunity. And it doesn't take anything away from the NASCAR weekend. It doesn't take anything away from the IndyCar weekend.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

We.

[Tony Stewart]

I feel like that was a step for us that helps these series not feel threatened. It's. There's room for everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How is, how would you, how would you explain your involvement? Like, is it day to day? No, I was scheduling or tracks you want to go to, so I, I.

[Tony Stewart]

Get the six weekends and what I did over the winter was try to make a list of the drivers, kind of a wish list of drivers that I want to come run the series. Yeah, man, I'm sorry. You almost made the cut.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were so close.

[Tony Stewart]

You're so close.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You didn't want the drama, did you?

[Tony Stewart]

No, no, not at all.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You felt like those drivers that complain, you kind of felt like he would be one of them. Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well.

[Tony Stewart]

And then I thought, you need thick skin for. Then I thought, after the race, it'll take four and a half hours to get on the racetrack because he'll have people standing on top of people standing on top of people to watch him drive. So I'm trying to remember what I was going.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Yeah, I interrupted you.

[Tony Stewart]

Oh, yeah, the schedule. The drivers were the first part of it. Make the wish list and then give it to Don Hawk and let him go try to get these guys. And then I literally sat down with a big US Map and we had the request list of all the tracks that were requesting races. And I tried to lay out what I thought was logistic wise was the best schedule and the best places we could go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What tracks asked to be a part of it. That you want to find a way.

[Tony Stewart]

To get to Vegas. The Vegas bullring is one Fontana. Was one Fontana.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The big track.

[Tony Stewart]

No, no, no, I'm sorry. What's the track out there in la?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, Irwindale. Damn. Yeah, that'd be cool.

[Tony Stewart]

And I'd love to go to those tracks. The hard part is when you're running six consecutive weeks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The hard thing is it's six straight.

[Tony Stewart]

Six straight weeks.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Logistics.

[Tony Stewart]

And that's the hard part is, you know, not just getting there, but these guys also have to fix all the stuff we tore up the week before. So you got to get them out, get them out of the venue, get them to the next venue, get them set up and let them repair everything before. Before we all come in on Saturday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

That is for Thursdays now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Especially when you got Paul Tracy in the field. Man, there's a lot of dude all over that guy.

[Tony Stewart]

I absolutely love Paul Tracy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His car's always got the battle scars from the week before.

[Tony Stewart]

Well, yeah, because they run out of time to fix all his stuff. But Paul's great. I, I think Paul's great for it. I mean, and everybody goes, why would you want him? He creates so much chaos. I'm like, exactly.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Perfect.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

I said he races hard and he wants, you know, he's not going to give you an inch. And he doesn't expect you to give him an inch either. But he's one of those guys that has embraced the, the, the idea and the concept of entertainment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's the entertainer out there.

[Tony Stewart]

It's like the comic book theory. You've never bought a comic book or read a comic book that had a hero that didn't have a villain. Yeah, it doesn't work. You have to have the villain for the hero to be the hero.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How happy are you to see what Marco's done in. With this opportunity to run in the series? He's, you know, as an IndyCar guy, everybody just assumes that they're sort of road course specialist. And he's. He grew up in this whole other pipeline. He comes and drives a stock car on a short track and is competitive. And everybody. And I've talked to Marco a little bit over the years about this and everybody's now it's sort of sparked this. Hey, maybe we should get, you know, we'd love to see this guy drive an Xfinity car or whatever. It's like created a conversation around him possibly getting those other opportunities in stock cars. I guess. One. Were you that. Were you kind of surprised just a little bit about his competitiveness on. On all these tracks.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, I hadn't ran with him in anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So how did he pick, you know, being an oval guy, plus a guy that has IndyCar experience and knows just about every discipline there is. How do you. How do you explain his ability to. To understand the short track discipline? You know, lifting, getting on the. You know, getting on the right rear and getting against the edge of adhesion and knowing when to throttle up and how to diamond or shape the corner and all those things.

[Tony Stewart]

Iracing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

You're kidding.

[Tony Stewart]

Every week before we go to the track, if it's a track that's on iracing, he is religiously running laps on it, getting ready.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Tony Stewart]

He has the same desire and dedication that cup drivers, xfinity drivers. I mean, he puts the time, he puts the effort into it. And he'll call me and he'll go, hey, I don't know about this place. You know, what's this place like? I mean, and I'm like, dude, you'll be fine. We get five laps, two different sessions, you'll be fine. Ten laps, you'll figure it out. And we're going to go race after that. And I laugh at him because it's. I just love his enthusiasm. I mean, everybody shows up and we're all just having a great time. He shows up and has a great time, but I'm telling you, he prepares for every event before we get there. It's just. It's crazy how much effort he's put into it and work.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Would you. Okay, so let's keep this going. Who else has really, like, impressed you in a surprising way? Like, you didn't know anything about him.

[Tony Stewart]

But you're like, damn, Ernie Francis.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

There you go.

[Tony Stewart]

See, I remember when he was Francis fan now. Yeah.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

We had him on the show right after he won that SRX race. And I admittedly didn't know who he was. And he wins that SRX race. And now it really did a lot for his. I don't know if he was doing it for publicity, but it did wonders for it. Ernie Francis impresses you.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and that was Ray's pick. I mean, Ray goes, hey, I want this guy. You know, Trust me, he's good. I'm like, cool, I trust you on it. And brought him in. And I had never seen him drive a car. And I remember watching his first session, I'm like, not bad. I'm like, he's figured this out pretty quick. And you get racing with him. I love racing with that kid. Now I grabbed him by his collar in South Boston.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Yes, you did.

[Tony Stewart]

But I grabbed, and everybody was like, man, what is he so mad about? Well, somebody got underneath him, and as soon as they could, the bumpers cleared, he just turned left, and I was there. I was half a car length behind. So he comes right across the nose, almost took me out, tears the car up, and at the break, I'm like, you're better than this. I said, don't ever do that again. I said, you got a mirror? I said, did you even look? He goes, no. And he knew he had done something wrong, but that's how we were taught. Your dad grabbed me by the collar a couple times and said, hey, you're doing this wrong. And I was mad at Ernie because I love Ernie so much, and I love watching him race. And I'm such a big fan of his now that I was so disappointed that he was driving like some of the other guys in the race.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

I said, don't be like them. You're better than that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

And that's what I was telling him during that break.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there was. That was a race where I feel like that there was. There was some uncharacteristic, you know, rough housing, and guys had kind of lost their. Their cool a little bit. Some of the guys got frustrated with each other, which rarely happens in that series.

[Tony Stewart]

In the two heat races, I had been run over by everybody in the field but two guys. Everybody in the field had hit me at point. And Marco, in the second heat race, we started in the back, he had won the heat, was starting last because the invert, and I was on the bottom, a foot off the line on the bottom, and he's all four wheels on the apron, comes up and just slams right into me, knocks me out of the way. And I'm like, man, you need that spot apparently better than I do right now. So I let him go. But, man, in the feature, I was like, all right, bud, now you're going to get a little dose of what you've been dishing out. And I moved him around all night. He'd get the lead. I just move him around, and finally you just wear him out to where he. Then you'd get by, and then on the restart, he'd get by, you'd move him around again, and at the end of it, I said, how'd that feel? He didn't like it that well. He finally crashed himself. I mean, I think Biffle was behind him, and he turned down in front of Biffle, and it spun him and put him in the back. And I said, how'd you like that? I said, imagine that's what you were doing in the heat race when it didn't matter. I said, in the main event, when it mattered, now we roughhouse you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

But like I said, he, that's how that showed how determined and how much Marco wanted to win these races and win that championship last year. I mean, he, he went a little bit overboard at times and some, some of the guys did, but, you know, it's. I get to play Mike Helton in those scenarios, which is kind of fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

You know, after the race or the next week, I get to pull him into the motorhome there at the track and, and sit there and go, you know, remember what we're here for and remember what we're doing and why we're doing it. We got to that car, you have to drive that car the next week. You tear that thing up. I'm not going to, I'm not going to tell them to fix it. If you tear it up, that's the way it's going to show up at the next race. Then the next thing you know, they start racing a little bit different. They're still having fun. We don't take the fun out, the atmosphere at the races. And I wish, you know, we talked about doing some behind the scenes stuff, but we always have two motorhomes each week for the field. Half the drivers are in each one. And the conversations and the camaraderie in the bus and the storytelling and all that, that is the best part of it, aside from the racing for me, is just sitting there listening to these guys. And you've grown up, you've watched them, you may or may not have raced with them, but you get to meet their families that they're bringing to the tracks and you listen to stories about the race they ran the week before. And it is unbelievable. So for us, I think all of us enjoy it. We do it all in one day. We get practice in, we take a break and everybody just hangs out and has a great time.

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[Tony Stewart]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I didn't think that you would ever be married. Thought you'd be married.

[Tony Stewart]

So did the rest of the English speaking world.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right. What was the. What changed your mind? What was the moment? When was that moment? When did that moment happen when you thought, I'm gonna go down this route, I'm changing my. My approach or the way I look at it? Do you remember?

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, but I'll go just a tick back before that. Don the Snake Perdome. We were out riding in the sand dunes and he goes, hey, you need to meet this girl. And I knew who he was talking about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How, how did you know?

[Tony Stewart]

Well, because he said. He said who it was. He goes, you need to meet Leah. And I knew exactly which Leah he was talking about. And I'm like, I'm engaged. He goes, I don't mean that way. He goes, you guys just would get each other. He goes, you guys just need to know each other. I'm like, all right. And got us on the phone one day and we were talking. I was engaged, Leah was married and just introduced us and it was just casual conversation. Just, hey. Snake says we need to catch up and have lunch sometime and just meet each other. So we were both on board with that. Nothing really happened. And I canceled my engagement. Leah had got separated and was in the process of getting divorced. And we were riding again in the dunes. And he goes, hey, I'm telling you, you guys need to meet. Got on the phone, talked again. And literally the Monday before COVID shut everything down. We went on our first date. I was running my sprint car. Had been in Mississippi and Alabama and was coming across Florida and supposed to run Georgia the last weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where did you take her?

[Tony Stewart]

Went to lunch in Gainesville. In Gainesville, Florida. She was there running the baby gators the weekend before the Gator Nationals. I just finished in Alabama and she texted me and was telling me what was going on. And I said, gainesville. And pulled up the GPS. I'm like, that's six and a half hours away. It's 11 o' clock at night. I'm like, I'm on my way. She goes, no, you're not. I said, yeah, I'm on my way. So I packed everything up, had the dogs in there. We start rifling down the road. She text an hour later, she goes, you really coming? I took a picture of the speedometer. I was running 90 in a 48,000 pound motorhome running 90 mile an hour down the interstate heading that way. I said, GPS says I'll be there at 6:30. So I remember pulling into the shopping center across from the hotel she was at and parked. And at 6:30 on the nose, she, she text me. She goes, how you doing? I said, I got parked, I'm halfway set up. I said, I got to take a nap though. I said, come beat on the door at noon and we'll go to lunch. So I mean, punctuals can be 12 o' clock on the nose, beating on the door. We go to lunch at the campus there in Gainesville, and they're like, now what are we going to do? So she's like, you ever been to bike week? I'm like, nope, Always wanted to go to bike week. Never been there. She goes, I've never been either. Let's go there. So she orders us an uber to ride 2 hours and 15 minutes to Daytona in an Uber because we knew we were gonna get banged up. I mean, you're not gonna go to a bike. We could not get banged up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What a commitment right out of the gate.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah, that's love.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, well, two hours in an Uber with anybody, you're gonna find out whether you're a match or not.

[Tony Stewart]

Right?

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Right.

[Tony Stewart]

But literally that whole night, we get back at like 5 in the morning, she's gotta be on a 6 o' clock flight to fly to Vegas to do a trade show. And I remember sitting there because I didn't have to be anywhere till Atlanta that weekend. And I sat in Gainesville for a couple days and I'm like, that was different. And I guess that was the moment where I said, you know, there's something different about this girl from all the others. And literally, you know, that next weekend Covid kicked in. They canceled the NHRA stuff a day before NASCAR and IndyCar shut down. And I called her, I, I said, well, I'm going home to Indiana. I said, I'm gonna restock the bus, I'm gonna go up to Chicago and get on Route 66, and I'm gonna drive the motorhome all across Route 66 because we never get two weeks off. We've never had two weeks off, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've been wanting to do that. Like the original.

[Tony Stewart]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like the old two lane. I've been wanting to do that. It's like, goes from like Chicago to LA or something.

[Tony Stewart]

All the way?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

All the way on a pier?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

And I don't want to drive the motorhome on the pier, but I wanted to do the whole thing. I'm like, we'll never get this opportunity to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All those and stuff.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. And I, and I was just going to go by myself. And she goes, well, I'm in. I'm like, wow, that's even better. I'm like, we're going to be stuck in a motorhome together for two weeks, probably doing this. And by the time I got to Indy, everything had shut down. I said, I don't think this is going to work out. I said, you know, we might get going and there may not even be gas stations open. Then we're screwed. So two days later she goes, hey, why don't you come out to Havasu for a couple days? All right. So went for four days. Four days turned into four and a half straight months. So you think riding in a two hour Uber tells you whether you like somebody, live with somebody you don't know for four and a half weeks or four and a half months?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She asked you to come out to Lake Havasu for a couple days?

[Tony Stewart]

And when we were out there, then the state of Indiana shut down for two weeks. And my pilot's like, I don't think I can, I don't think legally I can come out and get you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He stayed for four months.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Together.

[Tony Stewart]

Yep. And it worked 24, seven with each other and it didn't take long. So this, this just kind of morphed along and, and we got a call from Ken Block and Ken, Ken and Leah are good friends and, and you know, he invites us to go out to a place in Utah to go ride side by sides. So do that. And by the time that's all over with, we're like, yeah, we're, we're gonna do this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

You know, we're gonna date.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn, that's cool.

[Tony Stewart]

And then we had to sit there on the ride home and figure out we got problems. We got hurdles we're going to have to cross here. First one was, she's sponsored by Pennzoil, I'm Sponsored by mobile1.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the first hurdle.

[Tony Stewart]

She's, she's sponsored by Dodge. I'M sponsored by Ford.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Tony Stewart]

And then Dodge and Ford. So it's like, man, what are we going to do? So no joke, I called my PR guy and I said, hey, this is what's going on. Because nobody knew we were doing anything together. Like there were two or three people that knew who I was with and where I was at. And I said, we got to figure this out. And so we were proactive. And I remember on the way home from Swing Arm with Ken, I'm driving the motorhome, she's on the right side of the motorhome. And I'm on the phone with Mobile One, she's on the phone with Pennzoil. And we hang up from that call and I'm calling Ford and she's calling Dodge at the same time. And we're three feet away from each other having these conversations and not one of our partners had a problem with it and said, yeah, we'll work around it. You know, we said, hey, when, when I go to her events, I won't wear any branding. When she goes to my event, she won't wear any branding. And that's what we've done. And that's. It was very successful with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow. So what, how long you been married now?

[Tony Stewart]

A year and a half.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you.

[Tony Stewart]

And she's still not filed for divorce yet. It's amazing.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

When did.

[Tony Stewart]

Crazy.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Okay, hold up. So we kind of had. We kind of had a little bit of fun at Tony's expense a few weeks ago here. I don't know if you remember this, but like, I think it was Tyler Redick that was on and we were all kind of sharing our own stories about when we got married. What was the first thing that. What was the first rule that we had? Yours was like the toilet seat. I think Tyler's was, you know, he can't wear your shoes in the house. And we were joking about. You said yours was, you got to go start a drag racing team. Yeah, that was the first one. All jokes aside, though, like, when did the, when did the drag racing thing start coming into the conversation?

[Tony Stewart]

Like for you to start to start a team? I mean, when we started dating and then once racing started coming back, the sprint car stuff started first and she went to my races and it was funny because when we set up for a cup weekend, we park and we're there for the whole weekend, but guys got to get rental cars and go back and forth to the hotel. Sprint car deal's different. We were running two day shows at the same track and, and we'd load up at the end of it, and she's losing her mind. Like, why are you guys packing up? You're racing here tomorrow? Well, that's their vehicle. That's how they get to the hotel. And they got to go to the car wash, they got to get up in the morning, they got to service the car in the parking lot, and then they come back to the track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think about all that?

[Tony Stewart]

She couldn't wrap her head around it because it's total opposite of what they do in nhra. But I started going to her races shortly after, and I fell in love with it. And I had been to a couple before with Tony Schumacher and Don Schumacher because of the US army partnership, and I liked it. Austin Prock, that's a Top Fuel driver, he used to run his midget out of our shop before he got in nhra. And so we would watch qualifying shows and stuff, you know, in between Xfinity stuff and all that. And, you know, that's how I saw Leah too, was on the same shows, but we were watching Austin and we would, we would see them. But I just got hooked on it. I mean, I love the atmosphere there. You know, I think it's so cool that when fans come to a drag race, when they buy a ticket, it gets them everywhere. Everywhere but on the starting line. That's the only place you're not allowed to go. But they can sit in the stands, they can watch the runs, then they can come down and they literally can watch the crews rebuild the motors, service the cars, talk to the drivers while they're packing their shoots or mixing fuel, whatever they're doing. And it is a cool atmosphere and way more laid back than what we've been used to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was the process of. How do you get from never having raced in a drag race to winning a drag race?

[Tony Stewart]

No different than never driving a sprint car. And you get in there and four races in, you win a sprint car race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but do you test, do you go somewhere you have some private, private times where you're, you know what, how helpful was Leah in that process of like, hey, man, this, you know, you're going to face this, you're going to experience this, this is going to happen. You got to do this. Got to make sure you paying attention here.

[Tony Stewart]

Like, I struggle with the paying attention part, by the way, but no, you're right, it's there. This all was very non scripted and there wasn't a plan when we, that year that we started dating at the end of the year, I'd been to enough races that I knew the crew, I knew the crew chiefs. She kept telling me, come in the lounge for the debriefs. And I didn't want to be in there. I'm like, that's your guys work area. And I don't need to be up in there and be a distraction.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Tony Stewart]

And I'd sit there like this and try not to even breathe. I didn't want to move or anything. But then you start listening to how she's describing the run. It's like the run was 3.7 seconds. She's talking about it for 15 minutes. I'm like, how do you know all the that happened in 15 minutes? And so at the end of the year, I said, hey, I want to go, what do you think about me going to Frank Holley's? And she goes, what's that? That's a driving school, drag racing driving school. And the best drag racing driving school you can go to. I said, I want to go to Frank's and because I just want to learn what, what you guys are doing. I said, I hear what you're saying and I think in my head I know what that's supposed to feel like, but I don't know what I don't know. And I'm like, I just want to know what it feels like. So we called Frank and did a private school, did a two day deal. And he goes, what is his, what is his car comparable to what he has multiple cars. So he has super comp cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got you kind of start in something easy and get faster and faster.

[Tony Stewart]

Yes, absolutely. What do you start in a super comp car? And it's, it's not the super comp cars that race. It's very user friendly, but just learning simple things like, you know, how to do the burnout, how to back up. Right. How to get lined up, how to stage all the simple things that we watch on tv. And we're like, oh yeah, that doesn't look too hard. Way harder. When there's all these steps and processes that you have to do and you have to do it in a cadence. That's correct. So I started in the super comp car in the morning, in the afternoon, you know, we kind of got everything figured out. And that thing was, he goes, you're going to get bored after about three runs. Well, it took six until I started really figuring it out. Then we moved up to his alcohol car. His alcohol car runs 220 miles an hour. In a quarter mile. So it takes us a lap to get to that, you know, in our cars. So it was fun to run the rest of that day and run the next day. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I was like, yeah, I kind of understand some of the things you talk about. But when I left, there were so many things that, procedure wise, I didn't do as clean and as well as I wanted. You know how we are. We always just. We want to do it right. And that's important to me. If I'm going to do something, I want to do it correct. I want to do it right. So booked another school and went back again, same one, and just drove the alcohol car. Ran five runs each day in it. And by the third run, he's like, I don't have anything to critique you on, on. And he goes, you did it. You did it right. And he told me something the first day. He goes, this is a different sport than what you're used to. He goes, you're not the determining factor in this. He goes, your crew chief is. He goes, but you can screw this up. He goes, if you do everything right, that's what you're supposed to do. He goes, if you do something wrong, they're all going to. They're not going to pat you on the back and say, hey, you did a great job. You did it right. You do something wrong, they're going to tell you you did it wrong, though.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

That is so true.

[Tony Stewart]

Man, I don't know if I like this, and I've always liked. We had the ability as drivers to make the difference, and we really can't. But there's a lot of things driving. People think these things just go in a straight line down through there. They don't. You know, Leah and Matt, I've went up there and they go, well, Pomona, for example, the right lane. And Matt reminded me before I went up for my first qualifying run because I was in that lane. He goes, you got to be careful. He goes, that lane wants to pull you into the inside, all the way down. And why, I don't know what it is, if there's contour in it that's weird or what. But he goes, that lane always tries to pull you to the inside. So you either got to be ready for it if you're square or point out a little bit. And that way it's going to get you where you want to be. So it's so detail oriented and just like our sport isn't, every sport is, but it's Things like that. As a driver you're like, well okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about the tree? And trying to understand how to improve your reaction time.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

And it's in all the games that go in with the driver some God.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. Like the concept of staging is really simple in all reality. So there's a pre stage beam and that's the top bulb or the top half of the blue circle. And everybody just kind of goes up there and they wait till each other gets pre staged. Then they stage. Well, when that first person gets that stage bulb lit, it starts a seven second timer. And that other driver has seven seconds to get his self staged. It doesn't matter if it's in the last quarter of a second or if he goes in the first quarter of a second, he's got seven seconds to go in. But just like in our sport, there was etiquette involved. Those guys get really upset and there's a reason they get upset. You know, everybody's like, well if they got seven seconds, what are they complaining about? Well, that other driver's already out of the clutch and it's just sitting there building heat. It's like an automatic transmission. When you put it in gear, you got to hold the brake to keep the car from moving. Now multiply that by about 15 and that's how hard it's trying to pull you. And you're holding it with the brake and you're, it's pulling the motor down and you're here and it, you know, it's, it's, you know it's sitting there on that clutch. So every second you're sitting there it's just building heat. Building heat. Well, if it builds too much heat then it sticks the disc when it goes and doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it burns tires off of it. So there's an etiquette involved in it. Or you get somebody like John Force. And this guy is the master of this. He's so good he'll sit there and you can go into the stage bulb, but you've got about 7 inches in front of that stage bulb when you hit it until you red light. He has the ability and there's guys that'll roll through the go so far into the stage light that they get past the pre stage bulb and it shuts that bulb off. Well, when it goes, it tricks guys into leaving too early sometimes and it gets them out of sync. And Force is great at it and it makes everybody so mad. And I laugh. I'm like, he's not doing Anything that's illegal, he's just doing what is going to give him the best opportunity to win that round. If he feels like this is a guy that he's got to get a little edge on, he's got those tricks in his bag, and it's like, yeah, I can see where they'd get frustrated, but you got to go, attaboy. He knows all the tricks. He knows when to use them. And sometimes he may do it on purpose, sometimes he may not. But it's really cool to see that. Especially with the 4 wide. It's real difficult with the 4 wide. The hardest part of that is it's the easiest. Two lanes are the outside lanes because you know if you're in lane one on the left, you're just looking at the far left bulb. Lane four, far right bulb. If you're in two or three, you better know what lane you're in when you go to stage. And don't get distracted because you got to watch your bulb. Hagen was telling me he. He thought he was staging and he was watching a bulb and the light changed and he was sitting there. He thought he was already in and he wasn't in, but the timer had started. He timed out.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

That happened recently. Like, I was watching some race where, like, Sean Lang, there was a couple guys. Was it. Was that the one like Hagen, they. Multiple people timed out, and it was just this weird confusion. They were all mad at themselves. But there also seemed like there could have been this break in etiquette by somebody and they weren't sure, you know.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. And I wasn't up there to see the run, but I heard the announcer talking about Langdon time down. And I thought, Sean Langdon is. I think you walk through the pro pits and they will tell you. Shawn Langdon probably does the best job of understanding the staging sequence and lights and timing and all that for every class in the field. I mean, he drives multiple cars, and Leah has high praise for him, how technical and good he is at analyzing everything. And I found the story out afterwards. And Josh Hart is a new guy in the Top Fuel series. He's run a couple years now, and he's good, but I guess he was just taking a little longer to stage than everybody else, and it was frustrating him. So Langdon had the mindset that he wasn't going in until Josh went in. Well, Josh went in at about six and a half seconds, and Sean didn't have enough time to get in. And he timed out and lost the round because of it, because he was so mad at this guy, and he's like, I'm not going in until this guy goes in. So it's crazy. And Cruz Petragon and I are buddies, and I was sitting there with him. I'm like, why do you guys all get upset? I said, nobody's doing anything illegal, so how do you get upset about it? He goes, you're right. He goes, we shouldn't. And. But they do. And it's. And it's all about the clutch. That's literally what it's all about.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Buying a car should feel secure, start to finish. That's why you should buy your next ride on ebay. See, ebay's got everything from classics to trucks and imports. Now with secure purchase, sellers and titles are verified, and financing, delivery and insurance options are built right in. Plus, eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection. So buy your next car on ebay. Ebay. Things people love. Secure purchase is powered by Caramel Dealer Services, LLC, an eBay subsidiary.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's your. What's your intentions?

[Tony Stewart]

Everybody's been asking that the last six months. Since I ran Vegas in the fall. I don't have any. I mean, it's, you know, going back to that test session. I left the test session. I went and ran a test in Leah's car with Don Schumacher, which was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life, by the way. After it was over, you get home, you're like, that's really stupid. Shouldn't have done that. And you're driving a car that can run 330 mile an hour. I went 318 that first test, and the car was so far ahead of where my brain was, I'm like, yeah, as long as it goes and does what it's supposed to do, it's fine. There's a number of things. You know, a cylinder goes out, and when a cylinder goes out, it pushes the car that direction. And it's like, there's so many things that could go wrong, but if you're not on top of it, you're never going to get catch it. It'd be bad. And I realized that when I left, I finally was like, this is crazy because when we started driving different cars, you just work up to it. You just run part throttle or this and that. It doesn't work that way in drag racing. It's all off the timers and everything else. So how they do that and get you used to it is you go a shorter distance, you go to the 330 cone, then you go to the 660 cones, and then you do full pulls. So that's the steps I went through in two days driving that car and got back. I'm like, man, that's the dumbest thing I've ever done. But I kept testing with them periodically, and I literally. Last year, after the Vegas spring race, the four wide race, I tested, and I never felt the tires spinning. Like, we'd get out 200ft and you're already running 150 mile an hour by then, and it starts spinning tires, but it's still pulling at 1.6 GS and you're like, all right, my brain's catching up. No, it was spinning the tires, and I had no idea that that's what was going on. So I got done with that test and I said, I'm done testing with you guys. I said, of all the racing I've done and all the dirt racing, if I can't feel the tires spinning, I don't need to be driving this race car. So her car chief worked two shops down from ours, and when he came over and joined our organization and he started our team, he goes, hey, I got. I got an idea. There's a alcohol team over here that runs, and they said they'd let you do some testing if you wanted. All right, well, that's a 275 mile an hour car. Well, we'll try that. And went and did a test session with them. Literally hit it off with Rich and Richie, its father, son, Rich mcphillips, senior and junior, and hit it off with these guys and did a couple tests. And after the second test, we were coming back after a run, and Rich told me, he goes, I'd feel comfortable taking you to a race. And I'm like, you're crazy. And he goes, no. He goes, you're doing everything right. He goes, you're smooth with everything. He goes, you're ready to go. Try this. And I laughed about it and kind of blew it off. I mean, literally got back from that and had a meeting with Don Hawk, and we were working on the TV deal, and so I didn't think anything about it. My head got distracted. And I told Lee on the plane about it, and she goes, yeah, you're doing a great job. And I just again, blew it off. About two weeks later, I got the phone call from him. He goes, hey, seats opened up for Vegas. He goes, probably won't run well out there because the blower cars have an advantage because the altitude's so high. They can change pulley combinations and get the boost back. And I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. I mean, I just want to get the experience and you know, little things like at the end of the run when you go past the line, you throw the chute, shut the fuel off, you're on the brakes, there's a guy standing there with flags and you got to know which what he's telling you of this guy is allowed to go first or you're going first or whoever's turning off. And it's like, I don't even know what the flags mean yet, Right. So I remember when he called, I said, hey, can I call you back in five minutes? He goes, yeah, well, I hung up and I picked up the phone, called Lee. I said, hey, should I do this? It's like I didn't even have the confidence to do it. And she goes, yeah, she goes, I think it'd be great. She goes, we'll all be there. Won't let you get in trouble. So that's how the Vegas race in the fall happened and got that first race under her belt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's fascinating that at your age and everything you've ever done and you know, you'd think you'd had, had the scared out of you where nothing would be in, you know, nothing would, you'd lack confidence in nothing. But you're transparent enough to admit, like, hey man, you know, I wasn't sure whether I needed to do this or not or could do this. So you go drive that car and how does that experience go?

[Tony Stewart]

The race was awesome out there. I mean, we were second, quick qualifier and that's all a car that's not me. But my reaction times were good. And through the race weekend we make it to the finals. I line up against a 19 year old girl that her family has a big history in drag racing. And it was her first appearance in a final round at a national race. And so here you got two rookies, you know, first time for her international finals. I'm in the finals my first time and I'm like, man, this is just, this is awesome. I mean, I got to run all the runs through the weekend going to the finals. So I didn't really didn't care if I won or lost necessarily because I was there to get the experience. But we get down there and I lost by 1 inch. There's 15,840 inches in a quarter mile and I lost by 1 inch, 2/10,000 of a second. And as much as I wanted to Be disappointed about it when I pulled off there because we don't run radios in our car. And so I don't know until I turn the corner whether you won or lost. And I saw it wasn't us and. But I remember looking over when I got out of the car and I looked at Madison when she got out of the car and how excited she was. And I thought, this is really cool. I said, there's, this is the perfect scenario. I said, if I would have won that race, everybody would have said, hey, this class is easy. And it's not easy. We just had an awesome weekend and I did a fair job at my part of it and the team did an awesome job. But to see her win her first national and I even spent time with her the next race at Pomona and we talked for 20 minutes in the staging lanes. I wasn't racing. She was. And listening to that 19 year old girl talk, the composure she has and her mindset, she's a buddy of mine now, I think the world of her. I think she's an awesome racer. And you know, to me there's absolutely no shame in saying I got beat by a 19 year old girl in that scenario.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

The hard part was getting through the weekend and before we even left, all the guys going, yeah, you were short by one inch. And then here comes Lee over your shoulder going, yep, that's what I get every night when we go to bed.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

That's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you drive. The car you're driving today is your car.

[Tony Stewart]

No, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're still driving.

[Tony Stewart]

I'm still driving for Rich and Richie. It's. It's not even the same car that I ran in Vegas last fall. So they run Jasmine Salinas car. They run a car that Mike Coughlin and Matt Cummins split. They run different regions and split the national races. The car I'm driving was a car that they were building for Rich Jr. To drive even before I did the first test. And at the end of the year, after the Vegas race, they started talking to me about, hey, do you have any interest in doing something next year? So we put the package together.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What is the package?

[Tony Stewart]

Baggage. I'm running 12 of the 14 national events. They don't run every race that Top Fuel and Funny Car run. So running 12 of the 14 and then there's about four, maybe five regional races that we're going to run. And that's more just for the points than anything. You can't win the championship just off the national points alone. That's what Pops wants to do now. So, you know, Rich Senior is the boss. And he even said that he goes, you know, if we get off to a good start, starting is we, we need to run some regionals because you'd have a shot at winning a national championship. So right now, as we sit, we're second in points, but there's throw out races and, and you can't claim all the races you run anyway. So, you know, points don't really mean anything this early in the season. But we're off to a good start.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you ever said no to anything?

[Tony Stewart]

No. No to no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. Other than just testing in Leah's car anymore, I'm like, yeah, I'm good for a while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're good for a while. So, I mean, I think that if I, you know, I'm going to play Tony Stewart fan for a minute. I love that you're, you know, this, this experience you're having with Leah has taken you into this new world and, and you're diving in headfirst and you're, you're competitive and I hope that somehow, some way, you end up, you know, at the top ranks competing. Right. I love to see, you know, this entirely unique new chapter of your life happen. And, you know, is that a possibility? Is that for people that are out there that are wondering where you're headed and what you're, what you're going to end up doing? Is that, is that, are you open? You got the door open to something like that?

[Tony Stewart]

I think you and I have been in this business and we've been around each other long enough, you know, that I've kind of adopted the attitude of you never say never. You know, it's. I never thought I'd own a racetrack. I never dreamed of owning a race team, never dreamed of owning a series. None of this stuff was ever planned. There was never a master plan for any of the things that I'm doing. Outside of me driving race cars, everything else just has happened in circumstances. So I'm not going to sit here and say, no, I won't try to drive a Top Fuel car. Hagen's Hagen absolutely wears me out about driving that funny car. And I keep telling him, I'm like, I don't want to drive that funny car. He goes, but you are a funny car driver. You just don't know you're a funny car driver. He goes, you'll get driving this funny car and you won't want to drive that Dragster anymore. And J.R. todd says, and Ron Capp says, and Cruz Petragon I'm like, you guys are all brain dead. I said, if that thing blows up in the dragster, it's behind me. The flames are going behind me. You blow up, you drive right into the fire, and it's right in front of your face the whole time. And then you got to try to figure out how to get stopped without crashing. I said, I'm good.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

So he has said no to something then?

[Tony Stewart]

Yeah. Well, funny car. Yes and no for now.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Because we all know one day Ron.

[Tony Stewart]

Capps at his championship speech last year at the end of the season, was giving me a hard time. In his speech, even about. He goes, we know you're a funny car guy. We got to get you in one. And Hagen is sitting beside me because we're at our team table, and he is kicking me under the table like I told you. So. So I told him I finally gave in. I said, I'll do a test day in it. So when is that? I don't know yet. I've got to make sure my life insurance policies are current and all that stuff. But, I mean, this guy is relentless, man. I mean, he will not let me off the hook. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to try it. I actually went my dad at 85 Lee, and I got him for Christmas, got him a Frank Holley driving school deal. So he went drove a super comp car at 85. And I drove Frank Holley's alcohol funny car just to get used to it. But it's a way different deal than driving that dragster. You hit the gas, and the first run I made, it was like all this silver stuff was in the air. And I'm like, whoa. And that's the clutch. It's clutch, dust and stuff. And then I'm like, crap, I'm still driving this damn thing. I'm running over 100 mile an hour. And I'm sitting there looking at. You're like butterflies and stuff looking at this clutch dust. But I wasn't ready for it, you know, so it was good to do that. And that's kind of the approach we're going into this test of, you know, drive Frank Holley's car, get an idea what it's like, and, you know, crawl before you walk.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've been broadcasting, you've been in the booth at nascar, you've been in the booth at drag races. What do you get out of that? What's that experience like for you?

[Tony Stewart]

I love it. Yeah. And, you know, I get to work with somebody. I really like with Clint Boyer. And I love Mike Joy. I mean, Mike knows more about cars and has forgotten more about cars than you and I will ever learn combined. But I really enjoy it. It's. I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it or not and I think it was more the fans response kind of was what kept me motivated to do more of it. Right. Seeing the response on forums and this and that and, and I don't normally get on that stuff, but it's like, man, if I'm bad, I just want to find a way to get out of this gracefully and let somebody else do a better job. But I thoroughly enjoy it though. I, I like, I like it.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Do you agree at the beginning of the year to do a, you know, a handful of races or do you do it almost on a race by race basis and then they just invite you back and basically available and that.

[Tony Stewart]

Kind of thing at the end of the year? Last year they, they said, let us know what races you want to do next year. And so we sat down once we got the NHRA schedule. And basically the races that I've done this year are in between our off weekends for the NHRA series. We're taking a couple weeks off here coming up. Leah, this is the balance in life that I'm having to learn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm scary to ask that.

[Tony Stewart]

She wants some family time and wants to go. She has a couple weeks off with the NHRA side, so she wants to go boating and surfing and hanging out with her friends a little bit. You know, it's creating that balance in our life now of, you know, work when we can. And as much as I can, I like to work. I do better staying busy than not being busy. She is the opposite. When she gets away from the racetrack, she wants to be away from the racetrack. So I think that's one of the reasons that our relationship works, that, you know, we're directly in line on a lot of things, but there's things we're polar opposites on. But the broadcast and stuff's fun. I really enjoy it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the last things I want to touch on with you is your, is Stewart Hoss racing. And you know, that's been something you've been involved in for a really long, long time. You were, you know, you, you became a car owner while you're still full time in a NASCAR series. Seems like a lifetime ago when we were driving in NASCAR together. But with all of these things that I see that you continue to add to your, your life, how do you manage that ability to stay focused on what your involvement is with nascar, with your team, their direction, they've got. You got a lot of big things happening within that team. New drivers coming in. Harvick retiring. Where is your involvement currently with Stewart Halls?

[Tony Stewart]

You know, and I'm glad you asked that, because all the time you're like, oh, he doesn't care about NASCAR anymore. He doesn't care about Sprint car racing anymore. It's the farthest thing from the truth. I love our race teams. I'm still passionate about our race teams, but I get to go race with my wife on the weekends. So, sorry, I may not be at the track on the weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't care about what's going on. It doesn't mean I'm not in involved in what's going on. But the reason we're able to do this, and this has been a long time in the making, I mean, we've had this for a long time, is structure of with the Sprint Car series. I have a key point person that reports to me, Eldora. Jerry Gappens does a great job for us at Eldora Speedway. He reports to me. Kelly Antonelli runs the drag race program. She's the one that reports to me on the NHRA side. Greg Zipadelli, Brian McKinley, they're the guys that report to me on the NASCAR side. So we have a good structure of people. And when I need to get involved and make big decisions, I do that. And when they call and say, hey, you need to make a phone call to this guy, this is what's going on, I need you to help us with this. Absolutely. I get involved in that. But if anybody and all these fans think that I'm sitting there making setup decisions and making calls, they're wrong. You know, there's smart people in place that are way smarter than me that are making those calls. My job is putting the right people together. And if you do that, then you sit there and you let them do their jobs. When things get sideways, then you got to intervene. I mean, you have teams, you know that when things aren't going right, that's when you got to intervene, and you got to start trying to help steer the ship in the right direction. You know, the last couple years, because I've been with Leah and because of this new car, we haven't had the performance that Stewart Haas Racing is accustomed to and that we want to be at. It's learning a new car and venture. There's teams that, with this new car have got better. There's teams that have been on top of their game that struggled with this new car, and we're one of those teams. But you know how you do it is having strong people behind you and in your camp. I mean, the empire you've built and what you have and the people you've surrounded yourself with are why you're successful with what you're doing. Now you have to guide the ship, but you have to have people that can also pull the rope and do the work and know your vision and how you want it. And that's what we have all across the board with all the entities we have, we have people that they know. I preach. The biggest thing I preach with them is communication. I can't fix a problem if I don't know there's a problem. And I literally called one of my cup drivers last night and had a conversation with him and he's like, well, I don't want to bother you. I'm like, are you kidding me? I said, that's the dumbest thing you could say. I said, I own all this stuff. I said, I want it to be successful. I'm not doing this just to have it. I said, I want to win races. So if there's a problem and there's something that you and I can talk about to make it better, I want you picking that phone up at 2 in the morning if you think of something. That's what I signed up for. So there's a lot of phone calls, there's a lot of meetings, but we've got great people in place that do a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Kevin is going to retire at the end of the year. You were able to bring Kevin over to Stewart Hoss Racing. I remember the very first test at Charlotte Merch Speedway and I looked at Latart after we ran two 40 lap mock races with about, you know, three quarters of the full of the NASCAR field out on the racetrack. And I said, we're going to have a problem on our hands with this 4 car because he was the fastest thing there. Went on to basically, you know, no disrespect to anything Kevin ever drove before, but I think we truly all got to realize what the real potential was for Kevin Harvick driving your cars, paired up with an incredibly great crew chief with Rodney Childers. They were a great match and won a championship, a lot of races. How do you, how do you celebrate and honor him this year? I'm sure you don't want to tell us everything you might have in store. But. But I guess, you know, what do you have to say about what he's been able to do with the second half of his career, what he's been able to do while driving your race cars, and how you want to see him celebrated and honored?

[Tony Stewart]

I think even before he came over, when I drove for you in the Xfinity series semin, I drove for Kevin a lot in Xfinity. And I knew I learned so much more about him when I drove for him than when I was racing against him and how good he was at understanding the whole picture, the business side of it, how to build successful race teams, how to put those right people together. And when he came over to shr, he goes, we need this guy. We need this guy and we need this guy. I mean, Kevin hand picked those guys, him and Rodney together, and built that team, built that four car team, and that's why they have the success. I think that's one thing that I feel like it's important for fans to realize whether they like Kevin or not. He was one of the most well rounded drivers that NASCAR has right now. He understands all of it and he's passionate about all of it. If somebody's screwing up, he's going to tell you you're screwing up. And he's not telling you that and trying to make you mad. He's not trying to belittle you. He's telling you that because he wants you to be better and he wants the scenario to be better. So I'm a huge Kevin Harvick fan from the outside, let alone working with him, because I see how he runs and operates these teams. He makes my job a lot easier on that 4 car. You know, the rest of them are a lot harder to deal with, but Kevin has his hands around all of it and understands it better than most people in the industry do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, man, I appreciate you coming today. It's been a lot of fun hanging out and talking with you. I've had a lot of curious things about, you know, what you've been up to and, you know, don't see you as much as I wish I did. And your life has changed tremendously since we used to spend a lot of time around each other and see each other at the racetrack every weekend. I'm happy for you. Being able to do everything you want to do, get involved in everything you want to do, but also find this balance in your personal life that you have been searching so hard for all your life. You deserve it. You deserve everything you got coming at you and you do a damn good job. I admire how you're able to juggle all the things you do and because I, I think there's some similarities in our lives where we don't say no to too much and that's a fault for us. Sometimes we wonder what, whether we need to be doing all the things we're doing. But you're, you're somebody I look up to in that regard of being able to really kind of manage your time smartly and, and just wish you well, man. I'll be following you along in your drag racing and, and, and wherever that takes you and whatever you end up doing next, hopefully we get to see you keep on racing for a long time.

[Tony Stewart]

That's the plan. Like I say, I never know what it's going to be. But you can guarantee I'm going to be driving something for a long time.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Funny car.

[Tony Stewart]

Join it. God, I hope not. If they're right, it's going to be bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're a funny car driver.

[Tony's Friend/Interviewer]

Yeah, he's a funny car driver.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just don't know it.

[Tony Stewart]

I think I'm just funny. I think we just stop with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I appreciate you coming here. I know you got a lot of things going on as we talked about. Thanks for giving us a little bit of your time today.

[Tony Stewart]

No, I appreciate it. It's great hanging out with you. I miss our conversations. We've had a lot of fun together. We've had some great heart to heart talks together about life and stuff and how this transition in our lives should go or how we think it should go. And don't worry, there's going to be some phone calls. I feel like coming up in the next six to 12 months. I'm going to need some help. Maybe on Icebreaker. I'm getting some, I'm getting some heat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I can help you with all of those questions for sure. Boy, we are neck deep in all that. But again man, thanks a lot. Thanks for coming to see us. It's always a pleasure. Tony Stewart on the Dale Jr. Download. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

[Tony Stewart]

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