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Tony Stewart continues to make racing in the NHRA look easy.
On Sunday, thee three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion won for the second time in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, topping Jackie Fricke in the finals of a North Central Division Race at Indianapolis.
The win came from the No. 1 qualifying position and came in Stewart's third consecutive trip to a final round.
In addition to the win, Stewart set career marks in qualifying. His 5.183-second run in the first round of qualifying was his best in NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing competition, and his 282.07 mph run in the second qualifying run was the fastest he's gone in a Top Alcohol Dragster.
“The last three races have been amazing," said Stewart, who is a rookie making his first full-season run in a dragster. "To win at Vegas and runner-up at Charlotte two weeks ago, then come here to the regional event in Indy and win is awesome. I’m really proud of this team and how much they have progressed.
"It was a rocky start to the year, but once they figured out the problems we were having, this thing has come to life. I feel like every run we make, we’re getting better and better and getting the window a little bigger of what makes the car happy. Rich (McPhillips Sr.), Richie (McPhillips Jr.), Renee, Wayne, Bill and Eric that are on my car are great. There’s an awesome synergy with everyone. There’s Tex and Chris on Jasmine’s (Salinas) car and Darrell and Chad on Mike’s (Coughlin) car and Matt’s (Cummings) car when he runs it.
"Everybody works together and we’re one giant team. It’s nice when you plan and envision a run before you do it and then it goes exactly like you had planned. The hard thing with this style of racing is keeping up with the race track and knowing how much power you can put to the car. They did a great job prepping the track and Richie did a great job keeping up with it, so we knew what to do with the car.”
Stewart left the Indy event unofficially second in the points, trailing Julie Nataas by one point. His road to the win on Sunday included wins over Jeff Chatterson and Jasmine Salinas.
