Tony Stewart

Nitro Dude

Hauler Driver and Cylinder Head Maintenance
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It's official...Tony Stewart is starting a top fuel and funny car team to compete for a championship in NHRA drag racing with Leah Pruett driving the dragster and 3X world champion Matt Hagen driving the funny car. Also Tony and Leah will be getting married in November.
 
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Tony definitely does everything first class. I have been working around Leah as far back as when she drove Steve Pluegers nostalgia funny car and she has a lot of knowledge about drag racing and working on nitro cars and is an awesome driver. Hulk Hagen is an outstanding driver and is one of the best in the reaction time department and is looking like he could be a 4X funny car champion at the end of this season.
 
Wow, big changes coming at Don Schumacher Racing. That team takes one step forward and *three* steps back...

Tony Schumacher gets a sponsor and returns to competition.

Leah Pruett and Matt Hagen depart to Tony Stewart's team.

Antron Brown departs to form his own team.
 
Here is a behind the scenes YouTube video they did of the press release in Concord.
 
neat video
They also have some other pretty cool videos from Lake Havasu. Tony and Leah have been spending a lot of time this year hanging out at her Lake Havasu house and spending a lot of time on the water. I haven't seen or talked to them because I have been traveling so much this year slot car racing that I haven't been to Havasu since I spent Christmas there last year. But, my buddy that works on Bode's funny car has a vacation house there and he has hung out with them a few times this year.
 
It looks like Tony is having fun this week in Phoenix AZ at the NHRA test session with his new nitro teams.
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Hope his fun continues this NHRA season. Looks like his wife has got him in good shape.
 
Matt Hagen wins the Funny Car final at the Gatornationals for Tony Stewart's first NHRA win! Didn't take too long. Good for that whole organization.
 
Here is a YouTube video back at the shop after their win.
 
"Spoiler alert" Tony is in the semifinal. The car is running well, and Tony is getting pretty good consistent lights.
 
There was some argument on twitter with the some saying that top alcohol is not like Xfininty.

what say you @Nitro Dude
 
There was some argument on twitter with the some saying that top alcohol is not like Xfininty.

what say you @Nitro Dude
It does have a little similarity to Xfinity being it's a sportsman class not a professional class and the cars don't have as much power or run as fast as the pro nitro cars. A lot of the pro nitro drivers come from the alcohol ranks just like the Xfinity drivers do before they go to a cup car. A lot of drivers choose to stay in the alcohol cars because it is a little cheaper and a lot less maintenance than the nitro cars. The nitro motor is rebuilt after each pass but with the alcohol motor you can just do a leak down test on each cylinder and check the rod and main bearings and readjust the valve train. The alcohol motors turn around 11,500 rpm and make around 4000 horsepower and the alcohol funny cars run around 5.40s at 270 mph. The alcohol dragsters can run in the 5-teens at 280 mph vs the nitro cars that turn around 8500 to 9500 rpm and make 11,000 horsepower and produce a lot more torque. The nitro funny cars run in the low 3.80s at close to 340 mph and the top fuel dragsters run in the 3.60s at close to 340 mph. I think the top fuel dragster record is around 3.62 and the funny car record is around 3.79. I realize that this a little more in depth than you ask for but here is a little YouTube video on the physics of the top fuel dragster that kind of shows its comparison to a streetcar that you might enjoy.
 
did you rebuild the engines between passes, ND?
 
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