Tony Stewart’s drag racing team takes a solid jab at social media fan questioning his presence at Indy 500 coverage
Tony Stewart Racing Nitro, Stewart's NHRA team, addressed an X user questioning the driver's Indy 500 broadcasting gig. The team responded by recalling Stewart's championship-winning run in the 1997 IndyCar Series season.
With an IndyCar championship on his resume, Tony Stewart is the only driver who has won a title in the American open-wheel racing series (formerly Indy Racing League) and NASCAR (2003, 2005, and 2011). He currently competes in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) after retiring from full-time NASCAR competition in 2016.
The TSR Nitro X account defended its owner from a user, @MI_Sprints, who asked why a now-drag racer was covering the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 with Fox Sports, in a now-deleted tweet.
“This is how...” the NHRA team wrote while showing a picture of Tony Stewart alongside the IndyCar Series championship trophy.
The user then went on to delete their post and apologised for the same.
"Deleted my tweet. I'm tired and didn't expect it to go viral. Love you @TSRnitro. Hope we can still be friends," read their tweet.
The Indy 500 coverage is Fox Sports' inaugural broadcast of The Greatest Spectacle of Racing. Tony Stewart was part of the broadcasting team alongside Danica Patrick, who drove for his now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing in the 2010s. The former teammates were joined by the media company's veteran sportscaster, Chris Myers.
On Sunday, Alex Palou won his first Indy 500. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver made a crucial pass on Marcus Ericsson on lap 187 to take and keep the lead before crossing the finish line in P1.
Stewart, meanwhile, will prepare for the seventh race of the 2025 NHRA Top Fuel season at New England Dragway this weekend. He will come off a victory from Route 66 Raceway, his second win this year after the Las Vegas race.
Tony Stewart gets a shoutout from NFL star in 2025 Indy 500
Tony Stewart was mentioned by former NFL football tight end Rob Gronkowski during the Indy 500 coverage. Gronkowski said there was a lot of smoke in the pre-race party, but he wasn't talking about the 54-year-old racecar driver.
For context, Stewart has been nicknamed Smoke even before debuting in the NASCAR Cup Series (formerly Winston Cup) in 1999. It started in his dirt racing days when he smoked tires pushing his vehicles before the IndyCar Series guys called him so for blowing motors on multiple occasions.
TSR Nitro posted a short clip of Rob Gronkowski sharing a pun about Stewart and the smoke on X during the Indy 500 coverage.
“You guys are missing out on the biggest party. There's a lot of smoke here, and I'm not even talking about Tony Stewart. Let's go!” Gronkowski said.
Gronkowski's former teammate, Tom Brady, was also in attendance. Brady jumped into a two-seater IndyCar vehicle with seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who lapped around the 2.5-mile track before flying to Charlotte for a part-time drive in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600.
Stewart isn't involved with NASCAR after the 2024 season. He left the stock car racing series as a team owner of Stewart-Haas Racing for various reasons, such as the sport's new direction. Some of his most notable achievements were winning three championships (one of them as a team owner with Kevin Harvick) and 49 career victories in the Cup Series.