Tony Stewart: The Only Driver to Win IndyCar and NASCAR Titles

Tony Stewart is an American driver who won championships in USAC, IndyCar and NASCAR, and he is the only driver to have won titles in both IndyCar and NASCAR. He won three NASCAR Cup championships, two as a driver and one as an owner-driver, and a fourth as an owner. He finished his full-time Cup career in 2016 after eighteen years in the series.

Who is Tony Stewart?

Anthony Wayne Stewart was born on 20 May 1971 in Indiana. He is known by the nickname Smoke, which he earned in 1997 for slipping his tires on dirt and blowing engines during his title run. His hot temper and sharp comments to the media became part of his public image.

Stewart's titles came in midgets, sprint cars, Silver Crown cars, Indy cars and stock cars. He later co-owned Stewart-Haas Racing and founded the Superstar Racing Experience. In 2026 he returned to competition in a NASCAR Truck Series programme for Kaulig Racing.

From a 1979 go-kart in Indiana to the only IndyCar and NASCAR title double, Stewart's career was built on speed and a short fuse.

How did Stewart's racing begin?

His first real kart arrived in Westport, Indiana, in 1979. He won his first championship in 1980 and a World Karting Association title in 1987. Next came the United Midget Racing Association, where he drove three-quarter midgets until 1991.

In 1991 he moved into the United States Auto Club series with help from a karting sponsor and friend, Mark Dismore. He was the USAC Rookie of the Year that season. He became USAC National Midget champion in 1994 and 1995 and won the Silver Crown title in 1995.

What was the USAC Triple Crown?

In 1995 he collected the National Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown titles together, a first for any driver in a single season. He is one of only six drivers to earn the USAC Triple Crown. The Hut Hundred and the 4 Crown Nationals were the highlights of that year.

Before a Brickyard 400 weekend he entered the USAC Hall of Fame. He has 27 USAC National Midget wins, ten sprint car wins and three Silver Crown wins.

How did Stewart get into IndyCar?

The Indy Racing League was formed to give grassroots racers a path into Indy cars, and Stewart took that route. After talks with A. J. Foyt Racing did not work out, he signed early in 1996 with Team Menard for the abridged three-race opening season.

His first Indy car start came at Walt Disney World Speedway, where he led 37 laps before finishing behind the rookie Buzz Calkins. At Phoenix he led early laps before pit stop problems and mechanical trouble ended his race.

What happened at the 1996 Indianapolis 500?

Stewart started his first Indianapolis 500 on the outside of the front row. Luyendyk's time was disqualified, and a week later his teammate Scott Brayton died, which put Stewart on pole. He led 44 laps before a malfunctioning pop-off valve ended his race before halfway. The result left him eighth in the final IRL points standings.

While he raced in the IRL, Stewart also took part in Busch Series events. In 1996 he ran nine Busch races for Harry Rainer, with a best of 16th. He also made a one-off Truck Series start with Mueller Brothers Racing and finished 10th.

Did Stewart win the 1997 IRL title?

Yes. In 1997 he led 64 laps in the Indianapolis 500 and finished fifth. He then took his first IRL win at Pikes Peak, where he ran out front for all but seven of 200 laps. Over the rest of the year he finished seventh, fourteenth and eleventh, with five DNFs, and still beat Davey Hamilton to the title.

He also raced midgets during the period. He finished 13th and 11th in the USAC national points in 1997 and 1998 and won the Copper Classic in both years. The nickname came from slipping tyres on dirt and from engines blowing during that period.

How did Stewart's 1998 season go?

In 1998 Stewart drove for Joe Gibbs in a handful of Busch Series races, where he had five top-five finishes from 22 starts. He came close to his first Busch win at Rockingham, but Matt Kenseth passed him on the last lap. On the IRL side he won twice and took third in the standings, but his Indianapolis 500 ended with an engine failure that left him last.

Gibbs was impressed, and Stewart moved up to a full Cup ride for 1999. That move ended his three years as a full-time IRL driver.

What was Stewart's rookie Cup season like?

In 1999 Stewart started his Cup career in the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac for Joe Gibbs Racing. Starting from the outside pole at Daytona, he qualified for the 500, and although he ran near the front, car problems dropped him to 28th at the finish.

Over the season he won three races, at Richmond, Phoenix and Homestead, a rookie record. He finished fourth in the points, the highest rookie finish in the modern era, and the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honour was his. He also ran the Memorial Day double that year, finishing ninth at Indianapolis and fourth at Charlotte.

How close did Stewart come to the 2002 title?

Stewart won six races in 2000 but finished sixth in the standings after several retirements. In 2001 an 18-car pileup on lap 173 of the Daytona 500 caught him, and he came out of it with an injured shoulder. He won three more races that year and finished second to Jeff Gordon.

The 2001 season also brought controversy. Stewart received fines and probation for several incidents, and his temper earned him the reputation of NASCAR's bad boy. In 2002 he was fined $50,000 and lost 25 points after an altercation with a photographer following the Brickyard 400. He still won the next race at Watkins Glen, and he took the points lead at Talladega.

He ended the year ahead of Mark Martin and claimed his first Winston Cup title. It was his final season in a Pontiac.

What happened in the 2004 Chase?

Stewart finished second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 2004 Daytona 500 after leading 98 laps. He also took first place at Chicagoland, and he earned a fourth-place seed in the first Chase for the Nextel Cup. An incident at Loudon ended that championship bid, and he finished sixth in the standings.

In November 2004 he bought Eldora Speedway in New Weston, Ohio, a half-mile dirt track he had raced at since 1991. He later hosted many special events there.

How did Stewart win his second championship?

In 2005 Stewart won five races, including the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, his hometown track. The win moved him to the No. 1 seed for the Chase. He won the championship on 20 November 2005, placing him among the youngest ever to collect more than one title, at age 34.

That season was a financial record in NASCAR. His 2005 earnings reached $13,578,168, of which $6,173,633 was the title bonus, a series best.

The 2006 season brought a shoulder injury after two heavy crashes at Charlotte. He missed the Chase by sixteen points and finished 11th in the standings, his worst result to that point. He won three races in the Chase, at Kansas, Atlanta and Texas, and he was the IROC champion that year after winning two of four races.

How did Stewart-Haas Racing come about?

In July 2008 Stewart agreed a deal with the car owner Gene Haas to co-own a new team, Stewart-Haas Racing, for 2009. He left Joe Gibbs Racing when the team switched from Chevrolet to Toyota, and he took half ownership of the new team. His No. 14 honoured his hero A. J. Foyt, and Ryan Newman joined the team as its second driver.

In 2009 he won the Sprint All-Star Race XXV for more than $1,000,000, and on 7 June he won the Pocono 500, the first owner-driver win in the Cup series since Ricky Rudd in 1998. At Daytona the Coke Zero 400 went his way too, after a contentious finish.

How did Stewart win his third championship?

In 2011 he won five races, all of them in the Chase, on the way to the title. He took the Chicagoland Chase opener and won at New Hampshire, Martinsville and Texas. On 20 November 2011 he won the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he claimed the title after a tie on points with Carl Edwards because he had five race wins to Edwards's one.

Only Alan Kulwicki, in 1992, had previously been crowned as an owner-driver. It was his third title overall.

Why did Stewart's sprint car crash matter?

On 5 August 2013 Stewart was out front in a sprint race at Southern Iowa Speedway, a track in Oskaloosa, Iowa, when a lapped car spun ahead of him. He struck it while it was sideways and flipped several times. He broke the tibia and fibula in his lower right leg, and a second operation placed a metal rod in the tibia.

The injury snapped a run of 521 straight Cup starts that began at the 1999 Daytona 500. Mark Martin drove the car for the rest of the season, and Stewart was ruled out for the year on 19 August 2013. He returned to sprint cars in February 2014, winning a race at Tri-City Motor Speedway in the same car that had broken his leg.

What was the Kevin Ward Jr. case?

On 9 August 2014 Stewart was racing a sprint car at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in New York when he bumped Kevin Ward Jr., who spun into the wall. Ward got out of his car and walked onto the banked track to confront Stewart. As Stewart's car fishtailed, its right rear tyre struck Ward, who later died in hospital.

Stewart did not race the next Cup event at Watkins Glen. A grand jury declined to indict him on 24 September 2014, and the district attorney said the video did not show aberrant driving. The Ward family's wrongful death suit ended in an out-of-court settlement in April 2018, weeks before trial.

The case also led NASCAR to adopt a rule on 15 August 2014 requiring drivers who cannot return to pit road after a crash to remain in their cars until help arrives, barring an emergency such as fire.

How did the final Cup years go?

In 2014 Stewart won no races and missed the Chase. The team's owner title, shared with Kevin Harvick, came that year. In 2015 he failed to win again, missed the Chase and finished no higher than sixth.

On 30 September 2015 he confirmed that he would retire from full-time racing after 2016, and Clint Bowyer was named to take over the No. 14 in 2017. A back injury from a dune buggy accident in January 2016 kept him out of the first eight races of that season.

He returned at Richmond in April 2016 and won at Sonoma later that season, his first win in three years. He ended his eighteen-year Cup career with a 22nd place at Homestead.

What has Stewart done since leaving full-time Cup racing?

Stewart has kept racing in other series. Dirt sprint car racing, in both 410 and 360 cars, fills roughly fifty dates a year for him, and he won his first World of Outlaws race at Ohsweken Speedway on 27 July 2011. He also co-founded the Superstar Racing Experience, where he drove full-time and won the championship in 2021 by 45 points.

In 2026 Kaulig Racing has him in its No. 25 Ram 1500 for Truck races at Daytona and Talladega. He also races in NHRA Top Fuel for Elite Motorsports. He married the drag racer Leah Pruett on 21 November 2021, and he took over her Top Fuel seat for the 2024 season.

What are Stewart's main results?