Event Recap for the NHRA Route 66 Nationals – STEWART WINS!

Tony Stewart & Matt Hagan

Top Fuel | Funny Car
Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK
May 15-18 | Joliet, Illinois

Event Recap

Tony Stewart, driver of the Rinnai Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster:
• Earned No. 1 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.847 ET at 320.36 mph)
• Earned three bonus points for quickest run of the session
• Fell to No. 6 provisional qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Friday, Stewart ran a 6.013 ET at 111.42 mph.
• Earned No. 2 provisional qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.679 ET at 332.43 mph). Stewart faced Antron Brown in Round 1 of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where his run defeated Brown’s 3.691 ET at 336.23 mph.
• Earned two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session
• Secured No. 2 qualifying position based off of Saturday’s Q3 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Stewart ran a 5.501 ET at 123.10 mph. Stewart faced Shawn Langdon in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge Finals, where Stewart lost to Langdon’s 3.704 ET at 332.10 mph.
• Advanced to Finals on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.694 ET at 329.26 mph, defeated Terry Totten (4.276 ET at 212.43 mph)
• Round 2: 4.539 ET at 261.47 mph, defeated Shawn Reed (5.043 ET at 267.11 mph)
• Semifinals: 3.762 ET at 329.18 mph, defeated Steve Torrence (4.021 ET at 268.28 mph)
• Finals: 3.777 ET at 329.10 mph, defeated Justin Ashley (3.818 ET at 324.12 mph)
• Currently leading the Top Fuel championship standings, three points over Shawn Langdon

Matt Hagan, driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
• Earned No. 17 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (8.245 ET at 88.16 mph)
• Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (4.018 ET at 322.88 mph)
• Earned No. 2 provisional qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.886 ET at 331.45 mph). Hagan faced Alexis DeJoria in Round 1 of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where his run defeated DeJoria’s 4.400 ET at 199.70 mph.
• Earned two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session
• Secured No. 3 qualifying position in Q4 on Saturday (3.880 ET at 331.85 mph). Hagan faced Ron Capps in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge Finals, where Hagan defeated Capps’ 3.889 ET at 330.88 mph.
• Advanced to Semifinals on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.916 ET at 330.39 mph, defeated Blake Alexander (4.036 ET at 320.28 mph)
• Round 2: 3.919 ET at 328.62 mph, defeated Ron Capps (3.957 ET at 326.08 mph)
• Semifinals: 3.942 ET at 327.90 mph, lost to Austin Prock (3.931 ET at 329.75 mph)
• Currently third in the championship standings, 83 points behind Funny Car leader Austin Prock

Notes of Interest

• Stewart’s win marked the second of his Top Fuel career and his first at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. The victory gave Stewart the Top Fuel points lead.
• Stewart has now completed the trifecta at Chicago – the oval track, dirt track (as a team owner – Donny Schatz in 2005 and 2017) and dragstrip.
• Stewart advanced to his fourth consecutive final. His previous final-round appearances came at the 65th NHRA Winternationals, NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, and American Rebel Light NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
• Hagan earned his first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the season. The specialty race rewards a bonus purse and bonus points for the Countdown to the Championship.
• Hagan and Capps went head-to-head for the first two times in 2025. They first faced each other in Saturday’s #2Fast2Tasty Finals and again in Round 2 on Sunday. Hagan and Capps have had 83 career matchups, with Capps leading 42-41.
• Stewart’s Q3 run of 3.679 ET marked the quickest run of his Top Fuel career. His previous best elapsed time was 3.688-seconds, a mark he set at Brainerd in 2024.
• By advancing to the Semifinals, Hagan and Stewart qualified to participate in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at the next event, the NHRA New England Nationals. The challenge brings competitive racing to the qualifying schedule at 13 regular-season events during the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign, pitting semifinalists from the previous race against each other in a pair of rematches, with the two winners then matching up in the final qualifying session. Hagan earned a rematch against Austin Prock in Round 1 and Stewart will race Steve Torrence.
• Stewart will be joining the INDYCAR on FOX team next Sunday, May 25 for the 109th Indianapolis 500. Stewart will participate in the pre-race show alongside Danica Patrick and Chris Myers. Pre-race coverage begins at 10 a.m. ET, and the green flag drops at 12:45 p.m. ET.

Tony Stewart, Driver of the Rinnai Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster

“I said at Vegas that I was extremely impressed and pleased with the progress our team has been making. There were tricky track conditions on Friday, so I was excited about getting number one qualifier in Q1. There are a lot of heavy hitters that can really perform when the track is great and we just hadn’t been there yet. When the track cooled off and we ran a 3.67 (ET) yesterday, we got really excited. We had talked amongst our group about how tough it is to race for a championship at the end of the season when we haven’t raced in cooler conditions like we will have in the Fall. We had that this weekend, so to run that well was very encouraging. Now we have data that we can go back and look at and won’t be starting from scratch. We had a mixture of warm and cool conditions today for eliminations. I talked with Leah (Pruett) before the Final about what I had to do to beat Justin (Ashley). We concluded I had to just keep doing what I’ve been doing and get up on the wheel. You know when you race Justin, you have to bring your “A game” and rise to the occasion. His reaction times are the best out here and he does that both in qualifying and eliminations. That makes today’s win for our Rinnai crew that much more special. They have a great team and program. When you can beat them, it is a feather in your cap because you’re beating one of the best teams in the business.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“We had a great qualifying session, qualifying in the top half of the field this weekend. Our Dodge Direct Connection Funny Car has been running really strong. We made it down the track six out of seven runs and the run we didn’t make it down the track was because we had a clutch line that was off. We have a race car that is going down the race track, whether it’s hot or cold. I was really rooting on Tony to win the race this weekend. We were just on the back side of a good drag race. If you talk to (Ron) Capps, I think he’d be saying the same thing I am from Round 2. We just have to keep digging and working hard. Everything is moving in the right direction.”

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA New England Nationals May 30-June 1 at New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire.

-TSR-

Contact Ashley Wilson
Tony Stewart Racing
(303) 594-8147 or [email protected]