There was an extra "Smoke" show this weekend at the Cleetus and Cars show at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Held in conjunction with the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series North Central Region event, the stands were packed an a great time was held by all.
As for Tony Stewart in the seat of a Top Alcohol Dragster, It doesn't appear to be beginners luck and Stewart is certainly finding his groove, earning his second Wally in his last three events, all of which he has made it to the finals.
Stewart earned the No. 1 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Saturday running a stout lap of 5.183 ET at 281.07 mph. He then backed that up later in the day with a lap of 5.203 ET at 282.07 mph.
On Sunday, there was no slowing down for Stewart running solid laps of 5.202 ET at 282.19 mph in round one where he defeated Jeff Chatterson (5.309 ET at 266.95 mph). In round 2, Stewart ran 5.288 ET at 276.75 mph to defeat his teammate, Jasmine Salinas (5.333 ET at 272.89 mph). In the finals, Stewart wrapped up the day and his second Wall with a lap at 5.257 ET at 276.35 mph, defeating Jackie Fricke (5.308 ET at 274.27 mph).
“The last three races have been amazing. 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.”
Unless Stewart adds to his schedule, the next event on the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule for Stewart is the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals June 23-25 at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
With 2 wins out of the past three, something tells me Stewart might show up to win something prior to that!
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Photo's: Tony Stewart Racing | Tony Stewart social | Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
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