Tony Stewart Offers Ride to Dale Earnhardt Jr.; Will He Accept?

After nearly two decades of competing against each other in NASCAR’s National Series ranks, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. are now on different paths. However, there is a chance their paths could cross again.

Following his retirement from full-time NASCAR competition in 2016, Stewart remained a part-owner in Stewart-Haas Racing, but began exploring new avenues in motorsports. In 2021, he co-founded the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) – a stock-car series that brought together popular drivers from various backgrounds to compete at several short tracks across the United States. That same year, Stewart began fielding entries in NHRA events under Tony Stewart Racing. 

As his involvement in drag racing evolved, major changes followed. Stewart-Haas Racing announced it would close its doors, and SRX sold to new ownership. With those chapters closing, “Smoke” shifted his focus to a career in drag racing, officially starting his driving journey in 2024. 

“Everything I’ve ever done has kind of fit in the same giant bubble but things are more towards different sides of it. This is fantasy over on fantasy island on its own deal. This is a whole new learning experience,” Stewart said about his newest endeavor. “There’s more to it than just driving the car once you hit the throttle and that’s the thing that somebody like me, that’s what I was worried about was hitting the gas and getting to the finish line. What I didn’t realize I needed to be focused on was the 20 things and the procedure that have to happen and that you have to do correctly and the same every time. So there’s a lot different mindset that goes into driving drag cars versus oval track cars.”

Now, the 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee is a winner in the series, capturing his first Top Fuel win this season in April's 4-Wide Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Like Stewart, Earnhardt's path after stepping away from full-time NASCAR competition has remained rooted in motorsports. Rather than leaving the stock car racing world, Earnhardt continues to make his mark in NASCAR as a broadcaster, NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner, zMax Cars Tour series co-owner, and podcaster. Now, at 50 years old, Earnhardt remains an influential and active force in the NASCAR community.

Recently, Earnhardt collaborated with popular YouTuber and part-time racer Mitchell “Cleetus” McFarland, who has competed in two ARCA Menard’s Series events this season. How popular is Cleetus McFarland you may ask? Well, If you check his in-car camera footage from Daytona, featured on the NASCAR YouTube channel, it has amassed over 780,000 views – making it one of the channel's top-10 most-viewed live streams of all time. After making noise in his debut at Daytona, the content creator joined Earnhardt on an episode The Dale Jr. Download to discuss his background and future plans.

Not long after his podcast appearance, the collaboration continued in a new way. Ahead of his second ARCA Menards Series start of the season, McFarland invited the 2021 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee to join him for a video filmed at Talladega. There, he handed Earnhardt over the keys to his modded-up “Dale Truck” – a turbocharged drag machine featuring a large spoiler and Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s iconic black and silver Goodwrench paint scheme. 

The truck rocketed the six-time Talladega winner from zero to 100 miles per hour in less than 600 feet.

“Holy moly, it is awesome,” Earnhardt said, taking in the super speeds he had just experienced. “That’s f-cking fun. God dang!” 

Thoroughly enjoying the thrill of the top speeds, he took the truck on a few more runs before calling it quits.

“I’m ready to go to a real strip," Earnhardt proclaimed. "I want to run it on a real strip.” 

That all leads to this past weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s zMAX Dragway for the American Rebel Light 4-Wide Nationals. 

With Tony Stewart back in a town so familiar to him from his NASCAR days, it was only fitting that he was asked if he had seen the video of his former competitor trying out a bit of drag racing.

Not only had Stewart seen the video, but he also extended an offer to NASCAR’s 15-time Most Popular Driver.