On September 14, 2025, there was excitement at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania. This was the second round of Top Fuel eliminations at the NHRA Reading Nationals or Nitro Fish Nationals. Tony Stewart, a NASCAR Hall of Famer who’s shifted his focus to drag racing, was behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster for Tony Stewart Racing.
Tony Stewart was stepping in for his wife, Leah Pruett, who stepped away earlier this season. His opponent was veteran driver Doug Kalitta of Kalitta Motorsports.
Kalitta rocketed down the quarter-mile strip in just 3.75 seconds, topping out at a blistering 335 mph. He crossed the finish line first, and then everything went sideways.
Just after the line, Kalitta’s left-front tire exploded. The blowout sent his dragster skidding out of control, slicing across the centre line at terrifying speed. In an instant, he clipped the side of Stewart’s car, which was just easing off the throttle.
The impact flipped Tony Stewart’s dragster onto its left side, scraping along the concrete wall in a shower of sparks before bouncing back upright. Kalitta’s machine, now barely hanging together, careened to a stop on the opposite side of the track.
Walking Away From the Wreck: Tony Stewart
It was the kind of wreck that freezes an entire grandstand. For a few awful seconds, nobody moved. Then, unbelievably, both Tony Stewart and Kalitta climbed out of their demolished cars on their own. Track safety crews sprinted in, and NHRA Chief Medical Officer Brandon Snell gave both men a quick check. Neither needed a hospital trip.
In his post-race interview, Stewart admitted the crash was a blur.
“I don’t have a damn clue, honestly. I honestly don’t remember any of it. The first thing I remember is that they’re waking me up here. Not sure what happened, but it appears to have been pretty massive. Looking at Doug’s car and my car, I’m glad PBRC builds our cars, because we have safe race cars, obviously.”
He even managed to joke about his condition.
“I got one h*ll of a headache and banged my left hand up. But I’ve been through sprint car crashes way worse than this, I’m pretty sure. We’re good. We’re good. We’re fine. I promise we’re fine.”
A Sobering Reminder and a Testament to Safety
Crashes like this rarely happen after the finish line, especially when the parachutes are already out. It was a sobering reminder of how violently things can unravel at these speeds, and how far safety has come.
Within minutes, the track was cleared, and the next pair of dragsters rolled up like nothing had happened. That’s drag racing: fast, unforgiving, and somehow always moving forward.
As Doug Kalitta reflected on the crash, he kept his composure, framing it as just another part of the sport’s risks.
“Was down or blew or whatever. So yeah, it was just unfortunate, really. It just happened so quickly that there was nothing I could really do. So just glad we’re going to [the semifinals],” Kalitta said.
“We’ll drag our other car out and see if we can keep this thing going here, but fortunately, Tony and I are good. So that’s really the main thing… That’s probably the worst [wreck] that I’ve had, but yeah, it’s been very fortunate over the years. It’s all part of it,” he added.
NASCAR legend Tony Stewart’s NHRA Crash Leaves Him Baffled and Injured