For the first time in his still-brief professional drag racing career, Tony Stewart — a champion of countless racing disciplines at motorsports’ highest levels — finds himself in the NHRA Top Fuel points lead as the series heads into the New England Nationals this weekend in Epping, New Hampshire.

Stewart, fresh off his second win of the season at the most recent NHRA national event, the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals near Chicago, enters Epping with a three-point lead over Shawn Langdon. Stewart defeated perennial championship contender Justin Ashley in the final round for his second victory in the last three races, in what was just his 26th career start in Top Fuel. Stewart also denied Ashley victory in a four-wide finale at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at Las Vegas in April.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done up until this part of the year, especially compared to where we were a year ago,” Stewart says. “We still have a lot of work to do compared to all the teams that are in the top ten in points. They’re all working hard to try to get where we’re at, so even though we’re at the top of the points lead right now, we still have a lot of work to do as a race team to get different aspects of our program exactly where it needs to be.”

Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

In the season’s first six events, Stewart has compiled a 14-4 overall round record, and the only thing that he hasn’t yet accomplished on this year is recording a number one qualifier (he’s qualified second three times). His average starting spot is seventh, but more importantly, he hasn’t yet lost in the opening round; he’s been to the final round at half of the six races contested, and at least the semifinals at four events, showcasing championship-form consistency.

“In our team meeting, we talked about the importance of continuing to push hard and stay focused,” Stewart says. “We realize that it’s great to win the race and it’s great to have the points lead, but at the same time, we know that we still have work to do and we still have areas that we need to improve on. Our focus going into Epping is to just continue to try to improve our program to try to stay where we’re at and make ourselves even better. We’re just going to keep pushing forward and keep putting in the hard work.”