Tony Stewart Loses NHRA Top Fuel Final At Pomona As Jack Beckman Wins John Force Racing’s 300th Race

Smoke smoked the tires!

Tony Stewart advanced to his third NHRA Top Fuel final at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., on Sunday in his second season racing in the series, but came up short in the race.

The NASCAR and IndyCar veteran has been driving his wife Leah Pritchett’s Dodge while she is on maternity leave following the birth of their first child together, Dominic.

Stewart lined up alongside Rick Ware Racing’s Clay Millican, but spun his tires off the line to hand Millican an easy win, his first at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

“My crew chief told me he had it loaded up and a couple things were going to happen. He said we’re going to win, we’re going to blow up and, if we lose, we’re going to be a footnote in history,” Millican said on FS1 after the race. “Thank goodness we’re not a footnote in history. Tony Stewart is going to win one of these soon, but all I know is we won the Winternationals.”

Stewart had to go through defending Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, 2023 champion Doug Kalitta and 2013 champion Sean Langdon to get to the final.

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History was made in the Funny Car class as Jack Beckman beat rookie Daniel Wilkerson to claim the 300th NHRA win for John Force Racing.

The 75-year-old John Force, who is still recovering from a massive crash at the Virginia Nationals last July, was at the track to celebrate Beckman’s win. Force is personally responsible for 157 of the team’s victories, including last year’s Winternationals.

Meanwhile, the Pro Stock class was deja vu all over again as Greg Anderson faced his KB Nitro teammate Dallas Glenn for the fourth consecutive final, all of which Anderson has won.

The NHRA now takes a week off before heading to the Four-Wide Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the weekend of April 11-13.