Rico Abreu discloses the difference between public perception and his view of Tony Stewart after the landmark announcement

Many recognize the former NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart for his intimidating aura and aggressive driving style. But Rico Abreu is among the few who have a different perspective on the former Stewart-Haas Racing owner.

Abreu was featured in an interview with Motorsports.com after announcing a new partnership with Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) in sprint racing the next season. During the interview, the #24 car driver opened up about his relationship with Stewart and highlighted how people generally mistook him as an intimidating person and "a gruff, hard a**."

Rico Abreu and Tony Stewart have known each other for over a decade, and their friendship began at the 2012 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. Reflecting on his years-long friendship with the former NASCAR Cup Series driver, Abreu wants people to see the other side of him and stated (via Motorsports.com):

“People see the other side of Tony Stewart. The part of him that is a gruff hard a** but all I’ve ever seen from Tony is kindness. Someone kept breaking into our shop, and Tony told me to come over and work out of his place, and I was reluctant to at first."

“He always treated me respect. He respected me as a racer. I haven’t always had confidence; as a little person, believing that I fit in here, but he always made me feel like I belonged. I learned a lot about leadership from Tony. And above all else, when we got done doing (Dale Jr. Download), I just sent him a thank you text for all of that because I don’t know that I would have made it without people like him who made me feel welcome here in the first place,” he concluded.

Tony Stewart replaced his wife, Leah Pruett, in her Top Fuel ride in 2024. Later in September 2025, Stewart added one more achievement to his resume. He won the NHRA Top Fuel regular-season title at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

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"It’s not like what you and I were used to": Tony Stewart once got candid about the difference between NHRA and NASCAR racing

In 2024, Tony Stewart was featured on his team SHR's former driver, Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast on YouTube. Being among the few drivers to have such a vast career, Stewart elucidated the difference between stock car racing and NHRA drag racing.

The former Cup Series driver began by pointing out the race duration of both series. He highlighted that NHRA races generally last around three to four seconds, whereas in NASCAR, drivers often compete for three to four hours. He added:

“It’s not like what you and I were used to, where we’ve got a three-and-a-half-hour race. We’ve got six or eight pit stops during the day, and we have three, four, or five hundred laps to get the job done. If we make a mistake, we're going to fix it."

Further, Tony Stewart revealed that in NASCAR 70% of performance is based on drivers, and the remaining 30% is up to the crew. However, in the NHRA series, it all comes down to the cars' tuning and setup. Stewart claimed that NHRA racing suits are ten pounds heavier than the NASCAR jerseys.