Tony Stewart sets the record straight on “halfway bionic” claim from NHRA teammate

Tony Stewart, the popular NASCAR figure, set the record straight on a claim by Matt Hagan that he was “halfway bionic”. Stewart replied that, contrary to popular belief and despite his injuries, he has had just one rod in his back.

American professional racing car driver and co-owner of a former NASCAR team, Tony Stewart, nicknamed "Smoke", is currently racing in NHRA. He is one of the most talented and diverse drivers in NASCAR history, with success in both NASCAR and IndyCar.

During his recent appearance on the Dodge GarageCast podcast with his NHRA teammate, Matt Hagan, the three-time Cup Series winner recounted one of the four times he had broken his back while racing. He said (8:20 onwards):

"I mean, I mean, he's been known to drive a couple different things. monster truck at Talladega. Yeah, that's one of the four times I broke my back. Oh, and didn't even realize that it was that was the same night that Kevin Hamlin who was earnhardt's creature."

"Oh, in 2000. Yeah, that's when he broke his back the night before the race.And that's I had missed a shift in my run against him. And he won, but broke his back. So man, because he couldn't run that put me in the finals.And then I broke my back in the finals. And it was a blast," he added.

Matt Hagan claimed that because Tony had broken his back four times, he was “halfway bionic”.

"He's halfway bionic man. Okay. I mean, been pieced back together," Hagan said.

Tony Stewart set the records straight, replying:

"I just have one rod."

Some highlights of Stewart's racing career are 62 total NASCAR national series wins (11 in the Xfinity Series and 2 in the Truck Series), 15 poles and over 300 top-10's in total. Stewart drove mainly for Joe Gibbs Racing, then co-founded Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2009, and competed as a co-owner of that team until retiring from full-time NASCAR racing after the 2016 season.

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Tony Stewart on surviving a massive NHRA Top Fuel explosion

Tony Stewart recently survived a massive explosion during an NHRA Top Fuel qualifying run. While competing against Shawn Langdon, Stewart’s 11,000-horsepower dragster exploded mid-run, catching fire and forcing marshals to rush to his aid.

Despite the violent incident, Stewart emerged without any injuries and was able to climb out of the car on his own. Reflecting on the crash, he credited the protective canopy and safety equipment for minimizing the impact. He also joked about the sudden deceleration from extreme G-forces to none.

"Well luckily being in canopy I don't feel a lot of anything is here, and you realize you know obviously it decells, real quick, you go from all those positive G's to know G's anymore, but if anybody needs their yard mode this week in the call I got a I got some bills to pay this week," Stewart said via Fox Sports [01:05].

Tony Stewart’s interest in drag racing grew after meeting his now-wife, Leah Pruett, a professional NHRA driver, in 2019. Since then, he has been actively involved in the NHRA Top Fuel Series, even filling in for Pruett during her temporary hiatus and winning the Rookie of the Year title for the 2024 season.