One of the nine items I had on my want-to-see/do list this weekend was seeing special visitors, and I have to admit, with none materializing before today, I was starting to get a little nervous it wouldn’t happen. Thankfully, that changed during and after the second round of Pro eliminations today when NASCAR driver Tony Stewart (aka "Smoke") visited the U.S. Nationals. Stewart came as a guest of Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher. The connection between the two Tonys is the U.S. Army, which sponsors Schumacher’s Top Fuel car and the Stewart-owned NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car driven by Ryan Newman. Stewart was on the starting line for Schumacher’s second-round pass, on which Schumacher defeated Rod Fuller. Stewart then visited Bob Frey in the announcer’s booth before making his way to the press room to speak with the assembled media.

“It’s awesome,” said Stewart of being at the U.S. Nationals. “It’s been a little over 10 years since I’ve been here to watch night qualifying. We’ve seen some good races today. Being able to hang out here with Tony and Don and Don Schumacher Racing and everybody with the U.S. Army is a lot of fun.”

Stewart is a racing enthusiast who has pretty much participated in every type of motorsport, the exception being drag racing. When asked about that, he said he would love to try.

“I tried this with [Joe] Gibbs one time when I signed my first contract with him,” he said. “We were sitting at the Indianapolis airport, and I said, ‘Well, there’s just one thing. I want to drive a Top Fuel car at the U.S. Nationals.’ Joe just looked at me like, ‘This is probably going to be a deal-breaker.’ I wasn’t serious anyway. I would love to drive one some time. John [Andretti] came over and did this for a while, and Doug Kalitta, who I raced with in Sprint Cars has obviously done really good over here. I’ve known [Ron] Capps and [Gary] Scelzi for a long time. I’ve got a lot of friends over here. A lot of the shops are so close to our shops down the road that we’re all neighbors. It’s something I’d really like to try some day.