Tony Stewart’s NFT collection is for the fans

Orange comet

Tony Stewart has partnered with Orange Comet for a new NFT collection.

On August 23, fans of NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and digital collectibles will be able to purchase some unique items. They can purchase NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) to celebrate Stewart’s legacy, which also come with physical items and unique prizes.

This collection, which is a collaboration with Orange Comet, will feature two separate series on the OpenSea market. It will be the Champion Series, which includes five cars with six different variants. Each will also include an autographed fire suit.

In addition, an owner of a limited edition Champion Series NFT will be able to win a Cup Series car from Stewart-Haas Racing – a 2011 championship car that does not include an engine.

There will also be the Legacy Series, which includes 500 NFTs highlighting cars from Stewart’s career, all with unique schemes. This series includes cars from the SRX Series, IndyCar Series, Cup Series, World of Outlaws and USAC Silver Crown Series. Each NFT has its own animation that shows in-depth details, such as visible tire wear on the IndyCar Series entry.

“It was hard to narrow it down,” Stewart told Heavy before its release. “But it was picking cars – and there were obviously more cars than we did in this collection, to your point. They [important] part was choosing cars that really meant something to me in my career. Of course, my IndyCar career was short, but the opportunity for me to realize my dream of driving Indy was very important to me. So having IndyCar in there was essential.

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“Having the car from the 2011 championship was crucial because of winning as a driver and owner at the same time. The SRX car because I’m a partner in that series and being able to do something and bring back what was the new version of the old IROC series was important.

“And the Midget and the Sprint car for the Triple Crown year. There were so many iconic moments from that season of trying to race for three national championships that there was no way I could go without putting at least two of those cars in there.”

As a refresher, NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain — “a distributed database or ledger shared among the nodes of a computer network.” These NFTs often represent real-world objects, such as works of art. In this case, the NFTs will include animations featuring Stewart and his iconic cars.

A skilled racer played a big role

GettyTony Stewart (left) and Leah Pruett (right) hold a press conference in North Carolina.

As Stewart pointed out before the collections’ release, he’s not one to focus on NFTs and the tech world. It was foreign territory to him. Instead, it was his wife, championship-winning racer Leah Pruett, who helped him gain interest.

“Leah is also a racing driver, but Leah is very tech savvy,” explained Stewart. “I’m the opposite in this family. I’m the one who feels like if I can actually connect on a Zoom call, I feel like I’ve had a good day.

“But Leah was the one who really introduced me to it,” Stewart continued. “And I’ll be honest — at first I didn’t get it. It didn’t make sense to me, didn’t have the knowledge and couldn’t wrap my arms around it. But we were at the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremonies early in the year. Afterwards, talking she with some of the marketing people from NASCAR and they were talking about NFTs.

“And I felt like the third wheel. I didn’t even stand in the circle where I listened to them talk, but stood just outside it to be out of the conversation. But I was close enough to listen to everything that was going on, and to really listening to her perspective and NASCAR’s perspective made me more engaged.”

One advantage Stewart mentioned is that these NFTs exist digitally, unlike some rare diecast cars from his career. There are no worries about them falling off the shelf or being broken by someone playing with them. In the same way, they do not fade like trading cards.

Make the concept a reality

GettyTony Stewart celebrates an SRX Series win.

Gaining interest is part of the process, but Stewart needed a partner to bring this collection to life. Enter Orange Comet, a content creation company founded by Hollywood veteran Dave Broome, NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner and Grammy-winning musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan.

Orange Comet has NFT collections that span multiple industries. One focuses on comics while another takes on the NFL. There is also a collection celebrating the career of Anthony Hopkins. Stewart’s collection is the first for a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and it builds on something that continues to drive physical merchandise sales.

“Passion. It’s very simple,” Broome added. “It’s — I mean, look, first of all, we have a legendary icon. Tony, from an athlete standpoint, he’s the best of the best. From a brand standpoint, he’s built a fantastic brand for himself.

“But more importantly — or I shouldn’t say more — but probably just as important is that he’s passionate about everything he does. … His fans and the race car fans are passionate. And I see the world of NFTs and digital collectibles appealing to real fans. But it has to be with work that’s impressive.”

“I feel like it’s a huge way and a huge opportunity for us to bring something new to our fan base and [have] our fans engage with them,” Stewart said. “But also celebrating our career and historic moments in our racing career. And to be able to do that with this bunch has been so much fun. It’s been amazing to see the level of excitement from the group to think about all the assets we’re including in these packages.”

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