He won three Cup Series championships, 49 races at NASCAR’s highest level, including two crown-jewel victories at Indianapolis, and earned his place in the Hall of Fame in 2020. Tony Stewart had seen and experienced almost everything American motorsport had to offer. He was then finding success in new territory in the NHRA and enjoying himself. That was until he noticed a change in his wife’s demeanor.
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Stewart has his own team in NHRA, Tony Stewart Racing, which has quickly become one of the series’ most successful teams. In 2024, he stepped in to race for his wife, Leah Pruett, after she stepped away from racing to start a family with Stewart. But Pruett returned to the track in 2025, and with her return came an unexpected change for Stewart himself.
“I got fired from my own team last year, in about September last year,” he quipped on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “We were racing for a championship, and I already could tell. I knew in September I was going to get fired because my wife’s demeanor at the racetrack started changing and not in a positive way.”
The decision for Stewart to drive instead of Pruett was not planned overnight. It was announced in December 2023 with Stewart working extensively with Pruett’s crew chief Neal Strausbaugh to learn the ropes of driving an 11,000-horsepower drag car. And over the next year and a half, he showed why he was one of the best racing drivers in the country.
He earned NHRA Rookie of the Year honors in 2024, then broke through with his first two Top Fuel victories in 2025, winning at Las Vegas and Chicago.
More importantly, Stewart put himself at the front of the championship fight. He clinched the 2025 NHRA Top Fuel regular-season championship at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, earning the top seed heading into the Countdown to the Championship.
Then, he noticed Pruett — who had given birth to their son Dominic in November the previous year — spending more time around his car during warm-ups and paying closer attention to the routine. She wasn’t wishing him luck like she normally would. Something was clearly being planned before Stewart was informed, and soon, Pruett announced that she would return to full-time competition with TSR in 2026.
“So, I tried to make hay at the end of the year. Try to win a championship. We won the regular season championship, but we couldn’t finish the rest of the season championship out. So, uh yeah, I get fired at the end of the season,” Stewart added in the same podcast.
Sadly for him, there was no second Top Fuel car available, meaning that if he wanted to continue racing in the series he had grown to love, he would have to look elsewhere. That opportunity soon arrived through Richard Freeman and Elite Motorsports.
Freeman had purchased Josh Hart’s Top Fuel operation and announced that Stewart would drive the entry in 2026. The deal also included a marketing alliance between Elite Motorsports and Tony Stewart Racing, allowing Stewart to continue his driving career while remaining involved as a team owner.
In effect, Stewart’s “firing” did not end his time in Top Fuel. It simply moved him into a different car. Pruett returned to the TSR seat in 2026, while Stewart continued competing with Elite. The two therefore found themselves racing against each other while remaining husband and wife and maintaining their connection through TSR and Elite.
That unusual arrangement has now produced another twist. Pruett announced in September 2026 that she will step out of the TSR Top Fuel seat once again after the season to focus on expanding her family with Stewart. She has stated that she will be stepping away from driving, not leaving Tony Stewart Racing, and plans to remain involved with the organization.
Pruett had just returned this season and enjoyed a strong return to form, winning the prestigious U.S. Nationals. She is currently fourth in the standings with 2,168 points. Stewart, meanwhile, has had a solid year with Freeman’s team and currently sits third in the standings with 2,180 points. With four races to go, both remain in the hunt for the Top Fuel championship.
Pruett’s next absence will also create another change at TSR. But this time, it will not be Stewart making a return to his own team as a driver.
Eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, the man who introduced Stewart to the world of NHRA during a race in Indianapolis back in 2009, will fill in, with his agreement beginning in January.
“For us to come to 2026 and be announcing that he’s going to be driving a car for me, I don’t think either one of us would have predicted that back in 2009,” Stewart said in an NHRA press conference earlier this month.
It is a strange turn of events for Stewart, who went from driving for his own team to being replaced by his wife, only to find another competitive seat elsewhere. Now, with Pruett stepping away again and Schumacher taking over at TSR, the unusual chapter continues into 2027.