Tony Stewart thought he had seen just about everything in racing, from winning NASCAR championships to owning championship-winning teams and even stepping behind the wheel in NHRA Top Fuel. Yet getting fired from his own team was a twist he probably never saw coming. Stewart recently revealed that he could already sense his days driving for TSR were numbered while the team was chasing an NHRA championship, with his wife Leah Pruett’s changing demeanor giving him an early warning. Soon, the longtime team owner found himself racing for an entirely different operation.

“I got fired from my own team last year, in about September last year. 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,” Stewart revealed on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.

The strange part of Stewart’s story is that he apparently knew his time behind the wheel was coming to an end before anyone formally told him. As TSR continued its championship campaign, he noticed Leah Pruett spending more time around his car during warm-ups and paying closer attention to the routine. To Stewart, those small changes were enough to convince him that something was being planned.

The situation had its roots in Pruett’s decision to step away from Top Fuel competition after the 2023 season to start a family with Stewart. She remained out of the car through 2024 and 2025, while Stewart took over her seat for both seasons.

What initially looked like a temporary replacement turned into a surprisingly successful chapter for Stewart. 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.

But by September 2025, the arrangement was changing again. Pruett announced that she would return to full-time Top Fuel competition with TSR in 2026. The announcement effectively confirmed what Stewart had already sensed at the track: the seat he had been filling was going back to its original driver.

There was just one problem. TSR was not planning to add a second Top Fuel car, meaning Stewart needed somewhere else to continue racing. That opportunity 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 arrangement also came through a marketing alliance between Elite Motorsports and Tony Stewart Racing, giving Stewart a way to remain a team owner while continuing his own driving career.

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 after the season to focus on expanding her family with Stewart. She has emphasized that she is stepping away from driving, not leaving Tony Stewart Racing, and plans to remain involved with the organization.

The decision came after Pruett returned to full-time competition for the 2026 season following her two-year absence. She remains in contention for her first NHRA Top Fuel world championship, entering the latter part of the Countdown in fourth place in the standings.

Her next absence will also create another change at TSR. Eight-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher is set to take over the seat for 2027, with his agreement beginning in January.

For Stewart, however, the entire sequence remains an unusual one. He filled his wife’s seat, realized she was coming back, believed he was being pushed out of his own team, found another Top Fuel operation and then went on to win the 2025 regular-season championship. What began with Stewart noticing a change in his wife’s behavior ultimately became one of the strangest driver transitions in the NHRA.