One press conference earlier this month brought two major announcements for Tony Stewart Racing Nitro. On September 18, the three-time Cup Series champion’s wife, Leah Pruett, revealed that she would step away from the Top Fuel car from 2027 onward, leaving her future in NHRA open. On the same stage, Stewart’s former mentor was also revealed as her replacement.
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Tony Schumacher, arguably the greatest-ever Top Fuel drag racer in NHRA history, will officially join Stewart’s team as a driver next January. He’s set to finish out the 2026 season with Rick Ware Racing, a team he joined in 2025.
In the press conference, which took place at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, Pruett revealed that she would step away from her racing duties to focus on her family and possibly have a second child. That said, she ruled retirement out and stated that she would be actively involved in the business side of Stewart’s team.
She revealed that the decision to have Schumacher replace her came while she was having a conversation with the eight-time champion of the series.
“I sat back and thought about that for a minute — and it took about a minute. I said, ‘Well, if it’s gonna be open, I would like that spot,'” the 56-year-old said, per NHRA media.
The bond Schumacher shares with Stewart goes back 17 years. They met at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis at a time when the NASCAR legend was new to drag racing. The common link between them? The U.S. Army was backing both Schumacher’s Top Fuel car and Stewart’s Cup Series car at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Stewart was a newcomer, and Schumacher welcomed him with open arms, walking him around the pit lane, introducing him to the engineers, and walking him through how drag racing really worked. He effectively opened the doors to this world for Stewart, who has since become completely immersed in this sport’s highest level.
He broke into the NHRA with his own team in 2021, fielding Pruett in the Top Fuel car and Matt Hagan in Funny Car. Two years later, with Hagan, he won his first Funny Car World Championship.
As a driver, he has also shown flashes of the talent that made him one of NASCAR’s best. He has three Top Fuel wins and seven more in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. In 2024, he won the NHRA Rookie of the Year award. It all started with a sponsor-backed visit to Indianapolis, where he crossed paths with Schumacher.
“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 the same NHRA press conference.
Schumacher is the winningest and most decorated Top Fuel driver in NHRA history, with eight championships and 88 wins at the national level, which is the record for victories in the premier Top Fuel category. As he joins forces with Stewart, who has 49 wins at NASCAR’s highest level, he also acknowledged that there’s a lot he wants to learn from the Hall of Famer himself.
Currently, Schumacher is 12th in the standings with 2,013 points, with five races left in 2026. Pruett, meanwhile, sits fifth and is having a strong season after returning from a two-year break due to pregnancy and maternity leave following the birth of her son, Dominic. She is just 105 points behind championship leader Shawn Langdon, keeping her firmly in the title fight.
For Schumacher, catching Langdon will be a much tougher task. He sits 204 points behind the championship leader, so his focus may be on finishing his time with RWR on a strong note before getting a fresh start with Stewart as he looks to win his first championship since 2014.