Leah Pruett returned to Top Fuel racing at the start of the 2026 season. Her husband, Tony Stewart, moved to a different team and thus allowed Pruett to get back into championship contention. But just months after her comeback, she has announced that she won’t return to full-time racing in 2027.
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“Leah Pruett announces she will step out of her Tony Stewart Racing ride after this year to focus on family as she and Tony Stewart attempt to have another child. She said the decision was made earlier this year. Tony Schumacher will join the team as a top fuel driver,” Bob Pockrass reported on X.
The announcement comes while Pruett is still in contention for her first NHRA Top Fuel championship. The 38-year-old will step away from the drag-racing series at the end of the 2026 season to focus on having a second child with her husband, Tony Stewart.
Pruett spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as a spectator while she and Stewart began their family. She gave birth to their son, Dominic James Stewart, in November 16, 2024. During those two seasons away from competition, Stewart stepped into the driver’s seat in her place, allowing Tony Stewart Racing to keep its Top Fuel program running.
Pruett’s decision to return for 2026 was driven by more than simply an opportunity to race again. She still felt a strong personal connection to drag racing and believed there was unfinished business waiting for her on the track. That feeling traced back to the end of the 2023 season, when she narrowly missed out on the Top Fuel championship.
“There was always that burning desire, and it specifically came at the moment that I lost the world championship in 2023,” Pruett revealed earlier this year on the Happy Hour podcast.
That disappointment remained with her during her time away from the driver’s seat. Even after becoming a mother, the desire to compete at the highest level had not disappeared. Her 2026 comeback therefore gave Pruett an opportunity to pursue the championship that had previously slipped away while balancing her racing career with life at home.
Her return also created an unusual chapter in her relationship with Stewart, as the husband-and-wife duo found themselves competing in the same racing world. That being said, the couple shares mutual respect on and off the track, which was clear during Pruett’s two-year absence from racing in 2024 and 2025.
Stewart stepped in to drive her Top Fuel car while she focused on starting their family, but he always viewed his role as temporary. “I said from the very beginning that I was just keeping Leah’s seat warm and that it was hers as soon as she was ready to come back,” he said. And when she returned in 2026, Stewart handed the seat back to her as he moved to Elite Motorsports.
For Pruett, however, stepping away after 2026 is not the same as closing the door on racing forever. She has intentionally avoided describing the decision as retirement, recognizing that driving a Top Fuel dragster remains an important part of who she is alongside her role as a mother and wife.
“I don’t have a magic crystal ball that says when I will be back, but I am most definitely leaving the door open for the possibility and opportunity of returning,” she said. “I just don’t have a timeline on it.”
That leaves Pruett with one final season to pursue her championship ambitions before turning her attention back toward her family again. Tony Schumacher is set to take over the TSR Top Fuel seat, and the team’s lineup will also enter another transition once her 2026 campaign comes to an end.
Known as “The Sarge,” Schumacher brings a wealth of experience to the TSR lineup. The winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history, he has 88 career victories and eight world championships to his name. Schumacher is currently wrapping up the 2026 season with Rick Ware Racing and sits 12th in the points standings before taking on a new challenge with Tony Stewart Racing.