TONY STEWART RACING PHOTO
BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Feb. 19, 2026) – The two-car team of Tony Stewart
Racing is set to kick off the 2026 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series
season. Leah Pruett returns to the seat of the Top Fuel dragster after a
two-year hiatus, while four-time Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan is
looking to carry over momentum from a second-place finish in 2025.
Both teams were back on the drag strip February 17-20 for NHRA /
Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO) testing at Gainesville
Raceway in Florida, two weeks ahead of NHRA’s 75th Anniversary
season-opener.
Pruett, a 12-time NHRA national event winner, has taken back the seat of
her Top Fuel dragster just 15 months after giving birth to her first
child, Dominic. For ten races Pruett’s dragster will feature a Dodge
livery with their historical Fratzog logo. The Fratzog, uniquely named
by one of their designers, was used by Dodge on vehicles between 1962
and 1976. For the remaining races, Pruett’s livery will rotate between
Mobil 1, Rinnai, Rush Truck Centers, Rayce Rudeen and American Rebel.
“Our team prepared very well to optimize our time at this test
session, and it is showing. Every lap has been extremely strategic, from
riffling through new fuel systems, rear ends, engine tune, long game
dynamic strategies and a long list of new / different parts and systems
to making sure our spare car is 100% fully functional,” Pruett said.
“I love being back. Every part of it. The focus, the hustle, the long
days and nights, the progress, the immediate turnarounds, the
satisfaction that I do not feel that I have been out of the seat for two
years, the positive results of applying new strategies inside the
cockpit that work, and kicking others to the absolute curb. It sounds
funny, but I’ve let all superstitions go, and even frames of mind that
have held me bound. Which is absolutely freeing.
“Although I am happy with my cadence and my brain’s processing speed
of where I am on the track while I’m in the car, I’m looking forward
to dialing in details in the cockpit that have worked for me so far,”
Pruett continued. “There are no substitutions for laps, no matter how
many times I run scenarios in my brain. So, I’ll take as many hits on
track as I can get.”
Pruett’s Top Fuel team will be led by co-crew chiefs Neal Strausbaugh
and Mike Domagala with Ryan McGilvry serving as car chief.
“The team dynamic honestly couldn’t be a more Mobil1 well-oiled
machine. Sure, all of our bodies hurt a bit from moving, grooving,
lifting, and hustling in ways that the off season doesn’t replicate,
but our leadership from Neal and Mike continues to be profoundly
strong,” said Pruett. “We are a team that values thorough
communication, collective focus, and never individual ego.”
In Funny Car, Matt Hagan, who had three wins in five final round
appearances and was only 101 points back from a championship crown in
2025, will also sport the Dodge livery with the Fratzog logo for ten
races. Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage, American Rebel Light Beer and
Shelor Motor Mile will also be in rotation as primary sponsors as Hagan
looks for his fifth world title.
“If you do the math, and I’m not great at math, but I think this is my
19th year now. Definitely not that rookie feeling anymore. It’s one of
those things where it’s always great to get back in the car, make a
hit, just kind of knock that rust off. During the offseason, our guys
have worked pretty hard on some stuff with motor combos, and I think you
just want to see how all that kind of stuff shakes out. Plus, we got a
new chassis, new pipe and you’re making some adjustments here and there,
just seeing if the car works,” Hagan said. “I’ve had seasons where
we come out here, and we shook 20 times, and come to find out some pipes
and different things from back in the day were put in the wrong place,
you know? You just never know how testing’s going to go but, the chassis
seems to be great. We shook down our old car and then put it in the box
so we could just kind of focus on this new one a little bit to see what
we can do and how it’s going to respond. All in all, I feel great about
it.”
Hagan’s Funny Car team will continue to be led by co-crew chiefs Mike
Knudsen and Phil Shuler with Alex Conaway as car chief.
“The charisma, the energy, the feel of being here, knocking the rust
off, it’s been great with the guys. Everybody is pretty much back from
last year and the team is strong. We got one new kid on tire and body,
but it’s been going well,” Hagan said. “I’m excited to start the
season. We’ve had a couple good days of testing so far. Anything can
happen with nitro cars, you can have the greatest test session and then
the last couple runs, blow it up. So, it’s just a matter of seeing
what we can do and how we can keep progressing forward.”
Pruett and Hagan will begin their hunt for championship crowns at the
2026 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series season-opening Amalie Motor
Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway March 6-8 in Florida.
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