Change is the leader in auto racing. Just when you think one team or one racer or one class has the ticket to success, something or someone comes along to refute that claim. Fortunes ebb, fortunes flow but change just keeps chugging along.
So it is with NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition. Remember the days of huge nitro teams? When Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) had three or four Top Fuel squads and an equal number of Funny Car teams? Plus the Pro Stock Motorcycle two-bike squad? When big nitro teams were the best way to gain success?
These are the days of single-car or small teams with driver/owners calling the shots. That became apparent when Schumacher folded his operation, allowing former team members Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Ron Capps (Funny Car) to become team owners and chart their own destinies. They both have done a bang-up job of owning, managing, delegating and driving. For these drivers there aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all, but they’ve assigned duties to trusted lieutenants to keep their teams on an even scale to success.
Next year, Ron Capps Motorsports will field a second car, a Top Fuel dragster for Maddie Gordon. This was announced at the start of the season with a trackside event that allowed the incoming driver to start Capps’ Toyota GR Supra and run it in before Capps’ first qualifying session in the initial Pomona race. Antron Brown has been grooming former DSR Pro Stock Motorcycle teammate Angelle Sampey as she attempts to join him as a Top Fuel racer. Sampey’s first foray into four-wheel competition has been in Top Alcohol Dragster.
One-car teams can produce race wins and championships. Torrence Racing, until this year competed in every Top Fuel contest, with four-time champion Steve Torrence at the helm of his CAPCO Contractors dragster. Dad Billy showed up from time to time to race alongside his son, but wasn’t full-time in the genuine sense of the word. This year, anyway. Steve Torrence, citing business decisions that needed to be handled, hasn’t been on the tour full-time. He also alluded to the fact that he wasn’t having as much fun… Billy Torrence has competed once (and well in Brainerd, where he went to the semifinals against eventual race winner Doug Kalitta) and Steve Torrence has raced when and where he desired.
After coming out of the box in Top Fuel five years ago with a win his first-time out in Gainesville, FL, nearby Ocala resident Josh Hart has recorded a second victory, along with a Pep Boys All-Star Top Fuel Callout victory, but has languished mid-pack. That’s not due to a lack of talent – both team owner/driver Hart and his brain trust of Ron Douglas and Jason McCulloch have performed well – but maybe the results are due to parts and/or something less tangible?
Next season Leah Pruett will return to Top Fuel racing, reclaiming her seat on her husband’s Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Nitro team, where former DSR Funny Car racer Matt Hagan achieved his fourth class title. Where will Stewart race? He’s currently leading the standings as the six-race Countdown to the Championship begins. He’s been seen talking, at various times, with Richard Freeman, owner of Pro Stock’s Elite Motorsports.
Freeman and his Elite team have had a tough 2025 campaign, even more difficult than their 2024 season, with wins from returnee Greg Stanfield and Erica Enders, the latter securing her 50th Pro Stock victory at the 71st Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals. That’s not how Freeman rolls!
When Hart announced, early morning on September 10th, that he had an interest in selling his squad, who knew that the response would come only a few hours later with the news that, yes, Elite Motorsports was buying Hart’s soley-owned team. In the past year, Enders has stated she’d like to go Top Fuel racing; is this purchase for her or for someone else? Elite has bought the entire Josh Hart Racing Top Fuel operation, and the deal will be consummated at the close of the 2025 season.
“We’ve talked about this for a long time,” Richard Freeman said, “even bought a Top Fuel car in the past with the hopes of getting into nitro, but it didn’t play out. Now it just feels like the right time. We are actively pursuing sponsorships and partners, but also looking for the right people and team to run the program once we are fully funded. It’s going to happen,” Freeman stressed, “and I’m excited about the possibilities.”
Freeman is adamant about the family aspect of his team’s purchase of Hart’s team. Elite Motorsports has been quite successful in Pro Stock with Enders’ six championships; Elite has been known to field as many as nine Pro Stock entries, an entry in the JHG Mountain Motor Pro Stock class, a single Congruity Pro Mod entry and the squad’s Competition Eliminator program. Elite supports an array of Lucas Oil NHRA Sportsman entries.
“We aren’t leaving anything behind and we aren’t going to move forward if we don’t have the right assets in place, but by the end of 2025, I think we will,” Freeman accented.
As this 20-race 2025 NHRA season has progressed, we’ve seen Tony Stewart and Richard Freeman converse regularly. By the same token, we’ve heard that Erica Enders is looking at the plausibility of racing a nitro-powered dragster. Freeman already owns another Top Fuel chassis, ostensibly purchased for Enders’ use. As ever, the many angles of this news brings more questions than answers.
What does this do for Josh Hart? The announcement that his team was for sale came down early Wednesday morning. Just a few hours later, Elite Motorsports announced it was purchasing the operation. It’s been obvious that Hart wasn’t having as much fun as he did at the start of his Top Fuel career, and that his other business dealings needed more attention. While he’s eighth in the standings and in the Countdown, Hart’s smile hasn’t been as “real” and his dissatisfaction with how things were rolling was pretty obvious.
“There have been a lot of people talking recently about my team’s future,” Hart admitted. “I am blessed to be able to chase my dream of winning a Top Fuel world championship and this season has opened my eyes to what is important. My family is growing up, Burnyzz Speed Shop is looking to expand nationally, and I want to be able to give everyone and everything in your life the attention they deserve,” Hart said.
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