Racing news travels pretty darn quickly and changes almost a quickly as a car or motorcycle executing on a dragstrip. On Wednesday, Sept 10 we learned that Josh Hart was offering his Top Fuel operation for sale after five years on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour. Just hours later, we were told Elite Motorsports, the Pro Stock powerhouse, had purchased said operation. Elite had already purchased a dragster but not run it; earlier this year, their six-time Pro Stock champion, Erica Enders, said that she has an interest in Top Fuel competition.
This all transpired a day after Leah Pruett announced her return to the cockpit after two years of pregnancy and child-birthing, starting her new job as mother to son Dominic, with husband Tony Stewart. Stewart, for those of you still living in the backwoods, is a multiple driving and team-owning champion in other series, including USAC, INDYCAR, NASCAR. Stewart, driving in relief of Pruett these past two seasons, currently holds a single straight-line title; he earned the 2025 regular season championship in NHRA’s Top Fuel class, the first time a championship for regular season honors has been offered.
Pruett’s announcement that she was retaking the seat she relinquished for 2024 and 2025 left her husband without a place to race. Stewart definitely has the drag racing bug; once he started, there was no other solution to his need for speed than to keep on going down the track. He’d said, when he started Tony Stewart Racing and upon the occasion of Pruett’s decision to help bring the next racer into their family, that he couldn’t race on the same team as his wife; he’s too darn competitive.
So, after watching Tony Stewart and Richard Freeman in close conversations over the past few weeks, something had to be cooking. The announcement of Pruett’s return, of Hart’s sale, of Elite’s purchase dovetails perfectly with Thursday’s news that Elite Motorsports and Tony Stewart Racing have formed an alliance in NHRA drag racing. The pronouncement stated that this is a sales, marketing and hospitality alliance, with focus on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
Both entities stated that the partnership will allow them to combine assets and to offer partners added opportunities within the scope of their playing fields: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes Mountain Motor Pro Stock and Competition Eliminator, as well as in the Congruity Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
“This alliance makes so much sense,” Richard Freeman, Elite Motorsports team owner admitted. “Tony and I have become good friends (over the past few years) and we’ve realized that we’re a lot alike. We have similar visions and share a desire to build, basically, a super team that can offer our partners the most and best options. Being able to offer the most to our partners, that’s really what it’s about,” Freeman mused on this new phase for both concerns. “Taking care of the brands and people we have, and being able to offer opportunities for those relationships to grow, while having the capacity to bring more into the fold, I’m excited about this. We all are.”
In addition to having a customer base that utilizes Wynnewood, OK-based Elite Motorsports’ new and used trailers, motor coaches, semi-transporters, Elite operates the largest professional drag racing team in NHRA, featuring Pro Stock drivers Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Troy Coughlin Jr., Aaron Stanfield, Greg Stanfield, Stephen Bell and the Cuadra Boys race team for Fernando Cuadra Jr., David and Cristian Cuadra. Mike Coughlin drives Elite’s Mountain Motor Pro Stock entry, while Royce Freeman represents the Elite Motorsports team in Competition Eliminator. Mason Wright races with Elite in the Congruity Pro Mod series.
Tony Stewart set up his drag racing operation in Brownsburg, IN, home to most of the nitro teams in NHRA drag racing. Currently operating with Matt Hagan, the four-time Funny Car champion and Stewart, who successfully transitioned to being a championship-winning team owner in straight-line racing when Hagan earned his fourth Flopper title two seasons past with the team’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Stewart notched his first two Top Fuel victories during this 2025 campaign and was 2024 NHRA Rookie of the Year despite not winning a race, a situation he remedied during this year’s Nevada Four-Wide Nationals in April.
Stewart emphasized, “Our partnership with Elite Motorsports and Richard Freeman and his group is unique. It’s taking all of our assets that we have with TSR and Elite Motorsports, with the Pro Stock, Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Competition Eliminator and Pro Mod teams, and creating a situation where we have a lot to offer partners and potential partners down the road. We will be pooling our assets together,” Stewart stressed, “and working together to try to fund these race cars. This is a unique strategy that Richard came up with, but I really buy into the concept of it and I think it’s already beneficial in the short amount of time that we’ve already starting working together.
“We see the benefits of this and it can continue to make both of our organizations bigger and stronger down the road. I’m excited,” Stewart said, “to work with Richard and his group. Richard and I have a great friendship, and I think that’s what great partnerships start out as. He has a great organization, with great people, and I feel like putting our two teams, with our great people together, is just going to make for a very strong alliance and a partnership that will be beneficial to both organizations.”
At this time, both Tony Stewart Racing and Elite Motorsports stressed that they are “actively pursuing sponsorships and partners for the Top Fuel organization” that Elite purchased in its entirety. The two groups, they emphasized, will be looking for the right people and team to run the program once it is fully funded. No driver has been announced at this time.
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