{"id":107441,"date":"2026-09-18T12:23:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=107441"},"modified":"2026-09-19T12:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:00:32","slug":"entrances-and-exits-ahead-at-tony-stewart-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/entrances-and-exits-ahead-at-tony-stewart-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrances and Exits Ahead at Tony Stewart Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Eight-time Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new teammate and a step back from Leah Pruett signal big changes at Tony Stewart Racing, Plus Clay Millican’s new crew chief.<\/h2>\n

The 2026 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series 20-race season, the group\u2019s 75th anniversary of its genesis under Wally Parks, hasn\u2019t been the best for eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher. Accustomed to having a car that will get him from A to B on the 1000-foot dragstrips where NHRA competes, Schumacher\u2019s 2026 stay at Rick Ware Racing (RWR) finds him mired in 12th place in the standings as the tour\u2019s Countdown to the Championship begins this weekend at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, based on Schumacher\u2019s entry to races held thus far, he\u2019s eligible for the championship, albeit 142 points behind leader Doug Kalitta of Kalitta Motorsports. With today\u2019s announcement by RWR, Schumacher has an added tool in his pit box that could help him gain time on the track and help him perform to his own rigorous standards. Rob Wendland, the crew chief who helped Shawn Reed to his first official NHRA class win – as well as victory in the second pre-season PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton, FL – has joined the team for Clay Millican for the balance of the 2026 campaign. That will reflect well on Schumacher\u2019s program as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Schumacher at Indy – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRob brings a tremendous amount of experience to our team,\u201d said Rick Ware, team owner in making this announcement, \u201cand more importantly, he knows what it takes to win races. We believe Rob\u2019s approach can help bolster our program immediately.\u201d Wendland, who has found success both behind the wheel (he\u2019s won two Top Alcohol Dragster races as a driver), worked with Johnny Gray\u2019s Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car team from 2011 through 2013, then with Terry McMillen 2015 through 2020. He established Reed\u2019s program and helped him win his first NHRA national event in Reading last September.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rob Wendland – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Schumacher’s plans are as usual for the balance of the season, but once all of the 2026 75th anniversary NHRA races have been run, he\u2019ll have a new pit location in 2027. Tony Stewart Racing\u2019s press release dropped a little more than two hours after Rick Ware made his team\u2019s announcement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Schumacher is joining Tony Stewart Racing for the 2027 season that celebrates 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, and he\u2019s signed for more than a single season. The 88-time NHRA national event winner is taking over the dragster currently run by Leah Pruett, who is, once again, stepping away from full-time competition to focus on growing the family she shares with Tony Stewart. Currently third in Top Fuel\u2019s points standings, Pruett was the primary protagonist to Doug Kalitta in 2023, as the duo battled for their first national titles; that nod went to Kalitta in the final round of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the decision to step out of the seat,\u201d 13-race winner Pruett explained, \u201cto put some more focus on our family. Hopefully that means growing our family, but it also gives me the opportunity to be more present with [son] Dom during such an important stage of his life. I feel incredibly fortunate that I\u2019m in a position where I can make that choice, and I\u2019m genuinely excited about what this next chapter looks like for us.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leah Pruett, Tony Stewart and their son Dom – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt the same time,\u201d she noted, \u201cthis season has been one of the most fulfilling of my career. I\u2019ve had so much enjoyment racing with my team and, personally, the pursuit of continuing to push myself to try to match the level at which this team performs, has been incredibly challenging and rewarding. I\u2019m proud of the progress we\u2019ve made together, and I\u2019m proud of where this program is headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not retirement and I’m not going anywhere.\u201d Pruett intends to be fully involved with the team as she was when her husband was driving her dragster, and continues to be even as she takes the wheel. \u201cJust like before, the hope is that there\u2019s another opportunity for me to get back in the car. I\u2019m not making any promises or putting a timeline on it, but I feel really comfortable and confident, knowing we\u2019ve built a solid foundation and a formidable team that can continue chasing championships for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the new agreement between Schumacher and Tony Stewart Racing, the driver\u2019s longtime partners, American Communications Constructions, Aloha Beauty Lounge, 5.11 and Hollinger, are joining him in this new venture, becoming part of the team\u2019s established partner portfolio that includes both Dodge and Mopar. Schumacher\u2019s partners will have both primary and associate visibility on the dragster. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have seen this coming or planned something this good,\u201d Schumacher admitted. \u201cIt truly fell into place as perfectly as possible. I feel privileged that Tony Stewart and Leah Pruett, such a power couple who are in this purely for the love of the sport, trust me with the seat of the Top Fuel dragster.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pruett is third in the current points standings – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known them for a while,\u201d Schumacher continued. He worked with Pruett at DSR and knew Stewart when he had an Army NASCAR Cup Series entry for Ryan Newman. He worked with crew chief Neal Strausbaugh and car chief Ryan McGilvry in the past. \u201cTo be brought into the Dodge family – who were an affiliate for the Army car at DSR – and now be a teammate to some of the best drivers and team owners is pretty incredible,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new teammate and a step back from Leah Pruett signal big changes at Tony Stewart Racing, Plus Tony Schumacher’s new crew chief.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":107442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[152,8458,9966,64,7,8613,575,1192,10419,73],"class_list":["post-107441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-dodge","tag-leah-pruett","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-mopar","tag-nhra","tag-rick-ware-racing","tag-tony-schumacher","tag-tony-stewart","tag-tony-stewart-racing-nitro","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Schumacher-at-Indy-2026.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rWV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107441"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107476,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107441\/revisions\/107476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}