Tony Stewart Clearing His Plate: 'It's Fun to Really not Have a Plan Right Now'

A day after Tony Stewart Racing announced that DSR Performance would be the performance parts supplier and an associate sponsor for Tony Stewart Racing in the NHRA Mission Drag Racing Series, Stewart would neither confirm nor deny an expansion of his footprint in drag racing.

“Right now, I’m just trying to make sure I pay my bills on time,” Stewart quipped Friday before qualifying began for this weekend’s Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. “Leah (Pruett, wife) has some interesting ideas what she wants to do with the whole program when she gets back. I think it’s a terrible idea, but Matt (Hagan, TSR Funny Car driver) and I have different ideas, and we like our ideas. So, we’ll see what happens as time goes on.

“It’s kind of fun to really not have a plan right now. The plan literally is Matt does what he does in Funny Car and I’m just filling in for Leah until she’s ready to get back in the car. At that point, we’ll figure out what’s next. I normally am the one that comes up with the bad ideas, but there’s a lot of ideas that are in the air, let’s put it that way.”

Last year, Stewart sold his All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series to Kyle Larson and his brother-in-law Brad Sweet, owners of High Limit Sprint Car Series. Stewart had owned the All-Star Circuit of Champions since 2015.

Stewart also saw the Superstar Racing Experience that he co-founded shut down after a successful run from 2021-2023.

Earlier this month, Stewart and Gene Haas announced they were closing Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the current NASCAR season. He and Haas had co-owned SHR since 2009.

Stewart started his NHRA team in 2022 with Pruett competing in Top Fuel and Hagan in Funny Car. Stewart competed in Top Alcohol Dragster last year, and when he and Pruett decided to start a family, he moved into her Top Fuel ride this year. Pruett plans to return to Top Fuel competition after the 2025 season.