A yellow and blue drag racing car accelerates down a racetrack, with pit crew members and another dragster in the background, under a clear blue sky with palm trees.

They’re Here to Win: TSR Makes Its Case in Phoenix

By Sean Yoder 03/23/2026 08:57 AM
Racing
6 min read
Drag racingNHRATony Stewart Racing

The Arizona desert has a way of sorting pretenders from contenders, and the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by NGK Spark Plugs at Firebird Motorsports Park did exactly that this weekend. For Tony Stewart Racing and Dodge//SRT® fans, the second race of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season delivered genuine promise, a few hard lessons and a runner-up performance in Top Fuel that announced Leah Pruett is very much back and racing like she never left.

A yellow and blue dragster races down the NHRA Arizona Nationals track, with spectators and a large tower labeled Charlie Allen Tower in the background. Red banners and clear skies complete the lively scene.
A smiling race car driver in a blue suit and sunglasses leans forward to high-five enthusiastic fans, including a child wearing ear protection, against a colorful event backdrop.
A yellow and purple drag racing car accelerates down a racetrack, producing smoke from its rear tires. The rear wing displays “RAYCE RYDEEN.” Team members and officials stand near the track in the background.

Before the first burnout on Friday morning, TSR Nitro arrived in Chandler, carrying extra meaning on the sides of their cars. Pruett ran the Rayce Rudeen Foundation livery on her Top Fuel dragster this weekend, the only event on the 2026 calendar where the colors would appear, and the significance went well beyond aesthetics. The foundation was created after Rayce Rudeen lost his battle with addiction in 2016, built on a commitment from his family to ensure others could access the prevention, treatment and recovery resources that might make the difference. For Pruett, the opportunity to carry that message on a national stage at this race was deeply personal. “All of us, fans and racers alike, have more than love of horsepower in common,” she said ahead of the weekend. “More than likely, we all know someone who is fighting addiction or trying to find support for one in need. This is something that hits deeper than racing.”

A yellow and black dragster deploys two large yellow parachutes as it slows down on a racetrack, with a white barrier and asphalt visible in the background.

The connection between Pruett and Phoenix runs deeper than a single weekend livery. She won her first career Top Fuel race here in 2016, then came back the following year with an entirely new team, new crew chiefs and a new car and did it again. She is quick to point out that those two wins came with completely different teams, cars and crew chiefs, which, to her, is proof that Phoenix rewards drivers who show up ready to race, regardless of what is underneath them. The custom shirts, the chants on the way to the staging lanes, the palpable warmth from a fanbase that has claimed her as one of their own since her earliest days in the NHRA, all of it makes Phoenix something different. She came into this weekend chasing a third Wally at this event, and she very nearly got it.

A black Dodge drag racing car, covered in sponsor logos including a large JHG on the hood, speeds down a racetrack at Firebird Raceway, with Mission-branded barriers in the background.

Her TSR teammate Matt Hagan arrived at Firebird Motorsports Park with his new Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car and was ready to get down to business after a quarterfinal exit at the Gatornationals two weeks prior. Phoenix is historically friendly territory for the four-time world champion. He has reached five final rounds here and taken home the trophy in 2015, 2017 and 2019, and he was direct about his confidence in crew chiefs Mike Knudsen and Phil Shuler heading into extreme heat conditions. “Phoenix is one of my favorite races to come to,” Hagan said. “Everything is great about this place…Mike and Phil have proven they can do really well in the heat. We were one of the few cars to go down the hot racetrack during qualifying over the Gainesville weekend. So, I have a lot of confidence with us moving into some of these hotter races.” He also framed the weekend around the people behind the sponsorship, describing the Johnson family as genuine friends and noting there are few things he would enjoy more than delivering a Phoenix win for the whole JHG group.

A black drag racing car with JHG branding speeds down a racetrack, leaving blurred motion behind. Spectators fill the stands in the background under bright daylight.

Conditions at Firebird cooperated with no one. NHRA moved all sessions earlier in the day to beat the worst of the desert sun, but track temperatures still climbed toward 145 degrees by Saturday’s final qualifying session, turning crew chief decision-making into a high-stakes balancing act for both runs. Friday’s opening Top Fuel session was brutal, with fourteen of fifteen entries failing to complete a full run without putting the tires into orbit, leaving rookie Maddi Gordon as the only driver to put together a complete pass. The conditions made every solid run feel like a minor victory.

Two drag racing cars, one black and blue, the other green and black, line up side by side at the start of a race on a red and white track at the Arizona Nationals event, with spectators watching in the background.
Two drag racing cars slow down on a racetrack with yellow parachutes deployed behind them; a fenced area and tents are visible to the left, and tire marks are on the road.

Pruett was remarkably consistent all weekend, posting the third-best elapsed time in back-to-back Friday sessions and earning qualifying bonus points in three of the four rounds across the full weekend. One of the more entertaining moments came when the schedule put her and Tony Stewart on the same starting line during qualifying. She left on him, ran around him, and did it without drama, 4.14 to his 4.19. Saturday morning removed any remaining doubt about her position in the field, as she and Langdon ran side by side to a 3.783 and 3.788, respectively, locking Pruett into the No. 2 starting spot and sending her into Sunday’s ladder as a genuine threat to win the whole thing.

A black drag racing car with “JHG Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage” on the hood deploys two large yellow parachutes as it slows down on a racetrack.

In Funny Car, Hagan had a clean and methodical qualifying weekend, posting a 3.998 at 321.04 in the Friday afternoon session, sitting third through two rounds before Chad Green’s Saturday effort bumped him to fourth on the final sheet behind pole-sitter Spencer Hyde, Beckman and Green. Cruz Pedregon, competing in his own independent Dodge Charger entry, qualified tenth with a 4.088. When eliminations opened Sunday, the two Chargers met in round one, with Hagan running a 4.031 to send Pedregon home. He then dispatched Jordan Vandergriff in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals, where pole-sitter Spencer Hyde ended his run. Knudsen and Shuler are still building their data set together, and a semifinal run in just the second race of the year suggests a Wally is within reach sooner rather than later. Ron Capps closed out the Funny Car final with a 4.12 at 303 mph to claim the Wally.

A yellow and black dragster with “Empowering Communities” on its front wing releases smoke as it prepares to race on a drag strip. Crew members and spectators stand by, with banners and sponsor logos visible in the background.

The Top Fuel story of the weekend, though, was Pruett’s march up the ladder. She opened with a composed 3.827 in round one to handle Cameron Ferre, then delivered the biggest win of the day in round two by ending Gatornationals winner Josh Hart’s five-round win streak. Hart arrived in Phoenix as the points leader and one of the hottest drivers in the class, and Pruett sat him down with a 3.887 to move into the semifinals. There she faced reigning world champion Doug Kalitta, and won again, punching her ticket to the final round in just her second event back after taking a break to start her family. 

A drag racing car with a yellow and blue livery performs a burnout at a racetrack, surrounded by crew members in red uniforms and smoke, while spectators watch from above.

Pruett’s final-round appearance against Langdon was decided by .0543 seconds, with her on the wrong side of that margin of victory. Langdon took home the Wally. But Pruett’s runner-up result is the kind of performance that recalibrates expectations. She outran the points leader, the defending world champion, and a full field of veteran nitro competitors while carrying a message on the side of her car that mattered. Two races into the 2026 season, Leah Pruett has already found her way back to the final round. Tony Stewart Racing arrived in the desert with something to prove, and they made their case clearly. They are here to win.

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