NHRA NORWALK NATIONALS: TONY STEWART RACING PREVIEW

NORWALK, Ohio (June 24, 2026) – Tony Stewart Racing hits the halfway mark of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season with this weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park (SMP). Leah Pruett and her Dodge//SRT Top Fuel team will be looking for their second win of the season while Matt Hagan and the Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car team are looking for a second consecutive win, third of their 2026 season.

Pruett is coming off a busy weekend at Bristol Dragway where she picked up her 13th victory on Friday evening when she defeated points leader Shawn Langdon in the postponed NHRA New England Nationals final. It was her first win since returning to the seat after becoming a mother.

“Winning Epping in Bristol, for me personally was probably the most profound win. Bigger than my first one, bigger than U.S. Nationals in Factory Stock, a double up in Dallas with Hagen, which was at the top of my all-time wins. This one just really stands out because of how we got there,” Pruett said. “From a team perspective, my evolution as a driver coming back into the seat, the things that I struggled with, the things that I focused hard on to maintain and capture and improve on.”

Pruett went on to secure the Thunder Valley Nationals No. 1 qualifying position, the 17th of her career, second of the season before having a second-round exit during Sunday’s eliminations. The Dodge Top Fuel team continues to impress reaching the midway point of the season not having conceded a first-round loss.

“Me specifically in the car this year, having to re-calibrate myself—my emotions, my intensity, my focus. We came up with a plan. We had a crew chief-driver full conversation intervention that was data-backed. You can’t have perfection without progress,” said Pruett “I’ve been working on my reaction times. I’ve been working at getting them in the low .070s, coming into this weekend in Norwalk, hopefully I’ll live in the .060s. That’s been the systematic strategic goal. We’re not going to win a championship .072-ing them to death. That’s not going to work. My team is giving me the best race car, and I’ve got to get those lights down so that I can give them my best.”

The last time Pruett raced at SMP was in 2023 when she dominated the weekend as the Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier and went on to win the event for her 11th career victory defeating Kyle Wurtzel, Mike Salinas, Austin Prock and Justin Ashley along the way.

Pruett will start competition this weekend lined up against a familiar foe in qualifying, her husband, Tony Stewart.

“When we go to Norwalk, Tony and I will be against each other in Q1 as we have been for a number of races,” Pruett said. “Trust me, fans, we’re not trying to not run each other. We’re trying to run each other just later on in the day on Sundays.”

In Funny Car, Matt Hagan, who lives just a two-hour drive from Bristol Dragway in Christiansburg, Viriginia, will be looking for his second win at the fan-favorite facility. Representing Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage at what is also their home race (based in Columbia, Tennessee), Hagan has visited the final round twice at the Thunder Valley Nationals in 2015 and 2016. He took home the Wally in 2015 starting race day from the No. 2 spot.

“It will be neat to see folks that I grew up racing with, see people that have grown up watching me and seeing all the Hagan t-shirts supporting me. I always joke that if I can outsell [team owner] Tony [Stewart] at some of these race tracks then I’ve had a good weekend,” Hagan said. “There will be a lot of fans, a lot of family, a lot of friends, and I really can’t wait.”

Hagan and the JHG Dodge team already have a win this season from the Winternationals, (which was also the 1000th NHRA Nitro Funny Car race winner, along with three semi-final finishes. The four-time world champion is coming off a second-round exit at the New England Nationals, his third of the season. Hagan has only had one first-round exit in 2026.

“We’re doing better right now than we were at this time last year. We went out in the first round three races in a row, but at the end of the season we still had a chance to win the championship. So, while these races are building momentum and helping us get a baseline, there’s still a lot of racing left to do,” Hagan said. “We’re learning from the mistakes and early exits just as much as we’re learning from the wins. Learn and move forward. Hopefully this weekend that means celebrating in the winner’s circle.”

Hagan will have a special tow vehicle for the weekend provided by Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage. The JHG Dodge Funny Car will be towed to the starting line by a 1946 Crew Cab Dodge Power Wagon RestoMod. A two-and-a-half-year build, it’s a custom four-door conversion with new chassis that boasts 400HP in Street Mode and 500HP in Performance Mode.

“Jason Johnson has some incredible one-of-a-kind vehicles in his collection. This is one of them. The JHG Funny Car is going to look awesome behind this badass truck,” Hagan commented. “It’s a perk of our partnership and Bristol also being their home track. Hopefully the fans enjoy it just as much as the team does.”

Following the Thunder Valley Nationals, on June 19th, JHG will host an open house from 1-6 p.m. at 3672 Talley Moore Road, Columbia, Tennessee. The JHG car collection will be on display with live music from John Stone. Hagan, Pruett, Tony Stewart, Erica Enders, Aaron Stanfield and Jianna Evaristo will be onsite along with their NHRA cars and bikes for autographs and photos.

Competition at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals begins with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 2 and 4:15 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30pm and 3 p.m. Eliminations are slated for noon on Sunday. Television coverage of the event will be on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying shows Friday at 8 p.m. ET and Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. Eliminations will air Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.