There’s coming close, and then there’s how Lyle Barnett nearly stepped into Top Fuel at a moment when professional opportunity collided with personal timing. The opening was real, advanced, and ultimately redirected by decisions that reshaped one of drag racing’s most visible operations.
Barnett was positioned to become the substitute driver for Leah Pruett, who announced in late 2023 that she would step away from Top Fuel racing. The move was driven by a shared plan with her husband, Tony Stewart, as the couple prepared to start a family.
The plan moved well beyond casual discussion. Licensing, conversations, and preparation were already underway as Barnett edged closer to the nitro ranks.
Then the direction changed. Stewart felt the itch to drive the Top Fuel dragster himself, closing the opening Barnett had spent months preparing for.
Barnett does not describe the outcome with bitterness. He describes it as the reality of a sport where ownership and desire ultimately dictate direction.
“Always and anytime,” Barnett said when asked if Top Fuel still interests him. “For a while I’d said, I feel like I should get in a dragster if I had the opportunity to kind of get used to the acceleration.”
He paused, then added perspective. “It’s obviously probably the biggest hurdle to overcome. There’s nothing else that accelerates like one on planet earth.”
Even with that acknowledgment, Barnett’s long-term ambition has always leaned toward a different nitro discipline. His interest is not simply about speed, but about challenge.
“But I think ultimately my dream is to drive a Funny Car,” Barnett said. “I like the challenge of it.”
That distinction matters for a driver whose career has been built in doorslammer competition. Barnett is not chasing nitro as a novelty or résumé line.
“One of my good friends, Spencer Hyde, has done both,” Barnett said. “He said, wow, the dragster accelerates hard. There’s nothing like the challenge of driving a Funny Car.”
Hyde’s experience reinforced Barnett’s belief that difficulty is not defined solely by acceleration. Control, consequence, and reaction time all carry a heavier weight.
“I’m always up for one,” Barnett said. “So that’s really what my ultimate dream is.”
Licensing remains a central consideration. Barnett acknowledged the financial realities that come with stepping into nitro competition.
“It’s pretty expensive,” he said. “It’s about $10,000 a run to license in one of those things. So you’ve kind of got to make it count.”
That reality has shaped his approach. Rather than licensing in a dragster and crossing over later, Barnett believes going straight to Funny Car makes more sense.
“I think I’m probably going to go ahead and license in a Funny Car,” he said. “That way I won’t have to cross over and spend.”
The timeline remains flexible. Barnett offered possibility rather than certainty.
“It could be sooner than later,” he said. “Possibly 2026.”
Barnett would be part of what has become a natural progression that has included Scotty Cannon, Mike Ashley, Matt Hagan, and Chad Green. Hyde, who made the transition last year, earned NHRA Rookie of the Year honors.
Barnett does not view those examples as comparisons. He sees them as confirmation that the pathway exists.
“I do think it takes the cowboy mentality to drive one of those things,” Barnett said. “And I think that there’s a lot of that in us Pro Mod drivers.”
He did not soften the description. “You’ve got to have a couple screws loose and be a little bit on the wild side to drive one of those Pro Mods in the first place.”
Even so, Barnett acknowledged that experience does not translate cleanly. Hyde, he said, is quick to point out how little carries over.
“You can take anything you know from driving a Pro Mod and throw it out the window when you drive a Funny Car,” Barnett said. “This is coming from him.”
That reality has not discouraged Barnett. It has sharpened his interest.
“I do think that it takes that mentality to do it,” he said.
Barnett also views Funny Car through a broader lens that includes personality and fan connection. His assessment is not meant as criticism of Top Fuel, but as contrast.
“At the top end, and this is nothing against… I’ve got lots of Top Fuel friends and lots of Funny Car friends,” he said. “But I feel like when somebody jumps out of a Top Fuel car, their shirt will probably be tucked in.”
He pushed the comparison further. “I think when somebody jumps out of a Funny Car, they may not have a shirt on at all.”
Barnett believes the category has room for drivers willing to lean into its grudge-racing roots. He pointed to the absence left by retired voices such as John Force.
“I think it needs some of that,” Barnett said.
From Barnett’s perspective, fans are drawn to more than elapsed times.
“The fans, while they’re there to watch race cars go fast and stuff, they like a good story and they like listening to somebody run their mouth,” he said. “And I tend to run mine with the best of them.”
He stopped short of casting himself as the answer. His point was larger than any one driver.
“Whether it’s me or not, they need some of that in the class for sure,” Barnett said.
Barnett’s confidence is grounded in experience, not bravado. He has already survived one of the most violent moments of his racing career.
On Sept. 24, 2015, Barnett was injured in a near-fatal fire during a qualifying run at South Georgia Motorsports Park when an engine explosion ignited his Radial vs. the World car. He was engulfed in flames for about 28 seconds and suffered third-degree burns to his face, hands, and feet.
“I would like to think that I’ve been heat treated already,” Barnett said. “So getting in a Funny Car and strapping a 12,000 horsepower bomb between my legs that tends to catch on fire every now and again, I’ve already been seasoned for that.”
Even with that confidence, Barnett remains realistic. Opportunity does not always align with timing.
“There’s always a chance you’ll never obviously see me in any Funny Car or a Top Fuel car,” he said.
If something materializes, it may not involve an immediate full-season commitment.
“If it’s going to happen, it probably won’t be in ’26 to compete,” Barnett said. “Just kind of have to see how the cards fall.”
The current nitro landscape, he noted, is unsettled. Sponsorship movement and personnel changes continue to reshape the field.
“There’s some crazy stuff going on out there in the Nitro world right now,” Barnett said.
Barnett remains open to multiple paths.
“If the opportunity arose for me to stay within the elite camp and run with Tony and Richard and Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield and all those guys, I would obviously love to do that,” he said.
He added a qualifier. “But I’m not going to turn it down if it comes available somewhere else.”
When asked how close he truly came to replacing Pruett, Barnett did not hedge.
“I was probably a lot closer than most people probably do know,” he said.
The groundwork had already been laid. “I had licensed with Randy Meyer in A/Fuel Dragster so it got me a little closer to being able to just cross over into the Top Fuel car.”
Discussions were active and advancing.
“We were in talks and everything was looking right and we were headed in that direction,” Barnett said.
The pivot came abruptly.
“It was literally a conversation at dinner between Leah and Tony that he decided he wanted to drive,” Barnett said.
The call that followed was difficult.
“When they called me with the news, I was obviously initially heartbroken,” he said.
Barnett did not dispute the decision.
“But at the end of the day, Tony owns that s***. And if he wants to drive it, by God, he should,” Barnett said.
What stayed with him was the validation of being chosen.
“Just to be considered for the opportunity and to be chosen, right?” Barnett said. “They were considering a few from what I understand, and I have no idea who those were, and they had decided that I was going to be the one to do it, and that’s pretty freaking cool.”
The relationships remain intact.
“They’re still really good friends of mine,” Barnett said. “We talk often, and they know that my phone is always on and ready for that call if they want.”
Barnett also welcomed Pruett’s eventual return.
“I’m excited to see Leah come back,” he said. “I think she is good for the class.”
He believes Stewart’s presence continues to elevate the sport.
“Tony has obviously been really good for the sport as a whole,” Barnett said.
Looking ahead, Barnett sees intrigue in what comes next.
“To see some husband against wife action on the racetrack is going to be cool,” he said.
For Barnett, the near-miss remains part of the story, not the ending. The door to nitro never fully closed. It shifted, waiting for the right moment, the right car, and the right kind of fire.
COMPETITION PLUS POWER HOUR MOVES TO NEW TIME, UPDATES FORMAT FOR 2026