Elite Motorsports and Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) announced Thursday they will form a sales, marketing and hospitality alliance in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), focusing on the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series. The collaboration will merge assets from both teams, expanding opportunities for partners across Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Competition Eliminator and Pro Mod.
The move links two powerhouse organizations with extensive reach in professional drag racing. For Elite Motorsports, it strengthens its position as the largest team in NHRA competition, while for TSR it creates an expanded marketing footprint to complement its nitro program.
Elite Motorsports operates a wide-ranging racing program, including Pro Stock drivers Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Troy Coughlin Jr., Aaron Stanfield, Greg Stanfield, Stephen Bell and the Cuadra family. Mike Coughlin drives for the team in Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Royce Freeman represents the group in Competition Eliminator, and Mason Wright competes in Pro Mod.
“This alliance just makes so much sense,” said Elite Motorsports team owner Richard Freeman. “Tony and I have become good friends, and we’ve realized that we’re a lot alike. We have similar visions and share a desire to build basically a super team that can offer our partners the most and best options. Being able to offer the most to our partners, that’s really what it’s about.
“Taking care of the brands and people we have and being able to offer opportunities for those relationships to grow while having the capacity to bring more into the fold. I’m excited about this, we all are.”
TSR, based in Brownsburg, Indiana, fields two full-time entries in the NHRA Mission Foods Series. Matt Hagan drives its Funny Car entry and Tony Stewart pilots the Top Fuel dragster that his wife, Leah Pruett, previously raced before stepping away to start a family.
Pruett is set to return to Top Fuel competition for TSR in 2026. Hagan, from Christiansburg, Virginia, is a four-time Funny Car champion with 53 career wins, while Stewart earned 2024 NHRA Rookie of the Year honors and has scored two Top Fuel victories in 2025. He also clinched this season’s NHRA regular-season championship.
“Our partnership with Elite Motorsports and Richard Freeman and his group is unique,” Stewart said. “It’s taking all of our assets that we have with TSR and Elite Motorsports with the Pro Stock, Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Competition Eliminator, and Pro Mod teams and creating a situation where we have a lot to offer partners and potential partners down the road. We will be pooling our assets together and working together to try to fund these race cars. This is a unique strategy that Richard came up with, but I really buy into the concept of it and I think it’s already beneficial in the short amount of time that we’ve already started working together. We see the benefits of this and it can continue to make both of our organizations bigger and stronger down the road.
“I’m excited to work with Richard and his group. Richard and I have a great friendship and I think that’s what great partnerships start out as. He has a great organization with great people and I feel like putting our two teams with our great people together is just going to make for a very strong alliance and a partnership that will be beneficial to both organizations.”
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