Folks, Tony Stewart, for most of his Cup Series career, had been a Chevy driver or been with a General Motors brand. Be it the time when he was running with Joe Gibbs Racing, winning two championships (2002, 2005). After JGR switched to Toyota, Stewart joined Haas Racing to continue running Chevrolet’s in 2009, becoming co-owner and turning his new team to Stewart-Haas Racing. It was only after Stewart’s last Cup Series season in 2016 that the team decided to switch to Ford Performance. And now, Tony Stewart has again made a switch!
Well, SHR is no longer part of NASCAR; they announced their closure after the 2024 season because of financial struggles. However, Stewart remained connected to the racing world. Like how he is currently running for his own team, Tony Stewart Racing, in NHRA Top Fuel. And TSR is not just in NHRA, it also fields a car in the World of Outlaws, and after a long run with the current OEM, Stewart has decided to go back to his old partner.
Tony Stewart’s team is set to run a Chevy engine
For the folks who don’t know, Donny Schatz pilots the #15 car for TSR in the World of Outlaws. For more than nine years, the team has been running with Ford Performance, which has a net worth of $40 billion. And Schatz has had an incredibly successful career in the WoO. He has won 318 races and 10 championships, and out of these, 22 wins have come from running a Ford engine. FPS410, to be specific. What’s interesting is that Schatz, for almost five years now, has been helping in the development of the FPS410.
However, suddenly, the team has now decided to make a switch. For the rest of the 2025 season, the #15 Sprint Car will not have a Ford under its hood. In their recent statement, TSR said, “For more than nine years, TSR has worked collaboratively with Ford Performance and Shaver Specialty Racing Engines on the development of the FPS410 engine,” TSR said in a statement released today. “While that development will continue, TSR will take a step back from running Ford engines during points-paying races… We’re extremely proud of, and grateful to, the respective teams at Ford Performance and Shaver Engines for their support over the last decade.”
Now, Tony Stewart’s team is set to return to the series with a Chevrolet block 410 engine. For the next race, the World of Outlaws Sooner State Showdown at Lawton Speedway on Friday, March 28, TSR is a Chevy team. And well, the problem with the Ford Performance engine was that it output too much horsepower, and that was affecting the drivability for the #15 driver. In fact, in 2021, they had to retune the engine to get things back on track. And clearly, something was off. Schatz hasn’t been in double-digit wins since the 2019 season, when he got 11 wins.
Statement from Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing regarding our engine program @DonnySchatz | @WorldofOutlaws | @TonyStewart | #25In25 pic.twitter.com/zvurYj4dQr
— Tony Stewart Racing (@TonyStewart_Rcg) March 28, 2025
And folks, we say this because in his last championship-winning season, which was 2018, he had 22 wins! He absolutely dominated. And even then, he was running a Ford engine. But over time, Ford’s performance has deteriorated. 12 races into the 2025 season, Schatz hasn’t won a single race. He’s got one top 5 and seven top 10s. Schatz currently sits 200 points behind the points leader David Gravel in 6th position. Hopefully, with Chevy coming in, things will change. The 11th championship for Donny Schatz might finally come. And folks, this is not the only big thing happening for Tony Stewart Racing.
TSR re-signs sponsor for their 2025 NHRA campaign
Since Tony Stewart’s wife Leah Pruett has been pregnant, Smoke has been piloting her 11,000-horsepower powered Top Fuel Dragster. He ran the whole 2024 season and came out Rookie of the Year.’ And now, in his second season, he’s pretty much got the hang of it. And you can tell that when a sponsor wants to join you for a second season. And that’s exactly what the beer brand American Rebels is set to do.
They have expanded their sponsorship to Stewart’s 2025 season and will be the secondary sponsor for the whole season while being a primary sponsor for one race. American Rebel CEO Andy Ross is pumped about this partnership. He recently said, “Tony, Matt, and Leah have been a big part of our incredible success opening up distributors across the country. Various consultants told me opening up distributors was next to impossible, but American Rebel has proven them wrong because we have a real 12-year organic story of how we got here, and Tony, Matt, and Leah’s support have poured patriotic fuel all over the fire we had already started. I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done. Our relationship started out as a sponsorship, turned into a friendship and now it’s family.”
For Ross, it’s about being associated with someone like Tony Stewart, who is the very definition of versatility and absolute dominance. From his IndyCar Championship in 1999 to his Cup Series Championship in 2012, Tony Stewart proved that he can drive anything to victory lane, and Andy Ross knows that. “Tony is a legendary NASCAR driver who may be the most versatile race car driver in history, having also driven in IndyCar, USAC, NHRA and just about anything with wheels… Our distributors love our connection with Tony Stewart Racing as American Rebel Light Beer connects with our customers through this sponsorship,” Ross added.
Folks, what do you think about TSR switching manufacturers? And how do you think Smoke will do in his second NHRA season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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