Tony Stewart will run Top Fuel ride in 2024 for wife, Leah Pruett, so couple can start family
Nathan Brown
Leah Pruett stepped into the cockpit of her Tony Stewart Racing Top Fuel machine for the last time in 2023 at Pomona for a winner-take-all final. Through it all, the 35-year-old who began racing the NHRA circuit when she was 8 years old, knew it would be her last competitive run until at least 2025.
As her team owner and husband Tony Stewart watched, amazed at her growing calm while his nerves skyrocketed, the IndyCar/NASCAR/sprint car legend turned drag racing novice could hardly believe the calm, contentedness and selflessness Pruett exuded. Even before she knew she’d come hundredths of a second short of her first Top Fuel title, Pruett had decided to step away from the sport – temporarily – for what could be a trying journey for the soon-to-be 36- and 53-year-olds: starting a family.
Perhaps the craziest part of it all, to Stewart at least? Pruett has handpicked her husband, who just finished his rookie drag racing season in the lower Top Alcohol class with four wins and a runner-up finish in the championship, to take her place in TSR’s Top Fuel entry next season.
Pruett answered the obvious question right out the gate, as the pair announced the news at the Performance Racing Industry convention at the Indianapolis Convention Center.
“No, I’m not pregnant,” she said with a chuckle.
Pruett revealed she has Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that disrupts her body’s ability to produce certain hormones which, among other things, could make it tougher for the couple, who married just over two years ago, to start a family. Stepping out of the cockpit now — while barreling full-steam ahead into a new role in the race shop where she’ll handle special projects for TSR in the tech department — will allow her to get her body ready.
But announcing this news was about much more than the two of them.
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This new arm of TSR, born two years ago when Stewart elected to field a Top Fuel car for his wife and a Funny Car entry for Matt Hagan. Minus Pruett’s crew chief, Neal Strausbaugh, the rest of the shop was in relative shock in learning the news this week that their driver, who finished 3rd in the championship this year, would be stepping away.
But making this call midseason would mean any points Pruett accrued would remain with her, not the entry. Any legitimate chances to compete for a championship for Stewart and TSR would be dashed. Now, whether the three-time Cup series driver champ thinks he’ll even remotely be in the running for such an honor, is another story entirely.
Ask Pruett, and she calls her husband lovingly, but matter-of-factly “the world’s best wheel man” and pointed to Stewart holding the best averaging reaction time in Top Alcohol after his rookie campaign. But his swift answer, when Pruett first brought up the possibility that 2024 may be the optimal time to step away was one of surprise.
“Absolutely not.”
“I was still learning to drive the Alcohol car, and I didn’t feel I was good enough yet to be at that caliber. I’m still not convinced I’m that guy, but Neal and Leah are, and they’ve been around it long enough to know what to look for and have a lot more confidence in me than I have in myself right now,” Stewart said Thursday.
Long ago, Stewart had a Top Fuel car outfitted for himself, having been “very uncomfortable” in Pruett’s slimmer cockpit – to which he joked, “That’s not funny. Just because she’s skinny and I’m fat, that’s not funny. Round is a shape, too, alright?” – but it was hardly with something like this in mind.
“It scares the (expletive) out of me every time I get in it,” he said. “But it got into the fall, and these conversations got real again, and she’s made the decision (to step away), and it’s time to pull the pin. I told (Leah and Neal), ‘You guys have to make the decision based on who’s going to do the best job for the race team.’
“I’m a little surprised they voted me in, but at the same time, I’m really proud of it, too, and I hope I do a good job for these guys. This team has come a long way in two years, and the last thing I want to do is be the one that causes a setback for them.
“The goal is to not suck.”
Outside of levying not unserious threats asking fans to keep their distances from Stewart during PRI – he underwent shoulder surgery the day before Thanksgiving, requiring a three-month recovery time that could make his hope or running 27 test laps this offseason difficult – Pruett appears far more comfortable with the decision. In revealing she’d vetted a shortlist of other serious candidates before Stewart committed to the stand-in role this fall, Pruett said she feels this move marries the best things of the pair’s long-term life goals, as well as the team’s championship ambitions.
“As hard as I feel like I’ve worked to do well in my seat, I’m working just as hard, if not more, to make sure Tony isn’t just in the same caliber of racecar, but an even better one, so he can run right there for the championship just like we were,” said Pruett, who will serve as her husband’s driver coach next season.
“Sure, it would be the easy thing to do, ‘Let’s keep trucking. We were so close this year, let’s get it next year.’ But I know our capabilities, and I know I’m going to be back, so by the time I get back, man, hopefully we have an even more successful operation that’s championship-proof.”
Now, what that – Pruett’s plan to return to her ride at TSR – means for both drivers a couple years down the road. Stewart has long been adamant he’d never race his wife – “I think it’s a terrible idea. If you have to race your wife, and you win? That’s a ticket straight to the couch the rest of your life.”
Pruett, notably, hopes one day TSR can expand to a second Top Fuel entry and put the fierce, loving couple to the test. She’s seen it done before.
But there will be time to discuss that down the road, because right now, Stewart can’t stop doting on his wife.
“I told her that whenever she was ready to start this process, let me know what I need to do, and we’ll do it,” Stewart said. “I wanted it to be on her time. I don’t think any of us (guys) can sit there and imagine how tough a decision that was, especially after her best season in the sport, to make that decision, even before the end of the year while running for a championship. I can’t even wrap my head around that.
“I’ll be honest, driving to the banquet, I fully expected somewhere in that drive for her to say, ‘Hey, I think I want to push this back one more year.’ But this really speaks volumes to how strong a woman Leah is, and it makes me so proud to be her husband.”