Tony Stewart, who will drive Leah Pruett’s NHRA Top Fuel dragster in 2024, will be her father.
In 2024, Leah Pruett will retire from the NHRA drag racing competition in order to concentrate on bringing Tony Stewart into the family. In the Top Fuel dragster that Pruett piloted to a career-best third-place finish in the NHRA standings this year, her husband, a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, will take her place for the upcoming season.
Stewart and Pruett were wed a little more than two years ago.
In an interview with Stewart for The Associated Press, Pruett stated, “This is an extremely personal decision, and what led to making this decision are other personal situations that have happened in my life and our lives.”
Time is not gender neutral and it is not on anyone’s side. But time is especially not on your side if you’re a woman and a female racer, the speaker stated. One of the things we considered when making our decisions was, ‘How do we envision our life after we have a family?’ And it’s simple to stand back and assume that because we have such a strong race crew, we can accomplish what we were unable to accomplish this year: win a championship.
However, taking a step back and considering the long term as well as the makeup of our family, it was the correct decision made at the appropriate time.
This season, Pruett won two races while racing for Tony Stewart Racing, the team that won the Funny Car championship alongside Matt Hagan, in a Dodge Top Fuel dragster. Pruett has won 12 Top Fuel races in his career. In 2023, Stewart competed in the Top Alcohol Dragster class for the whole NHRA season.
Six days after Stewart celebrates his 53rd birthday, Pruett turns 36 in May. Early in the epidemic in 2020, the two were inseparable, and Stewart—who had already given up on full-time racing—turned his focus to drag racing.
