08-03-2025
Leah Pruett In No Hurry to Get Back in NHRA Top Fuel Seat
New mom and Top Fuel racer Leah Pruett discovers 'two kinds of love,' has no timetable for return to dragster.
Husband Tony Stewart says whenever Pruett decides to return to competition, he immediately will yield the seat.
Pruett, however, says kicking Tony out of the seat is not as simple as it sounds.
Raising a child in the NHRA trailerhood isn't anything new for a lot of families. But Top Fuel racers Tony Stewart and wife Leah Pruett are taking this brand-new experience in stride as the 2025 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season starts this weekend at Florida's Gainesville Raceway.
And credit for some of that ease goes to Dale Earnhardt Jr.
'When Dale Jr. had his first child, I remember I waited a couple weeks to congratulate him because I knew his phone was going to be flooded,' Stewart said, recalling that Earnhardt immediately replied, telling Stewart, 'This is what's missing in your life that you don't realize you're missing.'
Today Stewart understands what his friend meant.
Stewart said that he realized it when his now-four-month-old son Dominic was born last November, on the morning of final eliminations at the 2024 season finale. 'I realized it in the off-season while we were home. I'm realizing it even more in depth when we went to the PRO Shootout and now that we're at Gainesville and testing this week and having Dominic here.
"It's like I didn't realize what this was going to mean until we got here and got to the track – and it's the best feeling in the world.'
Pruett, he said, is 'the one doing all the work. That's the reality of it. We have help, but Leah has huge responsibilities, not only as a mom, and,' he joked, 'a babysitter for me. But now on top of that, she plays a very crucial role with the race team. She doesn't just sit around.
"She's not sitting on her hands all day away from the kid. She's working in this pit. So she has a full schedule and we have help with Dominic here and it's gone really, really well. But if you have a bad run and you get a chance to go back to the bus just for five minutes and he's awake and you see him smile one time, that bad run doesn't seem so bad anymore. So I think this kid's going to play a really crucial role in this team.'
Pruett said she has discovered that she's 'finding this balance between constantly comparing my love for racing and love for Dominic, and there's two different types of love. But I feel like I have won the absolute lottery (with) a beautiful baby, an incredible team on both sides, incredible partners, and I couldn't be happier. From a mother's standpoint, I'm learning all that, and I'm enjoying it because of what's surrounding us and the team and the support that we have and that we have right now. I'm absolutely loving it.'
Tony Stewart Racing announced Friday it has reached a multi-year extension with Dodge/Stellantis.
However, Pruett said she has no re-entry strategy to Top Fuel racing.
'There's not a strategy, by any means. This is the first day of the first race of my first season with a child,' she said. 'We had conversation at the end of last year about me getting back in the car, and I just had to be very truthful that I did not think that I could do a job for Dodge, for our fans, and be engaging with the team. And even though there's not a strategy for it, my heart says that I'll be back in a race car. I don't know which one it will be or what category, what class or what year, but it will be there, because I'm so involved with the team, specifically the Top Fuel team, on a couple projects. I've kept very busy so that I don't lose involvement.
'So when I do jump right back in, I'm even more equipped with what I've been working on. So I don't know,' Pruett said. 'And really, it's about kicking Tony out of the seat. I think I'd have a harder time dealing with that. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. But it is always exciting when you look forward to the future and you have something in mind. What that journey is like, I still don't know, but I'm enjoying it.
As for Stewart, he stresses that he's just keeping the seat warm for Pruett's eventual return.
'Just for the record, and from Day 1 that we had our first conversation about starting a family and the topic came up of what if I drive while she is on this journey,... Make this 1,000% clear so there's no mistakes and I don't get my butt carved up on social media: That race car is her race car. And when she's ready to get back in, I will immediately get back out at whatever time, whatever event that is, or whatever event's coming up. If mid-season she says, 'I want to get back in that car,' I will gladly step out of that car for my wife.'
He said the reason 'we started this program was for her, and obviously her and Matt [Funny Car four-time champion Hagan] and the synergy between the two. That's why we started this program. But at the moment that she's ready to get back in the car, I will promise everyone I will step out of that car and not blink. I'll probably be crying at the same time, but I will not hesitate to get out of that car.
"That is her team, and I'm just the fill-in guy until she's ready to get back in that car.'
