{"id":93841,"date":"2023-12-07T08:31:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T16:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=93841"},"modified":"2023-12-07T08:36:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T16:36:25","slug":"pruett-stepping-down-stewart-to-step-into-nhra-top-fuel-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/pruett-stepping-down-stewart-to-step-into-nhra-top-fuel-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruett Stepping Down, Stewart to Step Into NHRA Top Fuel Car"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tony Stewart defers to wife Leah Pruett as they make their announcement – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leah Pruett and Tony Stewart swap lead driver spots as the couple looks to start a family.<\/h2>\n

Finishing third in NHRA\u2019s Top Fuel category as race runner-up to new champion Doug Kalitta in the final contest of the 2023 season, Leah Pruett had momentum on her side leading into the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. She and husband Tony Stewart scheduled an announcement for the start of this year\u2019s Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis and rumors swirled around the decision they were about to reveal.<\/p>\n

Did anyone think she\u2019d be stepping aside to start a family and ceding her seat to her husband?<\/p>\n

Tony Stewart\u2019s initial year of competition in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series\u2019 Top Alcohol Dragster class netted the 13-time USAC, INDYCAR and NASCAR champion a result of second in class to Julie Nataas and gave the driver hunger for more. Now that\u2019s not unexpected if you\u2019re at all familiar with Stewart and his penchant for racing. He\u2019s a guy who eats, sleeps, breathes the sport from his perch as a team owner, track owner and driver.<\/p>\n

Stewart and Pruett had been discussing the opportunity to start a family since they married and now, with a successful year of racing for both of them in the can, they\u2019ve decided she should – temporarily – step away from driving competition to concentrate on their family. The pair made this decision even before the season was complete, but as Stewart said, he wondered if the plans were coming to fruition after last season\u2019s great result for Pruett\u2019s team, led by Neal Strausbaugh and Mike Domagala.<\/p>\n

Pruett was, with her Pomona result of toppling champions in three of four rounds of competition, just a round win from earning a series championship. In that last race of the year, Pruett defeated eight-time titleholder Tony Schumacher, three-time champ Antron Brown and then four-time champion Steve Torrence. It would take Doug Kalitta, who was trying to win his first NHRA Top Fuel title, to topple her from that perch as a giant-killer and cement the plans she and Stewart had already made.<\/p>\n

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Stewart will take over the Top Fuel car at the start of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his rookie season as an NHRA racer, Tony Stewart secured two national and two regional event victories and those wins certainly whet his whistle for more. He will take over the Dodge\/\/SRT Direct Connection dragster at the Gatornatiionals that begin the 2024 season the second weekend of March 2024 and he\u2019s excited about it, even though he\u2019s got a three-month recuperation ahead after having rotator cuff surgery around Thanksgiving. Pruett will remain a Dodge Direct Connection and Mopar brand ambassador and continue to advise the Tony Stewart Racing nitro (TSR Nitro) team.<\/p>\n

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Tony, Leah and Cash celebrated her Norwalk victory this past June – TSR Nitro photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since their marriage, Pruett and Stewart have talked about enhancing their family beyond the dogs that travel with them to the races. \u201cThis decision did not happen overnight, and I feel that stepping out of the seat right now is what\u2019s best for myself and Tony to start a family,\u201d Pruett said. The 12-time NHRA Top Fuel national event winner also noted, \u201cThis has been one of the most difficult decisions to make, because of what we have collectively created at TSR: a highly successful program and enjoyable operation. I\u2019m excited about how competitive this team is, and to be able to have Tony compete in a very safe, vetted, well-performing car with an established team\u201d helped her make that choicel<\/p>\n

As one might expect, \u201cI am very proud of my wife,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cTo make a decision like this must be extremely hard,\u201d particularly after her most successful season in Top Fuel. \u201cWe had discussed starting a family and this was her decision. I was very supportive as to whether she wanted to do it now or years from now. I\u2019m very humbled that Leah and Neal felt I was the driver to fill in for her. I feel honored that I can do that for my wife and for this team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tony Stewart never stepped into any drag racing car until 2022; he debuted in Top Alcohol Dragster at the penultimate Las Vegas race and lost a close decision (.0002) against Madison Payne in his first contest. He earned victories at Las Vegas and Reading in 2023 en route to his runner-up season-long result to Nataas. \u201cI enjoyed my time in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. I absolutely loved racing with the McPhillips Racing family, but to have an opportunity like this,\u201d Stewart explained, \u201cwhere you have your wife, who\u2019s also a driver, and the crew chief feel I\u2019m capable to come in and drive the car is very flattering. It\u2019s an honor to be able to fill in for her until she\u2019s ready to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leah Pruett and Tony Stewart swap lead driver spots as the couple looks to start a family.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":93842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[10067,10069,8458,10070,10068,9966,7,1192,9340,73],"class_list":["post-93841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-dodge-srt-direct-connection","tag-julie-nataas","tag-leah-pruett","tag-madison-payne","tag-mcphillips-racing-team","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart","tag-top-alcohol-dragster","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Leah-and-Tony-discuss-their-plans-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-opz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93847,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93841\/revisions\/93847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}