After their first meeting NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and team owner Tony Stewart and NHRA driver Leah Pruett found themselves in a lockdown together.  The forced closeness brought the near stranger close together. 

They later married and now are looking to start a family together.

To that end, Pruett is taking the 2024 NHRA season off to concentrate on getting pregnant.

Speaking on her decision, Pruett said, “this is an incredibly personal decision, and what led to making this decision are other personal situations that have happened in my life and our lives.”

She continued, “time is not on anyone’s side and time is not gender neutral. But when it comes to being a female and a female racer, time is particularly not on your side.  One of the decision-making factors was, ‘What do we want our life to look like when we have a family?’ And it is easy to sit back and have the immediate view that we’ve got this killer race team and we can do what we didn’t do this year — which is win a championship.  But stepping back and thinking about long-term and what our family looks like, it was just the right time at the right decision.”

Stewart added, “to be a competitive, professional race car driver and have to make the decision to take yourself out of the seat to start a family is not a position most males would want to be put in.  We had discussed starting a family and this was her decision. In those discussions, we came to the conclusion that the timing was up to her. I was very supportive as to whether she wanted to do it now or years from now.”

Pruett has an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in which her thyroid does not create enough hormones.

Speaking on her medical condition Pruett said, “that plays a part into my health, which means I need more time to start a family.  The reason I bring that up is because people can relate to that and there’s a human element beyond just ‘Oh, it’s the right time for us and everything is so great for us.’  Hashimoto’s gives me a lot of challenges throughout the year in racing and it took a lot to get that under control just to race, more or less under control to start a family.  There are no guarantees or promises on when I will be back in the seat, but I have every intention of returning as soon as I can. Everything in my heart says that I will return to driving Top Fuel as soon as I feel ready.”

After meeting with members of her team, she has decided that husband and Hall of Fame driver Tony Stewart will run her Top Fuel dragster next season.”  Smoke ran the Top Alcohol Dragster car last season in NHRA.

Speaking on taking over his wife’s driving duties Smoke said, “my goal is to not suck, to not get fired by my wife and to not kill myself driving this thing.”

Stewart insists that he put no pressure on his wife to race her car saying, “I’m 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 this team.”

Stewart is a three time NASCAR Cup Series and one time IndyCar champion who won four races in his first full year of driving in the NHRA. 

Stewart is a co-owner of the NASCAR Cup Series Stewart-Haas Racing, an NHRA team owner, has ownership in numerous short tracks around the country including Eldora, and is the creator of the SRX – Superstar Racing Experience – where he won the championship in its inaugural year.