NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart to race full time in NHRA Top Fuel in 2024
Tony Stewart will race full time as a Top Fuel driver in the NHRA in 2024.
Stewart will take over for his wife, Leah Pruett, as the couple looks to start a family. Pruett and Stewart got married in 2021, and Pruett drives for Stewart’s NHRA team.
When your wife wants to try to start a family & wants you to drive her car, what are you going to say? I’m proud of @LeahPruett_TF & excited we’re going to focus on starting a family in 2024. I’m humbled Leah & Neal Strausbaugh felt I was the driver to fill in for her.@TSRnitropic.twitter.com/lbvv4xYLm1
— Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) December 7, 2023
The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame member raced in the Top Alcohol series in 2023. Top Alcohol is a tier lower than Top Fuel.
Pruett, 36, told the Associated Press that she has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and would like to be back racing as soon as she is ready.
“That plays a part into my health, which means I need more time to start a family,” she told the AP. “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,” she said. “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.”
Stewart, 53, is the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. SHR fields four cars at NASCAR’s top level, and the team will look significantly different in 2024. Kevin Harvick, the 2014 Cup Series champion, retired and Aric Almirola has stepped back from racing full time. The team hired Josh Berry to replace Harvick and Almirola’s replacement hasn't been unannounced.
Outside of Harvick, SHR drivers struggled mightily in 2023. Almirola was the next-best driver in the points standings in 22nd place.
Tony Stewart Racing has long been involved in sprint car racing and expanded to drag racing in 2022. His team fielded cars for Pruett in Top Fuel and for Matt Hagan in Funny Car. Hagan won the Funny Car title over Robert Hight this season while Pruett finished third in the Top Fuel standings.
