- It’s the next few years that 53-year-old Tony Stewart is especially looking forward to, particularly becoming a father.
- He might also be looking at moving up in class in NHRA to either Top Fuel or Funny Car.
- Nothing is imminent at this time and Stewart isn’t pushing his 35-year-old wife and NHRA star Leah Pruett, basically leaving the decision to get pregnant totally up to her.
The last two years have been life-changing for NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart.
He married NHRA Top Fuel drag racer Leah Pruett in November 2021, started his own NHRA drag racing team in 2022 that includes Pruett and Funny Car driver Matt Hagan, and then to top it off, Stewart is competing full-time this season in NHRA’s Top Alcohol Dragster (TAD) class, essentially drag racing’s minor league to Top Fuel (he’s been a quick learner in TAD: he’s currently second in the standings)
Stewart also still is co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing in NASCAR, is a part-time color analyst on FOX Sports’ NASCAR telecasts, owns several small race tracks including Eldora Raceway in Ohio as well as a small racing series, and still competes in sprint car races as time allows.
But it’s the next few years that the 53-year-old Stewart is especially looking forward to, particularly becoming a father, and maybe even moving up in class in NHRA to either Top Fuel or Funny Car.
First is Pruett’s timeline as a mother-to-be. Nothing is imminent at this time and Stewart isn’t pushing his 35-year-old wife, basically leaving the decision to get pregnant totally up to her.
“I freaked out about the whole process, to be honest,” Stewart laughed during an exclusive 45-minute interview with Autoweek. “I can’t even take care of myself. She has to take care of me.”
But seriously, Stewart is looking forward to the day he becomes a father.
“I’m not gonna lie, I’m excited about it,” he said. “But I want it to be when the timing is right for us. I’m already so old now anyway, my poor kids are going to be at their high school graduation, there’s kids that aren’t gonna know who I am and they’re gonna go, ‘Oh, your grandfather came.’ My poor kids are gonna have to say, ‘No, that’s my dad.’ So it’s just like, whatever, it is what it is, but I’m excited about the possibility, sure, absolutely.”
But as excited as he is about one day having children, Stewart is also pragmatic: as team owner, he has to figure out who would replace his wife in her Top Fuel dragster when she steps out of it while pregnant.
“I look at it from two sides,” Stewart said. “I have to be a husband first. But then I’m her car owner at the same time. Depending on when she gets pregnant, it could be she’s out and can’t run a full season for sure. Or she might be out part of two seasons if the timings not right.
“So in conversations with that, the car owner in me came out and then I finally had to go, ‘You know what, you just tell me when I need to start buying clothes and cribs and stuff like that.’ Other than that, it’s all on her. It’s her timing, it’s whenever she wants, I said, ‘Don’t tell me when you want to, just do it, go do our lives and tell me when there’s something I need to know.
“So I’m trying to do everything in my power to take the car owners’ side out of it and strictly be a husband that’s supportive. And it’s a big deal for her too. It’s not just (she’s) going to skip work for a little while. It’s way more than that for every woman that gets pregnant.
“I think it’s a hard decision for her because she’s loving racing with this team, the performance is getting better (Pruett is currently fifth in Top Fuel heading into this weekend’s race in Bristol, Tenn.). And to sit there and go, ‘Okay, well, now I’m gonna start a family and step away from this for a little bit, that’s hard for a competitive racer, so I’ve just tried to be supportive and whatever and whenever she wants, that’s fine with me.”
Of course, if Pruett does become pregnant, Stewart the team owner will need a replacement driver for her, either short-term or potentially permanent. After all, Ashley Force and Courtney Force both began families and have remained away from the driver’s seat since.
So why not Mr. Stewart replacing Mrs. Stewart behind the wheel?
“I think in her eyes, that’s what her plan would be,” Stewart said of his wife. “I still think it’s a scenario where at this point, I’m not sure I’m ready for that. But the more runs that I make in the alcohol car, that’s the best preparation I can get. I mean, it’s the fastest class in a quarter mile right now. So the only thing faster is Top Fuel and Funny Cars (which only race 1,000 feet, not a quarter-mile).
“So there’s not more I could do to prepare for something like that. But we’ve talked about if we started a family, if she got pregnant, who would we put in the car? So I sit there and go through the list of drivers that I know in Top Fuel and then she does too. But she has one more name on her list (her husband) than I have on my list. My list doesn’t have me in that equation.”
That’s why Mr. Stewart doesn’t expect to be racing against Mrs. Stewart any time soon.
“Well, first of all, I like my side of the bed,” Stewart laughed. “So the last thing I need to do is race against my wife. I’m not ready for that. I mean, I respect the sport too much and, and I wasn’t even sure I should be competing in alcohol.
“I mean, when your wife’s there, she’s your biggest critic and your best teacher at the same time. If I did something wrong and she knows how I want to do everything right, she’s like a drill sergeant, watching everything that I do when I drive that car. If I make a small mistake, she calls me out on it and makes me correct it. And that’s what I want her to do. And that’s why I love racing with my wife.”
When the couple was dating, Leah took Tony to a number of drag races. Given his history in various forms of motorsports, it didn’t take long for him to get bit by the bug to actually get behind the wheel.
“Historically, I’m not a great spectator,” Stewart said. “So, yes, I do a lot better when I can race too, and honestly being able to run the alcohol car, you know it’s gonna fill in your answer.
“But, you know, I get to watch both my teams run, and then I get to go and I get to drive myself, which is a way different dynamic than when I raced with Donnie Schatz and Steve Kinser (in sprint car racing). And we’re all three in the same A Main together, where you didn’t know even know how it went till after it’s over. Where here I get to be on top of what these two teams are doing. And then I get to switch gears, go change clothes, and I go race and get in race mode that I enjoy being in. So I get the best of both worlds right now in all reality.”
Stewart said his team is building a new Top Fuel car that, if need be, could be for him if he decides to make the big leap.
“We’re building another chassis that there’s some things that after I drove Leah’s car (in testing), there’s things in the cockpit that I’ve questioned,” Stewart said. “(There were a) couple of different dragsters I’ve sat in and then said, ‘Why don’t you change this or remove this? And so we actually literally are building another chassis right now that has some of the ideas I like in it.
“There’s some other just little things that aren’t going to make the car faster, but it might make it more comfortable. And so it’s definitely a car that I can drive as well. Trying to drive Leah’s car, it’s like trying to cram 12 pounds of shit into an eight-pound sack. This is a true story. When I drive her car, I use a junior dragster steering wheel, because I’ve got broader shoulders than hers and it pushes my shoulders an inch forward just getting in her car. My arms are longer than Leah’s. And my hands are closer together, so that’s why I run a junior dragster steering wheel, which is a lot shorter.
“My hands are this close together, you’re driving a car 330 miles an hour with your hands. The span between my knuckles when I’m in the car is probably an inch, inch and a half.”
And who knows, maybe in about 10 or 15 years, Stewart can pass along his Junior Dragster steering wheel to one of his kids as a family heirloom if they decide to start racing as well, like Kyle Busch’s and Kevin Harvick’s kids.
Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
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