Folks, if there is one driver who can do it all, it has to be Tony Stewart. Be it winning championships in IndyCar, NASCAR, or even dirt racing. He is the definition of versatility. And now, adding one more feather to his crown, he’s piloting a car in NHRA’s Top Fuel Series. And folks, the dragster is no ordinary car; it’s an 11,000-horsepower monster. But Tony being Tony, he was quick to figure it out. After all, he was Rookie of the Year last season. And, well, Leah Pruett’s got a big hand in him acing this racing format. And now we have been made aware that, in the NHRA, Leah had taught a lot more to Stewart than just racecraft.
So, Leah Pruett was pregnant with Dominic last year, and hence, she sat out, putting Tony in her seat. And what seemed like a one-year escapade has extended as Tony enters yet another season of Top Fuel. And now we can say the 3-time Cup Series Champion has properly learned what it is to fill Leah’s shoes. Quite literally! He’s even taken over her trailer and is doing things exactly how she used to do.
Leah Pruett has trained Tony Stewart well!
Pruett has been running full-time in Top Fuel since 2016. So that’s almost a decade where she bagged 18 wins. And in all those years, she mastered both on-track and off-track skills. So, folks who don’t know, Top Fuel has a very different format. A group of sixteen drivers are divided into pairs, and it’s a drag race with multiple rounds, as the field narrows to the final two drivers at the end of it. And each round is a challenge in itself. You can imagine how hot it must get in an 11,000 HP car. So, between each round drivers change their outfits and they have to be quick. That’s where Leah’s organization skills made her very efficient.
And now, those skills have been passed down to Tony Stewart. Recently, ‘Smoke’ made a walk through a video of his trailer, revealing his super organized gear compartment. In the video, he said, “Obviously, Leah had a lot of stuff when I came to fill in and drive. I got one locker. I try to organize. Leah’s a big organizer, so she taught me how to organize. Everything that I need to drive the car is in this one compartment here. So my helmets go on top up here. The backup helmet. We got different pairs of gloves up here. And literally I work down this cabinet system. Basically, on the top is the under gloves that we wear underneath our main gloves and ear buds, head socks. It’s basically like it would be for your body. Everything from top to bottom, and that’s how it’s been organized.”
So basically, he’s got multiple sections in the compartment, and it’s been organized from what he’ll be needing head to toe. In exactly that order. “So head socks, ear buds, under gloves go into the top drawer. Second drawer is where our hybrid goes, like the HANS device. In the next cabinet is all of our fireproof shirts, depending on what weekend and who the partners are… The bottom drawer has the pants and our socks. Got a couple of shoes in here. And that’s really what we have in that cabinet,” he added.
And folks, generally, NHRA drivers don’t have separate trailers as changing rooms. But that’s another advantage Stewart got taking after Leah. She, being a woman in the Tony Stewart Racing team, needed a separate changing space. And so what’s usually a machine shop in other teams was converted to “Leah’s lounge.” And now it’s Tony Stewart’s lounge. However, Leah has expressed her burning desire to come back, and Stewart is ready to give up his seat whenever she is ready.
“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,” Pruett said ahead of the 2025 NHRA season. Stewart, who was sitting right next to her during the interview, added, “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.” Stewart respects the legacy that Leah Pruett has built as an NHRA star. While he is glad to get some time doing what he loves, he knows that this seat truly belongs to his loving wife.
While Stewart gets his stuff organized in Leah’s manner while she’s away, he also came oh so close to notching up his first win!
Tony Stewart was seconds away from being a Top Fuel winner
As we previously discussed, the format is challenging. And to bring your best in every round is the biggest challenge of them all. And Smoke almost managed that at Lucas Oil In-N-Out Pomona Dragway in Pomona, Calif. However, Clay Millican got the best of him in the final round. At the most crucial moment in the event, his Dragster lost traction, leading him to lose the race.
And naturally, he was disappointed. “The day I get upset with losing is the day I retire from racing. But the team is upset because they want to win. These TSR crew guys have done an awesome job and have been very consistent. Especially this weekend, having three runs on Friday and four today, these guys busted their butts. There were no mistakes.” Well, one good news from this is that Stewart’s first Top Fuel win is just around the corner.
Even Stewart knows that. “We took down three big guys in a row, all former Top Fuel champions (Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta, and Shawn Langdon). To be the best, you have to beat the best. We just have to stay the course. We are improving, and things are going in the right direction. It is taking a little longer than I had hoped.” Even his fellow finalist, Millican, agreed, saying, “Tony Stewart is going to win one of these soon.”
What do you think of Tony Stewart’s NHRA campaign so far? Do you think he’ll win a few races this season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The post Watch: Tony Stewart’s Lends an Unseen Look Behind Wife Leah Pruett’s NHRA Legacy Amidst Harsh Yet Hilarious Lesson in Organizing appeared first on EssentiallySports.
