Tony Stewart and wife Leah Pruett welcome baby boy as the NASCAR champion lands for the NHRA finals
Former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart has reached two significant milestones this weekend. He is competing in the NHRA season finale as a Top Fuel rookie, while also celebrating the birth of his son with wife Leah Pruett.
Stewart is a 53-year-old professional racecar driver who debuted in the Top Fuel category this year, running the 11,000-horsepower No. 14 TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT dragster. He is filling in as a substitute for Leah Pruett, who is on maternity leave after the birth of their first child, Dominic James Stewart.
Tony Stewart Racing Nitro, the driver’s NHRA team, took to X (formerly Twitter) and welcomed Stewart as he landed in California for the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals held at Pomona Dragstrip.
“@TonyStewart lands back at @PomonaDragstrip as a new dad,” the team wrote.
After the qualifying session, Stewart flew to see his wife and newborn before returning to the drag strip for the race. The team congratulated the couple for becoming new parents, saying:
“Meet our new teammate, Dominic James Stewart Momma @LeahPruett_TF and baby are doing great. Congratulations LP and @TonyStewart on becoming new parents! Only Tony could pull off qualifying, rushing to Phoenix to make it in time for the delivery, then back to @PomonaDragstrip for race day. Let’s go win Dominic a [champion].”
While Stewart missed out on the championship fight, he is a candidate to win the Top Fuel Rookie of the Year award. The title contenders are Justin Ashley, Antron Brown, Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence, Doug Kalitta, Clay Millican, Brittany Force, and Tony Schumacher.
Tony Stewart revealed why he walked away from NASCAR
Tony Stewart shared why he decided to leave NASCAR, a league he found huge successes in, including winning three championships. He said NASCAR wasn’t the same as it used to be during his time and that his priorities were changing.
For context, Stewart-Haas Racing, a team co-owned by Stewart, shut its operations at the end of the 2024 season. In turn, the 53-year-old is no longer affiliated with NASCAR after almost three decades competing in the league as a driver and owner.
Speaking with former teammate Kevin Harvick, Stewart said:
"I don't know if it's even bittersweet, it's more bitter than sweet I feel like. It's a tough decision but things in life change, your priorities change, and variables outside of your control change as well. You and I have been around for a long time, it [NASCAR] is not what it used to be.” [19:50]
Tony Stewart cited the ongoing lawsuit battle between 23XI/Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR as one of the reasons why he didn’t want to be part of the league anymore. He added:
"This is a time where things are drastically changing in the sport, you look at what is going on 23XI and Front Row Motorsports, right now with their battle with NASCAR and the direction the things are going. Its not a direction that I want to be a part of. This is the right time, this was never a part of a masterplan, as this year has gone on, this has become very clear that this the right time for me to get out of the sport. There's things that I see that I definitely don't like.”
Although Stewart is out of NASCAR, he is still active in the world of motorsports. The Indiana native is now competing in drag racing, a format in which a race ends in seconds, as opposed to driving around in ovals for hours in NASCAR.