Tony Stewart is a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and he's got some big news this week, as he will once again venture into full-time racing in 2024.
Stewart will jump behind the wheel in the NHRA drag racing series. He will take over the seat of his wife Leah Pruett, as she will step aside from the sport after 27 years of racing to start a family.
Stewart let the world know the big news via his X page.
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.@TSRnitro pic.twitter.com/lbvv4xYLm1
— Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) December 7, 2023
"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," Stewart wrote. "I'm humbled Leah & Neal Strausbaugh felt I was the driver to fill in for her."
Pruett told the Associated Press that one of the biggest factors behind stepping away was her age and she and Stewart want to start a family.
"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," Pruett said. "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 the long term and what our family looks like, it was just the right time at the right decision."
Stewart is about to take on a huge challenge, as he will be behind the wheel of a Top Fuel Dragster, and he will be racing against the best of the best. Stewart is no stranger to racing against the best given his success in IndyCar and NASCAR and dirt racing.
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He has a great team around him, given he owns Pruett's car, which she won two races with in the 2023 season.
Stewart has proven he can win in anything he gets in, now fans will get a chance to see him every week in the NHRA.
