Tony Stewart reflects on building an NHRA Team for Leah Pruett from scratch amid crew and parts shortages

After dominating stock car racing, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart wanted to take on more challenges and built an NHRA team. Following the same, during an interview with POWERtube TV, Stewart recalled the time he built his team for his wife, Leah Pruett, amid crew and part shortages.

The 54-year-old former professional driver developed an interest in drag racing after he met his now-wife. Don Prudhomme introduced the couple via FaceTime, and they soon began dating in 2019. They tied the knot in November 2021 after getting engaged in March of the same year.

Leah Pruett also had a solid racing career and dominated the NHRA Series before she married Tony Stewart. Following the same, Stewart visited the drag strips often to see Pruett compete, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the former Cup Series champion found his calling and formed a drag racing team with two different divisions. Pruett raced in the Top Fuel ranks, and Matt Hagan was in the Funny Car division.

Recalling the challenges faced while forming his NHRA team in 2021, Tony Stewart stated:

"Neil Strauss Ball had the toughest job of anybody—taking and starting with literally himself and Leah and then having to build an entire team. And not only build an entire team but do it in a time when you couldn't get parts, you couldn't get pieces. Just trying to get enough stuff. And thanks to Don Schumacher—Don told me, 'I'm going to make sure you have everything to at least build one complete car, race-ready, ready to go'. So he made sure we bought enough parts from him to be able to do that." [10:14 onwards] "But it was hard. I mean, it was hard to find the parts just to build the backup car. So, for Neal to have to sit there and pick a co-crew chief, and Neil didn't even start trying to be the crew chief. Neil had every intention to be the co-crew chief on the car, but we couldn't find a crew chief," he added.

After the team's success, Leah Pruett announced a temporary hiatus from drag racing to focus on her family. While his wife is on a break, Tony Stewart filled her seat and clinched the Rookie of the Year title last year.

---

When Tony Stewart elucidated the key differences between the NHRA and Stock Car Racing series

In October 2024, the former Stewart-Haas Racing owner Tony Stewart was featured in the 'Happy Hour' podcast hosted by the 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick. During the interaction, Stewart touched upon the key differences between the two top-tier racing series.

The Columbus, Indiana, native revealed that the two series are completely different. He compared the race timing of the series and pointed out that NASCAR races last up to three to four hours, whereas NHRA series races generally end much quicker.

“It’s not like what you and I were used to, where we’ve got a three-and-a-half-hour race," Stewart said. "We’ve got six or eight pit stops throughout the day, and we have three, four, or five hundred laps to get the job done. If we make a mistake, we’ll fix it," Stewart said.

Tony Stewart also compared the engines of the cars in the two series. He claimed the drag racing series cars are built to run in straight lines and have around 11,000 horsepower packed in the engines. Meanwhile, the stock car racing series is designed to compete on oval tracks, and the engines are restricted to 650 horsepower.

Get the latest NASCAR All-Star race news, Xfinity Series updates, breaking news, rumors, and today’s top stories with the latest news on NASCAR.

Edited by Anisha Chatterjee