Stewart is not a man known for caution. This is, after all, someone who raced sprint cars on dirt tracks the night before NASCAR Cup events, drove an IndyCar and a stock car in the same weekend, and built a career on doing what others wouldn’t dare. So, if Tony Stewart is plotting escape routes before pulling a prank, you know he means business about the threat on the other end.

Appearing on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Stewart let slip a little-known detail about his wife that explains exactly why his famous prankster streak comes with a very specific set of ground rules at home.

“She took up boxing in her teenage years, so she is very quick on reaction at home. So, I make sure when I pull the air horn prank on her that I am out of arm’s length and in a safe spot.”

Well, that seems to be a safe practice. In a compilation of videos posted on social media a few weeks earlier, Stewart could be seen startling his wife with an air horn in unsuspecting locations. And per Stewart, he has been extremely successful till now- which is fair enough considering that Pruett spilled water on herself on one occasion.

“I’m sitting on a perfect record…What do you say, chat? Should I attempt to go 4 for 4? ” Stewart wrote on Facebook.

The admission drew a swift and predictable response from Harvick, who has never been one to let a good moment pass without adding fuel to the fire.

“If you keep that horn out and all of this blowhorn stuff, you might get a left hook to the face,” Kevin Harvick warned him – himself no stranger to backstage mischief.

Harvick and Stewart have been friends and rivals for over two decades, and if anyone knows how far Stewart can push a joke, it’s the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion. With that, he also knows that Pruett’s reflexes are not to be tested.

Leah Pruett has been racing in motorsports since the age of 8 in the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League. She has logged nearly 27 consecutive seasons of NHRA competition in Nostalgia Funny Car, Pro Modified, and finally Top Fuel.

And a Top Fuel dragster goes a quarter mile in about 3.6 seconds and speeds north of 330 mph. At those speeds, a driver’s reaction time at the starting line is in hundredths of a second. Now add in the fact that her reflexes were sharpened early on as a teenager, and Tony Stewart’s careful positioning before each prank becomes completely logical.

Pruett’s NHRA profile has also listed her hobbies as wake surfing, snowboarding, volleyball, archery, mountain biking, and fitness. Clearly, she has a comprehensive physical toolkit. Boxing, it turns out, was simply the foundation.

Leah Pruett reflects on returning to racing after two years

After a two-year break to start a family, Leah Pruett recently returned to racing in the NHRA Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway in March. Reflecting on the same, she told Harvick:

“I think what surprised me most from the driveability of the car is how fast I got my processing speed up to speed[…]I thought I would be further behind. I thought it would take more laps”.

Now, with the NHRA tour heading to South Georgia Motorsports Park for this weekend’s Southern Nationals, Leah Pruett is one of the few competitors who has prior experience at the newly added venue.

She has been on track for several test sessions in different types of cars. Although none of those runs were in a Top Fuel dragster, the familiarity with the surface and conditions could help as she continues to chase her first victory of the NHRA’s 75th anniversary season.

Pruett also had a strong showing at Charlotte, making the final quad and coming home third – her second final round in the last three events. However, Pruett, currently third in the standings after her No. 1 qualifying run at Pomona, is still not satisfied with the results she’s pulling off.

“That’s the hard part of drag racing is exactly the same as when I left. I just thought since I’d been working on it for a little while that I would come out of the hole a little bit better.”

At SGMP, she’ll be looking to challenge points leader and reigning champ Doug Kalitta, who is coming off his second win of the season in Charlotte. However, the rest of the field won’t make it easy for her. Pruett will enter a loaded Top Fuel field with Shawn Langdon, her husband, racing legend Tony Stewart, Justin Ashley, Clay Millican, Tony Schumacher, and four-time world champion Antron Brown.