Motherhood is one of the best blessings anyone could ask for. Tony Stewart’s wife, Leah Pruett, has lived with racing as a constant heartbeat in her life long before motherhood entered the scene. Yet when their son Dominic was born last year, Leah faced a new reality. Stepping out from behind the wheel came with a complex mix of relief, identity challenges, and fresh perspectives. For a woman so “married to the game,” motherhood introduced unexpected dynamics, shifting how she sees racing and her place in it.

Leah Pruett is a bona fide NHRA legend, make no mistake about that. She has 18 NHRA National Series wins, 12 career Top Fuel wins, the first of which was a historic moment for the series, as she beat Brittany Force in the first all-female finals in Top Fuel since 1982. However, as she nurtures her son, 3x NASCAR Champion and husband Tony Stewart has stepped in for her. And while being swamped with baby duties, Pruett still manages to contribute to the success of Tony Stewart’s race team, while plotting her comeback.

How motherhood reshaped Leah’s relationship with racing

Backstage at racing’s most electrifying events, Leah Pruett has always been more than just a familiar face in the pits. With her paddock pass now sharing space with a new title, ‘Mom,’ fans and industry insiders alike have noted Leah’s recent absence from the NHRA circuit. In hushed trackside chatter, questions swirl about what motherhood truly means for a driver whose life has always unfolded at speeds over 300mph.

In a recent episode of the Good Game with Sarah Spain podcast, Leah Pruett explained that her decision to step away from full-time Top Fuel competition wasn’t just a personal milestone but a rare moment of transparency in pro motorsports. “It was a very difficult decision to make to step out of the seat…I’m very happy that I did,” Leah shared, describing her transition into motherhood after giving birth to son Dominic with husband Tony Stewart. She admits entering this phase without expectations, remarking on how she’d barely held a baby before her own, and how the intensity of balancing breastfeeding with pro-level stamina surprised her.

Leah stepped away from the NHRA circuit for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, focusing on raising her newborn without officially announcing a racing return for the current year. During her time off, Leah stayed connected as a technical advisor, spending time on advanced analytics, taking courses at MIT, and contributing to Tony Stewart Racing’s strategic performance with Converge Technology Solutions. As Leah said on the podcast, “I knew that being out of the seat that I might have an identity crisis complex… how am I going to deal with that? So, I took courses at MIT for decision making, machine learning, and have been working with Converge Technology Solutions on some programs for our team to help our performance optimize tuning.”

Fans caught glimpses of her returning for a private test session in Virginia in June 2025, where she clocked multiple successful practice runs in her familiar No. 14 TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster, an emphatic statement that “Racer Leah” and “Mom Leah” could coexist. Despite the physical and emotional challenges, Leah underscored her sense of fulfillment, saying, “I live, travel, work, race, have fun with my husband day in and day out… I don’t feel like there’s this wild void because I’m so ingrained in it.”

Then, Leah dropped a teaser for all her fans for her return to the racetrack! Pruett continued, “Married to the game all the way… Drag racing is my life… We’re [Leah and Tony] a planning people. Just cause the races are fast, we don’t make fast decisions, and that’s part of, as you guys will see probably in the near future, what the next decision will be.” If it wasn’t obvious by now, we haven’t seen the last of Leah Pruett as a Top Fuel icon, and going by her confidence, the best is yet to come.

Leah’s racing career

Since stepping away from full-time NHRA Top Fuel competition following the 2023 season, Leah Pruett’s direct presence on the drag racing circuit may have diminished, but her impact has not. She remains one of the most successful female Top Fuel drivers of the last decade. Her best season saw her finish fourth in the championship standings, while her most recent competitive campaign in 2022 earned her an 11th-place points finish.

After a headline-making private test in Virginia for Tony Stewart Racing following the NHRA Nationals, Leah signaled readiness but not a definite timeline for a competitive return. She emphasized maintaining her NHRA license and staying aligned with the team, driving Tony’s car for several performance test passes in grueling summer track conditions and receiving strong fan support online during these practice outings.

Tony Stewart hailed the same in a previous interview and highlighted how, despite having a kid to look after, Leah Pruett is managing both motherhood and racing exceptionally well. “This week, and having Dominic here and we have help, obviously. Leah has huge responsibilities, not only as a mom and a babysitter for me, but now, you know, on top of that, she plays a very crucial role with the race team. She doesn’t just sit around. She’s not sitting on her hands all day away from the kid. She’s working in this pit. So she has a full schedule and we have help with Dominic here, and it’s gone really, really well,” said Tony.

As the Stewart family enjoys the wonders of parenthood, Top Fuel fans can only wait for Leah to return to the seat and dazzle us once again. Until then, Smoke is not doing too shabby of a job himself, notching up wins as he takes to a new motorsports discipline with ease.