GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tony Stewart walked into the interview room a little late and quickly blamed his wife.
“Her fault,” he quipped.
Stewart flashed the same kind of reaction time that made him a top contender in NHRA last year, just his third full-time season in drag racing.
The three-time NASCAR champion and 1997 IndyCar champ won the NHRA’s regular-season title in the Top Fuel class while filling in for wife Leah Pruett at Tony Stewart Racing. Pruett stepped away for two years while they began a family; she gave birth to son Dom in November 2024.
Now Pruett is back, reclaiming the seat Stewart kept warm for consecutive seasons. Stewart, though, liked being behind the wheel so much that he is now driving for a competitor, Elite Motorsports, setting the stage for a husband-wife showdown on any given race weekend.
“I’m excited to see what these two do back and forth this year, whether they stay married or not,” said Matt Hagan, who drives for TSR in the Funny Car class. “It’s going to be interesting. … I’m just going to get my popcorn."
The show begins at the season-opening Gatornationals, where Pruett and Stewart could wind up in opposite lanes during bracket-style eliminations Sunday. It’s also possible — highly unlikely — they could go the entire year and not get paired against each other.
“I don’t care if it’s her or anybody else, I want to put my foot on their throat ’til their face turns blue and beat them to the other end,” Stewart said Friday. “And that’s what our job is. That’s what she wants to do if we have to race against each other.”
After two rounds of qualifying Friday, Pruett was penciled in as the No. 3 seed in the 16-car field, with Stewart at No. 5. They have two more qualifying runs Saturday before the elimination bracket is set.
Stewart and Pruett, along with Dom, have spent nearly 40 days in Florida. They tested setups and logged countless passes at drag strips in Bradenton and Gainesville. They traveled to Daytona International Speedway so Stewart could enter his first NASCAR race since 2016; he crashed and finished next to last in the Truck Series opener. They returned to Daytona Beach last weekend for the start of Bike Week.
It was all part of the lead-up to Pruett’s much-anticipated return — and a budding in-house rivalry.
“It’s more renew than new,” said Pruett, who finished a career-best third in points in 2023. “This is like old hat to a degree. I have to remind myself of that. My brain wants to absorb all of what is new and everything that we’re feeling and seeing. But I need to have that mature, emotional mindset of, yes, it’s all new, but it’s just the same.
“So let’s just pick up where we’re at in 2023 and move on. And that’s the comfortable feeling that I have.”
Facing off against Stewart could be uncomfortable, at least the first time and for a few minutes leading into the race.
Stewart said they have talked about it so much during the offseason that they even briefly considered side-by-side practice runs to alleviate some of the anxiety.
But they opted to wait. Stewart now looks at the potential matchup as a win-win scenario, with either him or his car advancing.
His approach, though, remains unchanged.
“You guys can glamorize this all you want and waste everybody’s time. She’s another driver with another helmet on, with another fire suit and another race car in the opposite lane, no different than any other run,” he said. “And that’s the way she has to treat it. That’s the way I have to treat it.
“I hate to burst everybody’s bubble. Everybody wants to write this big, flowery, fluffy story. And I don’t give a (damn) about it. I’m going to go race. I don’t care if it’s her or anybody else. And it’s no disrespect to her. I love her to death. We’re going to race each other at some point. Whenever it happens, it happens. It’s going to be great for you guys. It doesn’t do anything for me personally.”
One thing Stewart made clear: no matter what happens on the track, it won’t affect their relationship.
“At the end of the year, no matter who wins or loses, we will still be married,” he said. “Not in pencil, put that in ink. That is set in stone, so nothing’s going to change there.”
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
