POMONA — Tony Stewart Racing, in its second year on the National Hot Rod Association circuit, had a Texas-sized party on Oct. 15 at the conclusion of the NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, located 35 miles south of Dallas. The Stewart team’s two drivers, Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan, had both won, Pruett in Top Fuel and Hagan in Funny Car.
“The scene was incredible,” Pruett said during a phone interview this week. “We partied in the winner’s circle for three hours. We handed out 100 cowboy hats. They went to our pit crew, family members, friends, sponsors, the general manager of the track and a few people I didn’t even know.”
The success in Texas set up the possibility of an even bigger celebration for Tony Stewart Racing on Sunday if Pruett and Hagan score a second double win at the 58th annual NHRA Finals at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. In-N-Out is also the event sponsor.
The NHRA Finals begin in earnest Friday with qualifying in Pro Stock starting at noon and Nitro (Top Fuel and Funny Car) at 1 p.m. The start times for Saturday’s qualifying rounds are the same. Sunday’s elimination rounds begin at 11 a.m.
At this, the final event of 21 on the 2023 NHRA schedule, championships will be decided in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock.
In Top Fuel, Steve Torrence is the leader, with veteran Doug Kalitta only 15 points behind. Pruett, despite losing in the first round of eliminations in Las Vegas two weeks ago, is only 34 points back. Torrence is seeking his fifth national title. Kalitta, 59, has never won a national title but has finished second six times. Pruett, 35, has won 12 events in her Top Fuel career, which dates to 2013, but no national titles.
Hagan, a 40-year-old drag racing veteran who owns a cattle ranch in Virginia, comes in as the Funny Car leader, but Bob Tasca III is only 15 points behind and Robert Hight trails by 17.
In Pro Stock, Erica Enders, on her way to her sixth national title, has a 114-point lead over Greg Anderson.
Tony Stewart announced the formation of his drag racing team in October 2021. The former NASCAR great picked Hagan as one of his drivers because of his stature in the sport.
Picking Pruett was a no-brainer. She and Stewart were engaged at the time. They got married a month later, on Nov. 21, in Cabo San Lucas. They now live on Tony’s ranch outside of Indianapolis and not far from his racing headquarters, with a second home in Lake Havasu, Ariz.
Stewart, in an earlier interview with the Southern California News Group, said he first met Leah through drag racing legend Don Prudhomme when they were all riding sand rails on the dunes around Glamis in the southeast corner of California.
Pruett’s passion for racing, where she drives an 11,000-horsepower dragster at speeds exceeding 330 mph over 1,000 feet in just over three seconds, comes from her father.
Ron Pruett was an auto racing competitor and enthusiast. In his self-modified 1988 Thunderbird, Ron Pruett in the 1990s set 12 land speed records at El Mirage Lake, a dry lake in the Mojave Desert, and Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
“Two of those records still stand,” Leah Pruett said.
Ron Pruett’s top speed was 250 mph. His daughter’s is 334.
Leah Pruett grew up in Redlands with speed and racing in her genes, dreaming of a career in some kind of racing, preferably drag racing.
She was 6 when she first went to the drag races in Pomona with her father and sister Lindsey. Two years later, Ron Pruett toiled in his automotive shop and built a junior dragster for his daughters that reached a top speed of 78 mph.
Not just a talented driver, Leah Pruett also has degrees in marketing and communications from Cal State San Bernardino.
With drag racing mainly supported by sponsors, Leah Pruett said she needed to know about marketing and the business side of the sport. As for her degree in communications, she said, “I was very uncomfortable being on camera and talking to the media. I knew I needed to improve those skills.”
Leah Pruett’s sister, Lindsey, is now a special education teacher in Yucaipa. Ron Pruett, who with his wife, Linda, eventually moved from Redlands to North Carolina, died unexpectedly in early 2021 at the age of 64.
But his legacy lives on in more ways than one. His record-setting land speed car was named Pretty Woman. Tony Stewart found the car, bought it and brought it to Indiana, where it serves as a reminder to Leah Pruett how and why she chose to become one of drag racing’s best.
NHRA FINALS
When: Friday to Sunday
Where: In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip
TV: FS1 (qualifying, Sunday, 11 a.m.; live finals, Sunday, 1 p.m.)
