Back in June, the rumor mill was working overtime, churning out a juicy but [sort of] baseless story about Tony Stewart and Leah Pruett planning a baby. Tony quickly set the record straight, debunking the tale with a tweet: “Despite a headline in a recent article, [Lead Pruett] is not pregnant and I am not ‘freaked out’. Our lives are the same now as when we started this season. Thanks… carry on.”

Fast forward to today, and it looks like the couple is seriously considering adding a little one to their pit crew. Tony Stewart, gearing up to take the wheel for his wife in the NHRA, opened up about his thoughts on embarking on the journey of parenthood. He was seen being candid about the butterflies in his stomach at the prospect of starting a family.

Tony Stewart on the thrills of racing vs. the thrills of fatherhood

When Leah Pruett decided to hit the brakes on racing to start a family, Tony Stewart revved up to fill her shoes in the upcoming season. He’s not just taking the wheel; he’s juggling a whole garage of responsibilities with Stewart-Haas Racing in NASCAR, the Tony Stewart Racing sprint car team, the Superstar Racing Experience all-star series, and owning a slew of grassroots race tracks across the U.S. But when it comes to what really gets his heart racing – steering a top fuel dragster or the prospect of fatherhood – Tony admits it’s the latter that sends his pulse sky-high.

His reasoning? “I’ve come to a solution on that- I’m way more scared about starting a family. I can barely take care of myself. I’ve joked around- I’m like, if this kid can make it to, if and when that happens, if this kid can make it to three years, hold on its own, it’s got a shot at surviving. So, I don’t have any experiences apparent, but I have a lot of experience driving and this is definitely one of the biggest jumps I’ve ever made in my driving career. But at least I have a little bit of an idea what to expect and what’s going on the family side of it. I’m still learning how to try to be an average husband at best at this point. And trying to learn how to be a father at the same time is just another challenge.”

For Tony Stewart, stepping into his wife’s racing shoes was a decision made not just by him but also by Pruett and her crew chief, Neal Strausbaugh, after they scoured the market for a suitable replacement. His modest aim is “to not suck, to not get fired by my wife, and to not kill myself driving this thing,” he said, half-jokingly, after announcing his new role.

Pruett, a powerhouse on the track with two wins this season in the Dodge Top Fuel dragster for Tony Stewart Racing – which also bagged the Funny Car championship with Matt Hagan – has a commendable 12 Top Fuel victories to her name. Despite this, she was clear that her decision to take a pit stop in 2024 to focus on family was set in stone early this year and wasn’t hinging on whether she clinched the Top Fuel championship. Stewart himself took on the full NHRA season in 2023 in the Top Alcohol Dragster class.

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Pruett also shared her battle with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition that messes with her thyroid hormone production. She’s currently unaware about how this might affect her pregnancy plans. Furthermore, she spotlighted the unique hurdles female racers face, underscoring that the challenges aren’t the same across the board for men and women in the racing world.

Leah Pruett sheds light on the unique hurdles for female racers

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In a heart-to-heart with the Associated Press, the beloved wife of Tony Stewart, Leah Pruett shared some insights that hit close to home. She highlighted that the clock waits for no one, and it’s especially unforgiving when you’re a woman behind the wheel. Pruett emphasized that the challenges she faces aren’t one-size-fits-all; they’re uniquely skewed because of her gender. As a top-notch NHRA top-fuel dragster racer, she’s convinced that her decision to pause her racing career for family life is not just a leap of faith but a well-considered long-term plan.

Pruett mused, “Time is not on anyone’s side, and time is not gender neutral. But when it comes to being a female and a female racer, time is particularly not on your side. One of the decision-making factors was, ‘What do we want our life to look like when we have a family?’ And it is easy to sit back and have the immediate view that we’ve got this killer race team and we can do what we didn’t do this year, which is win a championship. But stepping back and thinking about long term and what our family looks like, it was just the right time at the right decision.”

Read More: Tony Stewart Steps in Wife’s Shoe for the NHRA Season as the Power Couple Prepare To Start a Family

Well, apparently, it turns out the June buzz wasn’t entirely off the mark. As Pruett reveals, the decision to start a family was already on the table earlier this year. So, it seems like Tony Stewart might have just let the cat out of the bag a bit early, hinting at their plans to expand their family sooner rather than later.