It was in December last year that Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett announced that she would be temporarily stepping away from the track. This decision was driven by her desire to start a family with Tony Stewart and in June the couple disclosed the due date and revealed the gender of their first child. So, Pruett prepared to fully embrace motherhood but the road to get to this point hasn’t been easy.

Pruett has competed in the Top Fuel since 2013 and has 12 NHRA Top Fuel national event wins to her name. Naturally, her long association with the sport meant the decision to get pregnant wasn’t made overnight and after carefully deliberating on what it meant while keeping her racing career in mind.

Embarking on a journey of parenthood with Tony Stewart, she bumped into roadblocks as a female racer. Pruett initiated the proceedings within the NHRA to allow women like herself to balance family planning and their careers. She pushed for an amendment to the NHRA’s Driver Replacement Policy to accommodate female racers’ needs. However, she could not help but talk about her own difficulties as well.

In a Q&A with NHRA on September 17, Leah Pruett was asked how was it to prepare for both racing and starting a family. She revealed, “I think the true realization for this was when I found the challenges in becoming pregnant weren’t as easy as, “Let’s try and get pregnant.” There were a lot of unknowns that you cannot schedule. My body needed time, and whether it was two months or six months or a couple of years, I couldn’t plan my life or my racing career because I didn’t know what my body was going to do.”

This decision was made all the more difficult by the fact that Pruett suffers from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disorder that prevents her thyroid from producing enough hormones. When she made the announcement to start a family, the drag racer wasn’t sure whether the condition would have an effect on her attempt to get pregnant.

“That plays a part into my health, which means I need more time to start a family. Hashimoto’s gives me a lot of challenges throughout the year in racing, and it took a lot to get that under control just to race, more or less under control to start a family,” she disclosed to the Associated Press in December.

Yet, she showcased her iron will and went ahead with the life-changing decision. In the interview, Pruett was further asked how the uncertainty around her racing career and own physical well-being impacted her decision. She answered, “It was a very uneasy time when you have something you’ve done your whole life, which is concern yourself with your team, your partners, your fans, and everything surrounding racing.”

Her decision to step away from racing and her team may have been eased to some extent knowing that her husband, will replace her in the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) team’s 11,000-horsepower Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel dragster. Still, after enjoying her best season to date with two wins and a third-place finish in the final Top Fuel points standings, Pruett needed to be sure things work out.

She added, “I had to make what I considered one of the hardest decisions of my entire life, and that was to not race in 2024, that I was going to double down and hopefully become pregnant with our treatments, and I hope that this works, and I don’t waste a year not being in the seat.” The decision did pay dividends.

In June, the couple confirmed the due date for November. In a post on X, Stewart also revealed that the newest member of their family will be a baby boy.

The post was accompanied by a pregnancy announcement graphic, which is a faux movie poster, which carries the image of their wedding day. The caption read, “I’m so excited to start a family with this incredibly beautiful love of my life @LeahPruett_TF. Can’t wait to meet this little guy. This is the ultimate trophy.” A video of the Tony Stewart Racing dragster churning out blue smoke with the words, “It’s a boy,” on the screen was also attached.

Evidently, Leah Pruett is facing motherhood with her head held high. And facing this challenge has allowed her to bring fairness to the overall sport as well.

Pruett pushed for NHRA policy change

Women racers having to start a family had to make the tough choice of either retiring from the sport, going on an extended break, or withdrawing from championship contention partway through a season. This meant their efforts for most of the season would go to waste and it might also mean an end to their racing career. But following a push for change from Pruett along with Erica Enders, Angie Smith, Julie Nataas, and others, the NHRA had to rework its policy for pregnant women.

Pruett mentioned the elaborate procedure followed to make this happen. She met with NHRA leadership like Glen Cromwell and Josh Peterson, and they invited the initiative. “I was very open and transparent about what all the possibilities are that females would be going through, whether it’s being able to even sit in a race car and fire it up. NHRA took it upon themselves, invested their time with many doctors and OB-GYNs across the country to get their professional opinion with the sport, to come out to the races, do the research, and they spent quality time on this policy.”

Under the revised policy, pregnant drivers can swap in a replacement driver partway through the season. It also allows the driver to return to the car through the year to compete for the championship. With the new system in place, the points from both the pregnant racer and their replacement driver would be compared and the higher total would be counted toward the season championship.

So the NHRA star has proved herself to be a valuable asset to the sport. While tackling her own challenges of motherhood, she also paved a revolutionary path for fellow female racers. Pruett will now be looking forward to June when she will welcome her first child into the world.