Pruett, the Top Fuel side of Tony Stewart Racing is winless, 14th in points so far this season.
- Leah Pruett is winless through four races, heading into this weekend’s NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.
- The nine-year Top Fuel veteran finds herself in rather unfamiliar territory with Tony Stewart Racing at 14th place in the standings after finishing in the top seven the past six seasons over at Don Schumacher Racing.
- Two-time Funny Car champion Hagan, who is also new to TSR after moving over from Don Schumacher Racing, has found what Pruett is still missing.
Leah Pruett’s 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season has a different look to it from a year ago on oh so many fronts.
The 33-year-old Top Fuel star and nine-time Top Fuel winner is now married to Tony Stewart, who just happens to be her racing boss at newly formed Tony Stewart Racing. However, what seemed like a racing match made in heaven has not exactly clicked on the race track.
Pruett is winless through four races, heading into this weekend’s NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas. The nine-year Top Fuel veteran finds herself in rather unfamiliar territory at 14th place in the standings. She’s much more used to looking for her name in the top half of the standings, having finished in the top seven in the points in each of the last six seasons.
Pruett was even within shouting distance of an elusive first Top Fuel championship from 2018 through 2020 when she finished fourth in the standings each of those three years with Don Schumacher Racing.
But if Pruett is panicking in the early going of 2022, she’s certainly not showing it. OK, check that. There was that one short-lived temper tantrum in her lounge after a rare first-round knockout earlier this year in Phoenix.
Leah Pruett is enjoying the new digs at Tony Stewart Racing, but the results have yet to come.
NHRA/National Dragster
“If anybody has ever been in my lounge—and I share it with the crew guys—my lounge looks like high school,” Pruett said. “I’ve got so many collages, pictures of my wins, taped up on the back side of my door, along with pictures that fans give me. And after Phoenix, where we lost—flat out 100 percent my fault—I was just so upset because I hadn’t figured out a solution to get me right yet.
“Tony was up there with me, and we were talking. First we talk as husband and wife, then we talk about our next step and what do we need to do. I was so mad, and only mad at myself, and so mad and disappointed for the team that I ripped down all of my collages of the all the wins that I had. Tony said, “Stop doing that! Don’t do that!
“He knows exactly what I was doing. I’ve seen him do similar things before. I needed a reset.”
Pruett said that Tony simply explained to her that those pictures she just ripped down proved to her that she could still win. She’s done it before and could do it again.
“I said, ‘I have done it, but that was yesterday, and clearly what I’ve been doing now isn’t working for me!” Pruett said. “I didn’t throw the collages away, but they’re still in my locker and I have a very bare lounge now. Every time I see (the bare wall), I’m like, I need to fill it up. It’s time to win.”
While Pruett is clearly struggling with her new surroundings at TSR, her current and former teammate Matt Hagan is thriving on the Funny Car side. The three-time series Funny Car champion looks like he’ll be in the thick of the championship discussion all season.
“The transition for me has been seamless because I was able to bring my entire crew over, my crew chief that I’ve been with that we’ve won multiple championships with,” Hagan told Autoweek. “Other than one crew guy and a place swap, we pretty much have the same team we’ve had for multiple years. For me, our transition has been seamless because of that, and she’s had to pretty much build an entire new team.”
Leah Pruett has a new car, new parts, new crew members and new start at Tony Stewart Racing.
NHRA/National Dragster
Hagan, who is also moving over from Don Schumacher Racing, thinks he knows what’s missing with Pruett’s performances in the early going this season.
And it’s nothing that a few more racing weekends with a new team can’t fix.
“For me, trust is earned.” Hagan said. “You don’t just give someone your trust. They have to earn your trust. You got to trust that your guys are going to put the rods together and torque them right, or the cylinder head guy has got to make sure its run down right and not burn a head off and catch you all on fire and stuff like that.
“So, I jump in my race car knowing that these guys have earned my trust of the years and that I’m focused on just one thing—leaving the starting line and keeping it in the groove. When you start over with a new team—and that’s with anybody and not just Leah—that trust has to be earned and it’s not given. It’s earned over a matter of time, over a matter of races, over a matter of round wins, over a matter of a lot of stuff.
“And, so, honestly I feel like what Leah is doing and where that team is at—I know maybe it doesn’t reflect in the points or whatever—but I think that, honestly, for a brand new start-up team with new parts and new pieces and new people that still have to earn her trust and she still has to earn their trust, I think honestly it’s pretty exceptional what they’re doing.”
Hagan has been on both sides of that trust equation.
Tony Stewart, left, and Matt Hagan
NHRA/National Dragster
“I remember when I started my first time, and I was still learning to drive the race car and had new people and all this other stuff,” Hagan said. “There were a million things running through my head. Now, nothing runs through my head.
“You get in, do your job, put your mouthpiece in, and kick their throat in. All that other stuff has to go away first.”
Pruett put her best foot forward when asked why she thinks she’s not having the same good fortune as her teammate from DSR in their new surroundings.
“There’s not one thing I’m looking at as to why aren’t we having the same results,” Pruett said. “For one, Matt has the same equipment he had last year. When you have the same equipment, and you know it’s running properly, you have the opportunities to improve it and look back at your notes. We are a team with, like, no notes.
“We are running a much different chassis. So how it moves, how it flexes, weight transfer, all that is brand new to us. It’s different—nothing that we’ve had in the last five years, let’s say that.
“Our performance pieces, we don’t know where their power band lies. We’re in school right now. We’re in training with our team. (And if that’s where we are), Matt has graduated college, he’s out there, he’s got a career. We’re still learning our parts and pieces. I will say that my team has far exceeded my expectations for how well we gel. That’s not something we have to work out.
“Our chemistry is there. It’s now just just the physical win lights have yet to come on. We’re really close.”
Keyword: Matt Hagan Knows What's Wrong with Struggling NHRA Star Leah Pruett