Tony Stewart Ready To Take On New Challenges Post NASCAR, Including Parenthood

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INDIANAPOLIS — Earlier this year it was announced that Stewart-Haas Racing would be shutting down operations in a move that many, quite honestly, did not see coming.

Despite 100 race victories (precisely) between the NASCAR Cup Series (69), Xfinity Series (28), Craftsman Truck Series (1), and ARCA Menards Series West (2), co-owner Tony Stewart, a native of Columbus, Indiana, and a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, said the finances were just not there for the team.

“The situation we are in, we really didn’t have a choice,” Stewart told Query and Company on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. “We ultimately did, but Gene (Haas) was going to have to write a check that I wasn’t willing to ask him to write honestly.”

Gene Haas is the other namesake of the team who has been in auto racing for many years and even owns the lone American F1 team. Behind in budget and some of his sponsorship partners choosing not to return for the upcoming season, Stewart made the decision to part ways with Haas and shut the current iteration of the team down.

“Both Gene’s group and our group decided to shut it down, and then Joe Custer does what Joe Custer does. He’s a motivator and he convinced Gene to keep one of the charters to put Cole (Custer) back in the car next year,” Stewart said.

So, the team will still head into the next NASCAR season known as the Haas Factory Team with only one car. But Stewart’s future lies elsewhere, and it happens to be drag racing.

It’s something he has been getting more and more invested in in the last few years, even starting his own drag racing team with his wife Leah Pruett, an accomplished drag racer in her own right.

Pruett has been out of the cockpit for the last year as she and Tony prepare to welcome a baby boy. With Pruett out on maternity leave, it was up to Tony to step into her Top Fuel dragster, maybe only a year after having learned how to drag race in the first place.

“I’ll be honest I’m scared to death,” Stewart half-jokingly said. “When we made the announcement here in Indy at the PRI show in December that Leah was going to step out of the car, I told everyone I wasn’t sure if I was more scared of starting a family or driving an 11,000 horsepower car that I wasn’t used to driving yet. Then the more people I talked to I said ‘I’m screwed either way on this.’

He said his wife, Leah, gave him a unique perspective on parenthood.

“She said ‘Well, crackheads do it all the time, and their kids mostly turn out fine’,” he paraphrased.

Stewart does not plan to stay in the car long for his racing team as the goal is to have Pruett back racing once their son grows up a bit.

“She still to this day says she’s getting back in the car, which makes me happy,” said Stewart. “If I even hear her talk like she’s not getting back in the car I’m not going to be very happy about it. I want my wife in a race car. It’s her passion.”

Outside of those plans, Tony Stewart said he is simply happy to be in this part of his life.

“It’s kind of nice not to have a plan for everything and just call audible as you go. We’ll just play the Peyton Manning route, we’ll just walk up to the line and call the shots,” Stewart said.

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The post Tony Stewart Ready To Take On New Challenges Post NASCAR, Including Parenthood appeared first on 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan .