Tony Stewart, in black shirt, talks with fans and driver Gunnar Setser, second from left, prior to Tuesday’s Three-Quarter Midget race at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
Tony Stewart and his wife Leah Pruett are having so much fun being parents, they kind of wish they’d have had a baby sooner.
Pruett gave birth to the couple’s first child, Dominic James Stewart, in November.
“I love it,” Tony Stewart said following Tuesday’s Three-Quarter Midget Race at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds. “I jokingly tell people, with the emphasis on, ‘joke,’ I said if I’d have known Leah and I were going to be where we are, I’d have got her knocked up on the first date because Dominic is unreal.”
Dominic now is 7 months old.
“He’s a very fun baby,” Tony Stewart said. “He’s very happy all the time. No different than any other parent, they struggle to get their kids to sleep through the night. That’s literally the only thing we have to complain about.
“When he’s awake, he’s absolutely awesome,” he added. “The kid doesn’t fuss about anything. He’s just a happy little kid all the time. He makes our jobs and life a lot easier. If you have a bad day at the track, you go back and you see him, and as soon as you walk in there, it takes about two seconds, and he smiles at you and you forget you had a bad day. He’s definitely a blessing.”
Stewart and Pruett, who are splitting their time between their homes in Columbus and Lake Havasu, Arizona, both are racing legends. Stewart is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who took over for Pruett in her NHRA Top-Fuel Dragster when Pruett became pregnant with Dominic.
Pruett may be ready for a return. She drove in a private test session hosted by Tony Stewart Racing Monday at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Meanwhile, Stewart won Top Fuel Rookie of the Year honors last season. He is leading the points standings this year. He red-lighted for the first time in his career Sunday in Virginia, but came back to reach the semifinals.
“We’re in a way better spot now than we were a year ago, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Stewart said. “We stubbed our toe this weekend in qualifying and got ourselves back behind the 8-ball, but made the most out of it to get to the semis. I’m impressed at how we dug ourselves out of the hole, but the hard part is not digging the hole to begin with. We’ll try to do better this weekend.”
Stewart, who competed in a Thursday Night Thunder Heroes Race Thursday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, is competing this is weekend in an NHRA event in Norwalk, Ohio.
