Retirement just does not suit the greats of any sport and the same can be said about Tony Stewart. Having clinched the NASCAR Cup Series Championship three times as a driver, and doing it once again as the owner of the team, it seems like racing never allowed the veteran to take a break. While he may have thought that full-time racing was long in the past, he has now been handed a fresh challenge by his wife Leah Pruett.

Pruett has decided to take a break from the 2024 Top Fuel season and as her replacement, it will be Stewart who will be leading the charge of the team. While racing might have been his long-running passion, this particular prospect is a tough challenge for even Stewart to take on.

Tony Stewart feeling the heat with a new challenge on the horizon

NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart is not new to drag racing. The 52-year-old has featured in the Top Alcohol Dragster division of NHRA drag racing. With Pruett finishing her year with a career-best third-place finish in NHRA, Stewart was seen as the right choice, at least in the eyes of his wife as well as crew chief Neal Strausbaugh. However, on the back of this decision, Stewart has come out and expressed his views, stating it was ‘maybe not the best judgment’ to rope him as the replacement.

Tony Stewart while speaking on the NHRA’s official YouTube channel said, “A very tough decision by my wife that I think is very courageous to go through her best season in NHRA Top Fuel Racing and decide that she wants to start a family in 2024. Maybe not the best judgment on her part as she and her crew chief voted me to fill in for her while she’s out. So, exciting moment for our family.

Stewart also spoke about how he will have to hit the reset button and embrace the learning curve. He added, “Now I’m going from having some confidence to being not very confident, being back at the bottom of the board again. So, it’s just gonna be a learning process, I mean you are always nervous about the things that you don’t know, this is going to be a very large learning experience, it’s gonna take time. It’s literally about just making runs and making laps and you know the more runs I can make the more comfortable I’m gonna get.”

Going toe to toe against the best racers may not terrify Tony Stewart much. However, the idea of entering parenthood is a frightening one even for the NASCAR Hall of Famer.

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Stewart says being a father is another challenge

With Leah Pruett announcing that she is going to start a family with Tony Stewart in 2024, the veteran driver has admitted that he finds the prospect of starting a family nerve-wracking.

Regarding his impending parenthood, Stewart said, “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 experience apparent, but I have a lot of experience driving and this is definitely one of the biggest jumps I’ve made in my driving career… And trying to learn how to be a father at the same time is just another challenge.”

2024 will be an eventful year for Tony Stewart. Overseeing his team Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, a replacement racer for his wife in the NHRA Top Fuel circuit, and the prospect of being a father, the veteran racer sure has his hands full.

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