Tony Stewart & Wife Leah Leave Fans Stunned With Another Twist in Racing Legacy

When Tony Stewart and NHRA star Leah Pruett announced they were expecting in June 2024, the motorsports world watched with eager anticipation. By June, they shared the news: a baby boy due in November. Four months later, on a wild NHRA Finals weekend, Pruett posted that at 4:43 a.m. on raceday, they welcomed Dominic James “Dom” Stewart, and Stewart promptly ping-ponged between the hospital and Pomona to race the same day before being named NHRA Rookie of the Year. By mid-2025, he was telling home-state media that fatherhood was “a blast” and that they almost wished they had done it sooner. That’s how the parenting journey began, and it has been taking an exciting turn ahead.

Asked point-blank what Dom’s path might be, Stewart surprised everyone by pumping the brakes on any prewritten script. In a March 2025 chat with Bubba the Love Sponge, Stewart said he and Pruett had already agreed: “we just want to let him choose his own path.” So yes, the kid has jet fuel in his veins, but it is clear that his father isn’t mapping out karting ladders yet. Different era, different expectations, same old Stewart honesty. Which brings us to the moment that turned this sweet backstory into a made-for-Indy vignette.

NASCAR insider, Kelly Krandall, captured Tony Stewart, in his NHRA firesuit, clutching a stuffed animal, trying to coax Dom to victory in a toddler race at Indianapolis in 2025. In her tweet, she sarcastically wrote, “If you had Tony Stewart in his NHRA fire suit holding a stuffed animal trying to get his son Dom to win the toddler race at Indianapolis in the year 2025, please collect your winnings.” A clip shared on Leah Pruett’s Instagram showed Dom in his red walker, wearing a blue jersey with “Stewart” across the back, while Stewart motivated him with a plush toy in hand.

Though Stewart has finished 10th in his own Top Fuel outing this weekend, the true highlight came when he stood at the finish line, plush toy ready, cheering Dom across. Even the official Stewart Racing account joined in posting, “Don’t blink! Dom Day! Getting some warmup laps in before the baby Walker Nationals at 2:30 pm! Watch Dom along the front wall in front of the grandstands.”

For Tony Stewart himself, 2025 has been a real Top Fuel campaign, not a cameo. Stewart grabbed a breakthrough win at Las Vegas in April, and then surged again at Route 66 in May, a run that put him atop the points at one stage before summer turned into the Indy homestretch. As of U.S. Nationals week, the official NHRA tally had him inside the top ten, hunting momentum before the Countdown. Meanwhile, Pruett’s own journey has begun looping back toward the lanes, with a June private test signaling her comeback ears are meshing again. The TSR Nitro camp is busy, balanced, and built for the long haul this season.

Because while the highlight today is a plush-toy pep talk, the arc stretches from Nelson Stewart turning the wrenches for a kid named Tony to Tony and Leah mapping a life where fans might one day see Dom if he chooses a lane. And fans can’t get enough of the sweet moment.

Racing community melts over the Stewart-Pruett parenthood duties

One fan’s succinct “Start’em young” zinger struck a perfect chord, echoing a motorsports ethos that has been proven time and again. Take Max Gordon, whose father, Robby, strapped a child-safety seat into off-road buggies so the two-year-old could ride along, and by age three, Max was driving a Polaris RZR and by six, racing go-karts. Or John Hunter Nemechek, who started in go-karts and quarter midgets at just five years old, ascending quickly through late models to NASCAR by his teens. Many fans think that it is the same case for the Stewart household as well.

Another fan added, “lol! I had Tripp Coughlin. Almost happened,” tapping into the beloved tradition at Indy of the Baby Walker Nationals, where derby-style race walkers become pint-sized motorsport stars. One of those entrants was Tripp Coughlin, son of Pro Stock standout T.J. Coughlin and sibling to former Baby Walker racer Aubrey. Though Trip didn’t cross the line first, he was among the five toddlers pushing customized walkers before the dads hit the dragstrip. These instances are wrapped in nostalgia for a family steeped in NHRA heritage stretching back to great-granddad Jeg Coughlin Sr.

One fan summed it up perfectly, saying, “Hope you got the stagger and the air pressure right on that ride.” In circle-track setups, stagger refers to the difference in circumference between the right and left-side tires, a tweak that helps a car naturally arc through corners. This cheeky comment just gives a nod to a nuanced balancing act that Stewart might want to take into consideration for his son’s racing future.

Some fans chimed in, saying, “Ayeee that’s not fair Where is Becks @BubbaWallace & also y’all should’ve waited till Baby @Blaney popped out.” With Bubba Wallace and his wife, Amanda, celebrating the birth of their first child, son Becks Hayden, in September 2024, and Ryan Blaney and his wife, Gianna, revealing that they are expecting their first child later this year, the NASCAR community will be highly anticipating the children fighting their own way into racing.

Another quipped in, saying, “When it comes to making families proud and drive a car Nothing beats a guy name Dom.” And it’s not just hyperbole, it speaks to a theme threaded through Tony Stewart’s journey: raising a son who already embodies the family-first ethos that defined Stewart’s own career.

Whether in Columbus, Indiana, where Stewart once shared a victory-lane embrace with his own family, or caught in candid posts from media outlets, all these instances highlight his affectionate paternity. The thread remains clear: this “Dom” has already driven deep pride into the Stewart family.