Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Tony Stewart & Leah Pruett Interview

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Kevin Harvick sits down with racing legend Tony Stewart and his wife, NHRA star Leah Pruett, for a can’t-miss interview. The couple opens up about Tony’s scary wreck at Maple Grove Raceway, with Tony sharing what it felt like and Leah describing her reaction. Tony even compares the crash to NASCAR wrecks from his career. The conversation shifts to life off the track as Tony and Leah reflect on parenthood since welcoming their baby boy, Dominic, in November 2024. They discuss how becoming parents has changed their lives, what their racing plans look like for 2026 — including racing against each other — and what they envision for Dominic’s potential future in motorsports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, you've crashed under 100 miles an hour. You've crashed over 100 miles an hour. You've crashed over 200 miles an hour. Now over 300 miles an hour. It's probably enough. Breathe a sigh of relief and just go, what just happened? Has it been your face yet? Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox.

And today we have two great friends, Tony, Leah. Thanks for taking the time today to fill us in on life. I guess that's the, that's the, that's the, That's the only way I know how to start this conversation because I feel like that you guys go as much as Delaney and I do all over the place. But thanks for taking the time. No, thanks for having the. Of course. Thank you.

So I guess the first question, the first question is tell me about this wreck. Yeah, definitely not what I saw in the playbook for Sunday by any means. But, yeah, we, you know, Doug Coletta, we raced together clear back in the 90s and USAC. in sprint cars and you know Doug wins a championship we went a championship the next year against him and then he goes drag racing and we go the NASCAR route and don't see each other again till uh literally till COVID and I see her see Doug racing with Leah and uh but we've been good friends and and have a lot of respect for each other and Doug's literally the last guy you would think would that you'd ever have to worry about on anything it was weird though with the way that that wing

drop like that in the front? Well, he's, and I, it's still under review, yes. Exactly what came first. Yeah. Essentially, the, you know, whether it lost a valve stem or whether the tire got cut, the tire ended up coming apart, getting the A arm, and drop that corner on the ground. And when it did that, it just drags Doug's car across the center line to us.

And the way our cars are, the windshields don't come all the way back to your peripheral vision. So it's out further because you're, Run 300 miles an hour. You don't need to know what's directly 90 degrees. You don't need to know what's in your blind spot. Right. So I don't even seem coming. And when I climb his wheel, it gets up and looking at it on video, I'm glad it didn't get over the wall. If it got over the wall, it was going to be a much larger crash. But, you know, we made contact at 240 miles an hour. Holy crap. So that's definitely the fastest crash. Somebody had put something online and said, well, you've crashed under 100 miles an hour. You've crashed over 100 miles an hour. You've crashed over 100 miles. an hour. You've crashed it over 200 miles an hour. Now over 300 miles an hour. It's probably enough. Yeah. So I'm with them. I don't really want to crash anymore. But yeah, it just was a crazy

circumstance. And, you know, I think it's the great thing that I have learned and enjoy about drag racing is that we don't, you don't have that driver rivalry like what we had in NASCAR and Indy car and sprint cars and other forms of motorsports because you're literally running in your lane. So when something like that happened, somebody had a problem. Something happened, but, you know, the second words out of my mouth when they got to me were, is Doug okay? And Doug, all he cared about was, was I okay. And I think that's, that's a statement to what camarader we have in NHRA that we've really, we've had in other forms of motorsports, but there's, you know, this is after a run. We both lost cars that we're trying to race in a six race countdown to try to win a championship.

So that was a big drama for both of us. What'd you think about all that? Have you wrecked anything like that? I, yes, in 2020, you know, a wonderful year of COVID. I had a fly-high situation of my chassis broken half at about 200 feet. Same thing. Tony's on the starting line. I'm in the car. You just see like a plume of smoke and debris. And you don't know what's happening. I was okay, thanks to our safety apparatuses. But I was on the starting line when they're running. And for those that aren't following in HRA points, I think Doug was in third at that point.

Tony's in first. And so this is second round of the first race of the countdown. So each round is like so much is on the line. And you know, you're watching. And from the starting line, you're trying to figure out which car is getting small quicker, right? Which one's more ahead? So they reach the finish line. And for all of us, our eyes go to the scoreboard. What do we run? What, you know, where are the blue lights for the wind, saw that we didn't win. And then all of this massive smoke. And then first thing I heard over the PA was, oh, and their parachutes are tangled and dug it's into Tony. And then it's just pure silence and I go to radio check Tony and um silence silence nothing there and then of course I don't have a scooter because we'd parked so close to the staging lanes and was able to get a ride

down with Tim Wilkerson and again there's no there's nothing on the radio that I'm hearing from our team from Tony so just you know trying to think of the best case scenario definitely not the worst but then as I'm going down the side of the race track I start seeing some debris and I'm like those are our body panels those are our Rennai stickers that's and then I come up to Doug's car and Doug's car sideways and Doug is already out and then Tony's is a little bit farther down and Tony was already out and I mean then you just breathe a sigh of relief and just go what just happened. Tony's asking me what just happened and I'm like I have no idea the jumbo tron was way behind me and man from there you've got two incredible race machines that are now out of commission

and Doug that's a testament to their team they turned around got their spare car out within 60 minutes were in the next round, I believe won the next round and went to the final, but we would have had to do the exact same thing given if we won that round and we were also prepared to. So it's very scary, but it's part of what you subscribe for, I guess, like a small percentage of it. But yeah, I don't. Let's not do that anymore.

You know, we'll wreck or something. And that's always the conversation. If you're going to race, you're going to wreck. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great lesson for all the people who are pretty. slack on their on their safety stuff i see it time and time again and keelan wears me out he's like dad i don't understand why we change all this stuff so much i don't understand why you're so concerned

about my head height or my insert because he grows like a freaking weed yeah so you got to change the stuff all the time and and it takes a couple hours to pour the insert every time you do it i said you're not you're not preparing for every day you're preparing for that one moment for it to be right that's right it's and it's i think people forget that it's not the scenario that we're planning It's the right somebody else's scenario that we can't plan for that right and that was a perfect example of it Sunday. I mean, Doug's the last guy I would worry about. I mean, I'd have more confidence because of our history together. And so when that happened, even when you find out that we both crashed into each other, you're like, you know, I know whatever happened wasn't because he did something wrong. Yeah, it's something happened.

Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't me banging into the side of you because I was pissed off at you or something. No, and you can see Doug's right front. He's got to. it turned trying to get trying to not go over that center i mean immediately it's still at 300 miles an hour trying to make sure he doesn't hit tony so what was the difference in a nascar wreck compared to a compared to a was that the first time you'd crashed it that's the first time i've crashed anything in drag racing but really took those small nap so i really don't have a clear answer for that but literally knowing what i feel like this week i mean we've crashed hard at you know i crashed in your car at Charlotte and Saturday, did the same thing on Sunday in the cup car, blowing two tires out,

felt worse than what I feel this week. The biggest thing is just the fact that I banged my head a little bit. And you're old, and I'm old. Thanks for reminding you. I'm old too. You are old. We're both old now. So every time that something happens, we could fall down the stairs and hurt ourselves

worse than we probably could in the race car. Exactly. But it's, yeah, I think that was probably the bigger concern was I banged my head and took a really short nap. But physically, from that standpoint, I don't feel any different than I would have if we would have had a crash in a cup car or if I had a crash to a sprint car. Well, I actually thought he was almost Iron Man afterwards because the NHRA came over with the crash box information. And the raw data showed it was a 50G swing. Oh, wow.

And from that initial hit when he got shoved over and toppled back. And then, you know, Tony's like, you know, I feel pretty good. I'm going to do all the precautions and doing the concussion protocol. And I'm like, man, he is speaking very well and his balance was fine. I'm like, that was, you know, a huge hit. But then the filtered data came back and it was really 20 Gs. And that made more sense for how he was. Otherwise, I was like.

50 Gs would have been a big shot. Yes. That would have been a big shot. We used to now they do all the mouthpieces and things on the NASCAR world and they compare that to the football data. We're not really hitting anything that hard compared to how hard those football guys hit. I mean, it's still hard. But it's, it's, those football.

players. They pull some massive. We always talk about what the hard part. It doesn't matter how fast you're going. It's about how quick it stops. Right. So the good thing is our lanes are pretty close together. The walls are pretty close together.

So it's hard to get a lot of angle across the track. And it does happen. In the shorter wheel-based cars, it does happen. But when you're running 300 miles an hour, when something happens, you're not going to just make an immediate 90-degree turn and have a 300-mile-an-hour head-on crash. So I think that's what's done. different in this that, you know, the lanes are so close together where when we ran really wide

racetracks and have a big corner, if you were on the bottom, by the time you got there, the corner had moved around a lot further and you had a bigger angle that you hit at. So I think that's a good thing that we don't deal with on the NHRA side. Well, we hope it goes better as you go through the end of the season. I know that's not the not the way that you wanted to go. But good news, bad news, you kind of got kicked out of your seat because the boss is back next year. Leah's getting back in the car. And that has to be exciting. I know we're talking about crashing and not a great week. But this, it has to be exciting after the amount of time that you, that you've spent out of the car and to be able to consistently get behind the wheel again and do what you love to do has to be

really exciting for you. It's, it's wild. I tested Tony's car in Richmond, so about May. And after that, I knew absolutely going to gear up for 2026. And then I'm like, this off season, I'm going to do all of my, all of my regimen, my simulations, my practicing gear up. Well, then after Tony's wreck and we just, we just wanted to play it safe, I drove the spare car on Monday. And I was back in the seat much sooner than I was anticipating. And I was actually exactly where I wanted to be.

Performance wise on the track, the car ran really well. I did really well. And I was like, all right, put me in. You just put me in and now put me in. But they've got a lot of work to do to wrap up to compete for that championship. But yeah, next year, there's a lot. You know, we've had some big announcements today that come out with, besides just me being in the car, but where Tony will be. And that specifically would be in the other lane, another car with another team.

So I got to hang out with coach when we came, I'm going to call her coach. and it was by far it gave me a whole new perspective on what drag racing is all about because we sat up there and watched all the divisions and she explained the difference between all the divisions and was picking things out and I'm like, holy crap, this is just

you don't know the details of a particular racing division until you get somebody who knows how to do it at a high level. I had a great time with you guys in this week at Charlotte. It was first. No, no, because of the fact that, you know, I've gone to drag racing and it's just, you know, you think it's, I know it's not, but you think it's two cars doing down on track. I see all the work going on. But when you start to pick apart the details of what somebody does or cylinder goes out or out of the rubber, whatever, whatever was happening every time you went down the racetrack, that has to be fun for you guys, even though that you're going to compete against each other, but teaching him along the way to have all those details and the experience that have gone with it, that I would assume, fun. I'm sure sometimes you were like, hey, you know, get off me. I think there were, I was excited about learning from Leah and having her as a coach. And then people go, are you sure, are you sure that's a

good idea? And not because she's not a good coach, but because of our relationship and having us us as husband and wife and her telling me how to do this. But she doesn't beat around the bush. No, not at all. No, it doesn't let me either. No, there's, I love it. It's direct. I told her when we started I you know and she was going to help me with this I said I don't want to do this 98% right I want to do it 100% right so if I'm leaving anything on the table you have to tell me that I'm not doing this right and but the way that the way from day one that we went about this together she is a very very good teacher yeah she knows how to say it in a way that you're going to understand if you don't do it right and you make a mistake she's not going to go man you screwed up

she's going to say you know this was off but this is how to this is what you do to fix it or this will help. And so it really made the process of learning a whole different sport. The driving part from A to B isn't the hardest part. It's all the procedure and the cadence of the procedure and all the different things that you have to think about. What classifies a good driver in drag racing is a totally different criteria than how they would judge you and I as a good race car driver in NASCAR. So having her experience and. and our relationship and knowing how to talk to each other really was a huge asset,

probably accelerated that learning curve for me. Well, I think it was really interesting. She's obviously been a great coach, and you must be a good student, because you guys got there pretty quick. Fantastic student. I mean, I think Tony sawing himself a little bit short, and anybody listening or watching this definitely would categorize him as one of the world's best wheelmen. So he has the natural talent behind the wheel, but his discipline to want to be the best.

and I don't have to teach him how to learn. He already knows how to learn in any type of race car. So it's just a slightly different conversation. But even when he would have an absolutely perfect run and he has staged thin and a perfect burnout and great brake pressure and a snap throttle, he's still actually looking for something else. And so for a while, like, nope, this is good, this is good.

And then when there might be one thing that would be a little bit off, you know, as you get comfortable, other things happen to, you know, rise up. And he would get so upset and so mad. And recently, when you had done one thing, you know, twice in a row, he was so mad, like, for an entire day. I can't even drive this race car? What am I even doing? Can I even do it right the same time? Tony, it's okay.

It was just a little thing. But just a statement to how perfect do you want to be. But there is that whole other element of the reaction time. And there are different ways to go about improving that. And that is very driver-centric. There's different ways I go about it. And Tony is learning his own way. to go about it.

Now, wait a second. Is this a, is this a, are you insinuating that older people have to go about it a different way? I'm trying to just, because I feel like that there might be a little side jab in there of trying to get there from a, is it trying to repeat the process because our reflexes are slow? No, no. Tony will be the first to say you very much dislike testing and practicing in all forms of racing,

right? You as his teammate, no, for sure. And so he will work really, really hard to not. not have to do that. Yeah. Which then he does really well. Others, I will work really, really hard at perfecting that craft and do a whole bunch of work.

Yeah. And just to get maybe the same result or a better result just a different way. But it is funny. I think it goes back to when we race together, though, and when you were with us at S. S.H. I mean, we had four drivers. Yep.

And every Sunday, I would go to all four of you before, right before the race started. And you, it was like, you drop you in there, you tap you on the head. And I, what I always tell you. you before you go off, go play nice with the other kids today. That's right. And make you laugh and that was it. And off you went. That's all I had to tell you. Eric Amarolo, different conversation. Cole Custer, different conversation. Chase Briscoe, different conversation. Ryan Priest, different conversation. All four drivers, there were different things that you had to remind them. And some needed encouragement. Some needed rein back. Some of them, you just had to give them

a different mindset and something to think about that was unique about that track. And I think that's where how she works through things is different a lot of times than how I work through things. And Matt Hagan's are funny car driver. He sometimes works in a way different way than both of us. So it is about how people go about the learning process and how they go about how do they make themselves better. What are the steps that they do that they know work for them? So that is part of the learning process with Leah that I watch how she does things to make herself better. Sometimes I try and I don't feel like it does anything for me. Yeah.

I need to find a different channel and a different way to figure that out. So it doesn't, there's no one playbook for it. Every person's different. How we all learn, how we all process information, how we all understand what it takes to get two more percent out of ourselves. That's the things that we sometimes can't teach each other, but it's finding your own way to get there. Well, it's been really fun to watch.

And before I get too far down the road here, she said she's driving. So where does that leave you? I am going to be driving too. So I said I would not race against my wife and I'm, I've lied to myself, obviously. It's like saying you're not going to race against your son. Yeah. I went down that road. That's never going to not happen. So well, imagine if I have to go down the road and I have to say that it's happened twice now. So, but yeah, I have a great opportunity with Richard Freeman and everyone at elite motorsports to to drive a top fuel car next year. And I didn't think that that would even be. a possibility, nor did I honestly at first and on paper did I think it was a very good idea.

Yeah. I thought if we race each other and I win, I get kicked to the couch for an undisclosed amount of time. If I lose, then I have to sit there and listen to my phone blow up about how I got my ass kicked by my wife. Yeah. So that would be typically the worst part of it. That is the much greater concern. Yeah. I at least knew when we- surface level. Yeah. I at least knew that the couch we bought was comfortable and I could sleep on it for multiple

days if needed. But the phone call part would be the hard part. But no, it's, Leah's been the one that actually has convinced me that, hey, this isn't a bad thing. I mean, we, we can definitely do this. It's, it kind of is a scenario like what Dale Sr. had with Richard Childress Racing and DEI. It's just kind of the reverse order.

So we have TSR and we have Leah getting back in the car, but we have a, marketing alliance with elite motorsports and they have pro stock cars, mountain motor. They've got a big fleet of cars that aren't even in our categories. But we've done the marketing alliance and then an opportunity came up and Richard was able to acquire a team that was for sale and next thing you know, then I'm getting the call that I've got a car to drive if I wanted. So I'm excited about it. I think it's, we've talked about it since then and this has happened very, very fast. It's a lot's happening. in a short amount of time, but we've talked about how much of a unique situation it is for

us to actually be able to do what we love and actually compete against each other. And it's, it's not going to be fun when we have to run. It's not like we're looking forward to the bracket going, all right, if we get by our first round matchups, we're going to be running each other's second round. We can't wait. I bet that changes. I bet you guys look forward to that after you do a once or twice. I think she will. She will look forward to that way more than I will. But, you know, it's I still think it's going to be fun. I think our personalities can can definitely handle that. And, you know, first and foremost, before the race team, our relationship and our family

comes first. And, you know, no matter what the outcome is at a drag race, we're getting in the car together as a family and we're going home as a family and wherever I have to sleep at the end of the days where I sleep. I think a lot of what moved this was we want to race and have fun, right? And do it with who we want to do it with. And we enjoy our teams. And the question was, can we build a second top field team?

No, we're not going to do that. There was a lot of work in the beginning. We don't want to put our team through that. It's a lot of money. And so when Richard bought Josh Hart's operation, and this is all within the last couple weeks. You know, Tony is the main portion of the pie. And as he calls it all the time, I'm the crust.

And so we, the three of us, work very closely with Richard, me every day. And the biggest part of it is getting that team funded. Tony is not going to race that car until it's properly funded. And so that falls on the shoulders of elite, myself, TSR. TSR still needs to be funded itself. And we will be, you know, competing for a championship. So it's when we look at it, we love the people at elite and want to, want to race with them.

You want to race with your friends. So it's just a different type of expansion for us. And then, you know, hopefully that'll lead into some type of technical, you know, alliance along the way. some of the parts are very similar, and you want to make sure the mindsets of the crew chiefs are similar, and so we're in the process of selecting crew chiefs right now. So I feel like that team is the extension of what we've already created, so I think that they will do very well out of the box as soon as they get going.

Was there ever a moment that you thought when you had Dom, was there ever a moment after you've been mom for a while that you thought about, I might not ever drive again because I like that. this or was it always that burning desire to get back in the car? There was always that burning desire and it specifically came at the moment that I lost the world championship in 2023. Final round of the final race, everything on the line, me and mine versus Doug Coletta and his and we lost that round.

We lost the championship and I knew and I was the only one that knew that I wouldn't be racing that next year and I also knew that I would be back to go back after it again. Now is there a soft side that? That has come out, absolutely. But at the same time, I've missed the intensity that I feel and how I get geared up and my mindset when I'm racing. It is. And it's so much a part of who I am. So the times that I have been able to test, including this past week, I instantly have that back.

And I find a part of myself that I've missed. And I can definitely balance them both. Yeah, there has been no doubt. And there's, you know, this past weekend, after that crash, and everybody walked away and both race cars were built by PBRC, and that's the car, one of the cars I'll be racing next year, one of the new ones,

it's a safe sport overall. You know, Tony's been on some keyboard wards this past week. Everyone has a lot of opinions, and, you know, what you said, you've a higher chance of getting hurt, you know, driving to work every single day than we do in these race cars. So why sacrifice something that you absolutely love

and what propels us and who we are, live together, work together, travel together, we will be competing against each other. It all brings life to us. And now we get to do it with Dom and I get to hold him. Actually, at the end of my second run on Monday, Tony came from the motorhome because he was recovering and he had Dom. And I have never gotten out of a race car.

And I'm not sure I will, right? When you're in a race, they're not allowed down there. And here comes my baby. Tony is holding him and I still have my helmet on. And I take it off and take my hybrid off. And there he was. And it was cool. So you think that you guys think that this is difficult right now as far as deciding to get back in the car.

You're going to compete against Leah. This is not even hard because what will happen is Dom is going to get to the point that he's old enough to race. And then you have to start making harder decisions. So the hard decision is, are we going to go straight? Are we going to race on dirt? Are we going to race on asphalt? When do these conversations start? because you can't get out of him.

He's not going to play golf. We're going to try. It's not going to work. You watched it. I know. I saw. I was going to try to use your playbook. The thing that I have learned about racing families is they don't ever quit racing.

If you're a true racer, you race your whole life, you race whatever it is, and you race all the way through. So that I tried to make myself think that that wasn't going to happen. Not even possible. It's funny because I went to Millbridge this week and watched the kids. race on Tuesday night at Millbridge. And I remember going back to the hotel and telling Lee, I said, I just saw our future. Yeah, you did. It's like, and I was just laughing because I'm like, I don't know whether to laugh or cry about it. But yeah, as soon as the announcement went out that Leah was pregnant, that was immediately what across social media and our friends were like,

are you buying junior dragsters? Are you buying quarter minutes? What are you buying? That's what I'm asking. I'm appreciating the time right now where we're not having to make that decision. No, it's coming. Well, you think it's not far away. It's literally four years. It's sooner than we think, obviously. But the thing that it was amazing when we sat down and had a conversation of, what are we going to do with this?

And the conversation lasted less than 60 seconds. We literally, before the conversation started, already were on the same page of saying, we're not buying anything until he looks us in the eye and says, this is what I want to do, and I'm all in. me. So. However, I don't think we did also talk, we didn't talk about that that's a child and they make a decision one day and the next day. It's something else. And so you would have to be, you need to be persistent with them, right? I mean, you need to teach them dedication and not giving up. And so whatever that looks like. But I don't think we care which aisle, which lane,

which race track, um, if he decides to race. But we've been on our race in the racetracks. Race tracks our entire life. So wouldn't be a surprise. see us there and I don't think it'd be a surprise to see it's somewhere else with them. Nobody will be surprised. Not dirt bikes. The great thing is we have a good friend that already has a playbook of how this works and how to navigate it. So it's like, hey, I need some help here. How do we do this and do this the way that we would want to do it? So when you go back and you kind of analyze all of this from where you guys are now with TSR, what you've done? What you've in Dragster and you've you've been around it enough now to see the the NASCAR side of things and

the things that he'd done how would you compare the just the the way that the two sports work the two racing divisions from NHRA to NASCAR because I hear you talk about 19 it sounds like 1990s NASCAR to me is what it sounds like where the group of people travel together you drink beer together you eat together you wreck together everybody does everything together and and I think that, you know, NASCAR has, has changed from what it was in the 1990s to what it is now. Compare the experience from what you've had the last several years to what you had in NASCAR. And I'm not trying to put you on the spot to say, you know, the last five years, just in general from when you started to where you are starting this now.

Yeah. And you and I've spent the majority of our lives in the NASCAR system. And I don't think it's, I don't think the system's wrong. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. At this time and this point of my life, I love the NHRA environment. I love that it's not March of the Elephants where all the crew guys come in at a certain time

and they have to be out of the garage at a certain time. Each team comes in at whatever time they want to get to the track each day. They leave when they want to get done at the track each day. But what I do enjoy about it and that I feel like brings us back to very early 2000s or the 90s was you'll have teams. And even with our two teams, I mean, the top fuel team might get done before the funny car team's done service in their car. Our guys are milling around with the funny car team.

And there's other guys from other teams that they're done servicing their cars. And the fans are gone for the day by this time. But they're all milling around. The whole pit area is milling around visiting with each other and drinking beer in the pits together. And it's like, wow, this is, this reminds me when I used to race sprint cars back in the day. And when we started in NASCAR, guys from different teams were milling around. the races I went to last year, the teams don't mill around with anybody but their own organizations. They don't go talk to other people in different teams. So it's just a different time in the NASCAR sport.

But I do enjoy that. I do enjoy the camaraderie with the entire pit area. And it's people from pro stock. It's people from pro stock bike. It's different funny car teams coming to dragster teams because they all know each other. It's just it's the same as the motorsports industry has always been. It's a tight-knit family. And to be able to do that two nights during the weekend on Friday and Saturday nights and be able to mill around and see people and just kind of let your guard down and relax and have fun being with your peers, I miss that. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, as you added Dominic into this this whole equation, you know, for me, it was something that I always hoped would happen, was to see him, his dad. I'm glad that he met you because that, kind of brought it all to be real.

As a very part of the equation? Yeah. I think back and I wrote this story down. So I landed in Kansas one day and my friend there calls me and says, hey, I need a favor. I'm like, okay, what do you need? He's like, I left the monkey at the airport. I need, it's in the plane. I need you to go to my plane.

I need you to go get my monkey. and I need you to take it and put it in my motor home. So that scares me a little bit from a parent. Did he forget the monkey? No. I think he decided to go do something else at that particular time or go somewhere or had an appearance or I think he was late is the way I remember it. No way.

I think so. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure he was late. So I got to know. Have we had, I got to, there has to be some fun moments so far where he's like, what the hell do I do? Got peed in the face, pooped up the back or something that,

because I think back to this monkey. And I'm like, the monkey has beat him up. The monkey has been left in the plane. What in the world has happened? The funny thing is the angle that you think you're working on this is spinning 180 degrees as we speak right now. Go ahead.

Answer his question. Okay. So he didn't leave the monkey, right? No, he made sure that he had a, I didn't forget them on that. He made sure they had a plan for the monkey before. or left the monkey. Okay.

Well, I'm going to start off with Tony has not had the opportunity to forget or leave Dominic anywhere because that requires carrying the mental load. Okay. So that's wrapped up with myself. But what we're laughing about is not once, not twice, but third time that stop. Three. Where I forgot our dog. Yeah.

At the race track. Oh. A, because I'm pregnant and I have pregnancy pregnant. I'm being at Phoenix when mom brain and someone else was walking him and I just thought that he was anyway. Two days in a row at Phoenix, by the way. I know. It's usually the first thing that happens when you have kids is you want to get rid of the dogs. That was the first thing happened for me. Delana and I love the dogs. And the first thing that that happened was baby dogs.

Who left Cash Home this weekend? I didn't leave him. No, but you suggested that he not be here. There's a difference between making other arrangements as we previously. discussed and literally having that pet with you on the road and it's in the hospitality trailer by itself because it got left at the racetrack at the end of the day. The first time we were in Bristol and we have the hospitality trailer, our motor home, we're trying to get to the plane or in the car, headed to the airport, realize I've forgotten

cash and I'm pregnant at the time and I was so mad only because I knew that Tony would be holding that against me for so long. By the way, I didn't even say anything. Like, that question did not come from me. No, I know. We haven't even seen any of the questions. I know. It's like, moi, mom of the year.

Who's stricter? Who's the enforcer here? Mom. Yeah, dad gets all the fun playtime. When he cries himself to sleep, the next day I'll go, yeah, when after you got done crying yourself to sleep, she came and gave me a dose of it and I cried myself to sleep. So we're on the same page, bud. Has it peed in your face yet?

No. You got to change a diaper for that to happen. I've changed. man i have changed two and a half two and a half diapers and somebody goes well how do you change a half this was literally at the end of the day and i got his diaper off got him cleaned up and then tillia for the bath cleaned up as in pee or cleaned up as in poo no who okay who and pee okay are you a i mean i've seen the video of the of the of the mask i can do it i can do it by yourself without a mask now yeah i can do well i haven't tried lately and now he is squamousaurus wrecks

yeah so the element of difficulty has gone up watching the ankle grass man. Tie him up. Yeah. Like I say, now he's learning his voice. So you grab that and then he's going to tell you he does not like that. But she does a really good job of putting her foot down in those scenarios.

And when he wants to push back, she's definitely going to be the one that's going to be the tougher. So knowing you, what have you bought him that he's like five years from being able to use? I haven't bought him anything yet. Nothing. No. Oh, no, a lot of Amazon.

Yeah, a lot of Amazon. Our driveway for literally over probably a year and a quarter looked like an Amazon distribution center. Just trucks up and down all day. That doesn't change. But I think at our ages, I mean, she's in her 30s. I'm in my 50s now. The amount of friends and people we knew and know sent so much stuff.

We haven't bought anything. I mean, we've bought, we have so many clothes for this kid that he wears it one time and then by the next time it comes around to wear it again. He's already grown out of it. because of how much has been sent to us. So Leah's sister now has a child, so Lee is an aunt, and we've been taking a lot of the clothes that we were gifted and getting them, and gifting them down.

I will say that there was a Walker that we got. We had to prepare Dominic for his first race, the U.S. nationals at nine months old. And so we're practicing in that, which he got second place. We had a practice car, Little Walker, found out exactly what brand they were going to be racing in. she immediately gets on Amazon, finds it, gets it to the house the next day, and we practiced religiously up till the event.

But what I want to say about that is the practice walker he has, and then if he saw his race car walker that we have, it's this elevated indie car looking red hot rod, he screams when he sees that, because he wants to be in that one, screw this other little practice thing. So now we don't let him see the other one and that. So anyway, he rolls around, walks around and the race car one, it's this absolute favorite toy, favorite thing, his favorite colors red, any fire extinguisher, any red car. Yeah. But no, we haven't, we haven't bought in anything because we're on the road all the time. Yeah. Well, and you forget when you have, when you have everything that you need, it just, it all just kind of functions. And I think that, you know, for us, that was always

kind of the way it was. It was just a new, new way that you live. You had cribs and walkers and everything that you needed, you just had to have more stuff. That and as far as toys, you don't even need to buy toys. Like a half drink water bottle is the best toy for him or the spring doorstop. He's mesmerized by that. So it's crazy. You acquire things to keep him entertained and then everyday things that are already around the house, entertain them all day long.

Yeah. Well, it won't be long and he will be mobile. And then it becomes a new name or a new game. or a new game, I guess, is the best way to put it. So last question. Have you ever driven anything else besides going straight? I drove a vintage Formula Ford for a couple races at Willow Springs. And I love that.

It actually didn't suck. Podiumed a couple times. And nope, drag racing has been my jam from factory stock, nostalgia, funny cars. All the way from the beginning. Will you ever drive anything else? Are you just a straight liner now? When am I ever, when have I ever said no? I mean, I saw you.

jump in the midget that you guys you know that was great oh sorry i did run tony's four 10 wing sprint oh you did i did we're at where were we we were we tested at puttneville indiana yeah wow this is what leads me to the statement that tony is a fantastic student and a terrible teacher i would i said well as soon as the tires get spinning and you see oil pressure flip the oil or flip the fuel on and flip the ignition switch she goes oh what after that i said sneak up on Oh, that sounds exactly like my first dirt car experience. My man here says, hey, I need you to come run this Eldora race. Okay, never driven anything dirt in my life.

I get there and he says, all right, when you want to go, push the clutch in. I'm like, push the clutch in. Well, he got exactly what he deserved. I destroyed two race cars and looked like a complete fool and didn't have very much fun. But that sounds exactly like my first dirt experience as well. I just had to watch her run her first run to then sit there and be able to talk about it. But the hard thing about, we put her in a 410 cubic inch wing sprint car. Yeah.

That's brave. You have to hustle them. That would have been great to know in the beginning that I need to be watched, at least, you know, partially through the straight. I mean, I did Corey Kruisman sprint car driving school years ago and do understand, you know, turn right to turn left. And I mean, I thought I was ripping. Oh my gosh.

I thought I was just, you know, nose into the infield. I saw video just rallying around. And my forearms were on fire. And I had to drive later that week. And my forearms were on fire for two weeks. Really? Yeah. Well, because I wasn't going fast enough for the steering to work as it should.

So I'm fighting it the entire time. And Tony's laughing. Did it have more power than you thought it would have? Oh, absolutely. Yes. I think what scared me the most of it was I always thought I was going to flip over. Clearly, I'm not. but you want stability.

And that's the name of the game in drag racing and traction. And so seeing the wing, just tilt and being in the wrong direction and, you know, not knowing my capabilities and the card's capabilities, you know, where is that endpoint? So having to sneak up on that. Meanwhile, like Tony's in the end field and he's going like this, move out, you know, move out, quit running the bottom. So you're not going to race anything else? I, you know me.

Do you have any aspirations to race any? There's nothing on. A list per se that I'm like, I definitely want to try this before it's all said and done. But, you know, I never thought I'd even be around or involved in drag racing, let alone after being an owner. I didn't even know I was going to ever have an opportunity to drive. But I think in my career in my life, I've learned you never say never. Yeah.

Yeah, I know I'm in my 50s. My dad's in his 80s and still racing a three-quarter midget. Now he wants to get involved and try drag racing. You don't miss any of it. I miss a lot of it, actually. I miss dirt racing more than anything. That is probably running the dirt sprint cars is what I miss the most. You know, I loved what we did with NASCAR,

and I think NASCAR works really hard still to continue to evolve and make things better. But, you know, there's no shot. I'm going back to IndyCar. I'm way too heavy, way too old to do that. Even the dirt sprint car stuff, I mean, in your 50s, I mean, the pace has changed. Pace is quite a bit faster. That's the thing I noticed with Keelan. Younger guys.

Like the pace is just like there's never, it's just hammer. Yeah. Right from the time they start practice. And it's like, do we ever just creep into things anymore? There's no creeping into anything anymore. I mean, it is. When you go, it's, we're going. If you've not been to the track before, you're still going.

Because you think you know where you're going. And it's just a hammer down. I think the game's changed. I mean, we've been lucky enough to be in a partnership with the SIM companies. Yeah. And I racing has been huge. And now things that we had to physically go on a racetrack and we physically had to learn and you had to be fearful of, I might crash this race car and a tear up a guy's car and B tear myself up,

now they get to do that online. And if they crash, they hit a button and it gives them a brand new car in the pit and they go right back out on the racetrack. and that in itself I feel like has been probably the I feel like one of the biggest game changers in motorsports is having eye racing. I think it's great because drivers can now go to a track before they ever see it in person. Yeah. And actually it's a good point. I have a really good idea of where bumps are, how to get around the track where they're not a nuisance when you're around them while they're trying to learn the racetrack. They show up and they know and they're on pace right away because of that.

It scares the shit out of me. Absolutely. I watch them go out there sometimes. I'm like, oh my God, can we just try to just creep into it just maybe one or two laps? But it is different. Did you watch yourself when you drove at that age? It's different than when I was at that age. But maybe it was like that.

I don't remember it being like that. I always remember just kind of creeping up on trying to find the next marker and the next marker. And they don't try to find. There's no try to find it. I already got it. I'm going to it. And I think to your point, that's just where it's become. But thank you guys.

I know we went off on a bunch of tangents. And congratulations on getting back in the car. Hopefully we can find more money than we need to put on that dragster for you to get in there. Because I want to see you compete. I want to see you. Really all I want to see is her beat you. So that's really the only thing I'm looking for. All of my buddies want to see her beat me.

So all my good friends. Yeah. So thank you guys. and good luck for the rest of the year. And hopefully we'll catch up again soon. Thanks, friend.