Tony Stewart clinched the 2024 NHRA Rookie of the Year award after a stellar performance at the season finale on the Pomona Dragstrip, making it to the semifinals before being bested by Doug Kalitta.
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But immediately after that race, Stewart had to dash to the hospital because his wife, Leah Pruett, went into labor that same day, welcoming their first child, Dominic James Stewart, into the world.
Amid these exciting developments, Stewart’s close friend, Kevin Harvick, humorously admitted his eagerness to see how Stewart would juggle fatherhood. Offering congratulations to the couple on a recent episode of his podcast Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick expressed his curiosity about seeing Stewart take on the challenges of managing dad duties solo.
He said, “Once they get their feet on the ground I’m going to visit. I just I have to see this with my own two eyes. The baby well the baby and I want to see Dad holding the baby…”
“I just have to visually see him hold the baby and I have to I just want to be there long enough for it to crap its pants and he has to change the diaper. If I can if we can somehow convince him to go in the car and we can take the baby somewhere by ourselves and it happened in the car that’ be way better,” he further imagined.
The TSR Nitro X team shared a photo of the newborn, Dominic James Stewart, alongside his parents on their social media platform with the caption,
“Meet our new teammate, Dominic Hames Stewart. Momma @LeahPruett_TF and baby are doing great. Congratulations LP and @TonyStewart on becoming new parents! Only Tony could pull off qualifying, rushing to Phoenix to make it in time for the delivery, then back to @PomonaDragstrip for race day. Let’s go win Dominic a trophy.”
Meanwhile, after his adventures in racing, Stewart wrapped up the season by securing 10th place in the final NHRA TopFuel championship standings, owing to his impressive outing at Pomona Dragstrip.
Stewart opens up about the challenges he faced in choosing a name for their baby
The couple eventually decided on the name Dominic, but getting there wasn’t straightforward. In a social media interview with NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass, Stewart shared that the task of brainstorming names fell to him.
“I was tasked with the job of creating names I liked and handed it over to her. Then she whittled it down to what she liked out of what I liked,” he explained.
However, following the birth of his son, in another interview, Stewart discussed the difficulties he encountered during the naming process.
He pointed out that being 53 years old and knowing as many people as he does, many names were immediately off the table due to associations with people he knew or friends who already had children with those names, complicating the selection process considerably.
However, the name Dominic resonated with Pruett from the start when Stewart suggested it, and ultimately, that’s the name they agreed upon.
