CONCORD, N.C. — First got here the girl, then the quickest automobiles in racing.

Tony Stewart, who fell in love with NHRA whereas tagging together with fiancée Leah Pruett at her races the previous two seasons, can be an official a part of the game in 2022. The NASCAR Corridor of Fame driver will add two full-time NHRA entries to Tony Stewart Racing subsequent season — a High Gasoline entry for Pruett and a Humorous Automotive for Matt Hagan.

“It is a very distinctive alternative to regulate my very own future with my almost-husband in a sport I am completely keen about,” Pruett instructed The Related Press. “That is an expertise and alternative that no one would go up, and I really feel like I have been prepping my complete life for one thing like this — to use all of my abilities to one thing grand in partnership and alongside any person sharing the identical objectives.”

Pruett and Hagan presently compete for Don Schumacher Racing, which on Wednesday introduced that eight-time High Gasoline champion Tony Schumacher (Don’s son) will return to the workforce subsequent 12 months in a full-time entry and be paired with Pruett’s present crew chief.

Stewart adopted together with his announcement Thursday and mentioned the brand new NHRA workforce will function alongside his dash automotive groups in TSR’s current 25,000-square-foot facility in Brownsburg, Indiana. Stewart, co-owner of the NASCAR workforce Stewart-Haas Racing, has received 27 proprietor championships in dash automotive racing.

“It wasn’t till I met Leah and began going to races commonly, the place I noticed the technique and the preparation firsthand, that I actually understood it,” Stewart instructed the AP. “I’ve aggravated everybody within the paddock by asking so many questions, Don Schumacher included, and the extra I discovered about drag racing, I knew I did not need to be a spectator. I needed to have a job and be all-in.”

Pruett is in her twenty fifth NHRA season, moving into drag racing as an 8-year-old within the junior league. She received the 2010 NHRA Scorching Rod Heritage Racing Collection championship within the Nostalgia Humorous Automotive class and has spent the previous eight years advancing by High Gasoline.

The 33-year-old has accomplished double responsibility for a number of years, additionally competing within the NHRA Manufacturing facility Inventory Showdown. She received the 2018 title for Schumacher.

Hagan, who has pushed for Schumacher since 2009, is the three-time and reigning Humorous Automotive champion. He leads the Humorous Automotive standings with three races remaining within the season. He has 39 occasion victories.

“Don Schumacher has been an enormous chapter in my racing profession, and we have received an entire lot of trophies and a number of championships collectively,” Hagan mentioned. “This subsequent chapter with Tony Stewart is one I am excited for. I am able to go racing. I am leaping into this new program with two toes, and I am assured within the bundle we’re bringing into the 2022 season with TSR.”

As a result of TSR can be a Schumacher buyer, Stewart is predicted to be a Dodge workforce in NHRA, however he didn’t make a producer announcement Thursday. Stewart-Haas Racing is a Ford workforce in NASCAR, and Ford additionally competes in NHRA and has helped Stewart study to drive a dragster since he grew to become infatuated with the racing sequence.

Stewart and Pruett are set to be married subsequent month, and the three-time NASCAR champion mentioned they’d forgo a honeymoon to be prepared for the NHRA season opener Feb. 17-20 at Auto Membership Raceway in Pomona, California.

Neither expects any tensions to kind on this new chapter of their relationship, which Pruett clearly outlined: “I’m Tony Stewart Racing’s High Gasoline driver.”

“I feel will probably be wonderful, I imply, it is not going to be flatline, there are going to be pulses in it as a result of we have now hearts they usually beat,” Pruett mentioned. “However we all know this may work. Seeing issues which have occurred inside different sequence and groups and tracks, I have been in a position to perceive his thought technique of fixing issues and developing with options.

“It made me be like, ‘That is any person I might like to work with, realizing the place his head and coronary heart are.’ Shifting ahead and dealing collectively, this is not leaping into one thing unknown, I’ve seen how he works firsthand.”

Stewart mentioned he and Pruett have barely mentioned how one can handle their new working relationship.

“I’ve an understanding of what has to occur from the skilled facet, and the racing facet is the racing facet,” Stewart mentioned. “You do not convey the skilled stuff to the non-public facet, and vice versa. Leah is a brilliant girl, she’s a sensible businesswoman, and he or she understands that there must be a distinction between proprietor and driver, and I do not assume it creates an unhealthy atmosphere for me to be the automotive proprietor and her the motive force.

“I do not really feel like that is going to place us relationship-wise in any sort of bind or predicament. We’ve no motive to not get alongside.”