Six years ago – June 26, 2016 – Tony Stewart passed Denny Hamlin on the final lap, in the hairpin Turn 11, to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 for the third time. It ended his 84-race winless streak and turned out to be the final victory of his distinguished NASCAR career. The same year he joined Ernie Irvan in Sonoma Raceway’s Wall of Fame. 

This weekend, his wife, Leah Pruett, is hoping this same track will produce equally special memories and give her added momentum following her first 2022 victory last Sunday at Denver. It was the first Top Fuel victory for Tony Stewart Racing. 

Pruett set the Sonoma Raceway elapsed-time record at 3.669 seconds in 2017, and she was runner-up to Steve Torrence last year. With this weekend's Sonoma visit, Pruett can keep alive her chances to sweep the Western Swing. 

She said her Denver results “proved to ourselves that we are the winning team we’ve believed all along, and infuses confidence into each of our crafts. Making eight runs at Bandimere Speedway, with some extreme turnaround times on Sunday, has exposed our team’s small opportunities to improve. It took a Sunday at Bandimere to show us how we can even improve more as we continue the Western Swing.” 

According to Pruett, she doesn’t have to make too many changes from last week’s conditions at 5,800 feet of elevation to this week’s at just 15 feet above sea level. However, she said she is seeing massive changes to her Rayce Rudeen Foundation Dragster. 

“There’s not a deep list of adjustments for a driver. Our deliverables stay the same,” she said, “but my approach changes only slightly. On the mountain, the less dense air makes mid-track wheelies a thing and something to be extra-prepared for. Pulling the fronts on the launch is not as frequent, because our initial hit is less, due to less power, via less air. For me, that means there’s a likelihood the car will wash out with the front hiked in the air and become less drivable. Coming to sea level, the car will be at its optimum level of aggressiveness, and I will have to really emphasize the importance of not only square, but straight.” 

She said this past week, the Neal Strausbaugh-Mike Domagala-led crew gave the car “a complete makeover in regard to jetting changes, blower compensation, clutch adjustments, chassis weight, and, of course, the new body that will promote the Rayce Rudeen Foundation and its work with organizations and programs to encourage a healthy and productive life that is free of addiction.”