Scott Pruett

Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is an American former racing driver who has competed in numerous disciplines of the sport. In the 1980s, Pruett established himself as a top sports car racer, winning two IMSA GTO, and three Trans-Am championships. Later in his career, he won five Grand-Am championships. In the 1990s, Pruett competed in CART Championship cars. After a brief stint in NASCAR, he returned to sports cars.

Career

1980s

Pruett began racing in karts at the age of eight,^[1] eventually winning ten karting championships. In 1984, he moved to sedan racing. His first victory took place in 1986, when he won the IMSA GTO Championship, which he would again win in 1988.^[2] In 1987, Pruett won the SCCA Trans-Am championship.^[2] At the Indianapolis 500, he was the co-rookie of the year in 1989, recording his best finish in four starts in the race, tenth, driving for Truesports.

1990s

While driving for the Truesports racing team, on March 16, 1990, during pre-season testing for the 1990 season, Pruett suffered leg and back injuries in a crash at the West Palm Beach Fairgrounds temporary circuit.^[3] Pruett spent the 1990 season recovering and on certain occasions calling ESPN IndyCar telecasts as color commentator with Paul Page doing the play by play.

Pruett won the opening round of the 1991 IROC series season at Daytona.^[1] In 1994, Pruett joined Patrick Racing as a test driver for Firestone tires. The same year, he also won the IMSA 24 Hours at Daytona, and also won a second Trans-Am Series championship.^[2]

For the next four years, Pruett continued driving Indy Cars for Patrick Racing and usually made the top ten in the series championship. In 1995, he was in contention for the Indianapolis 500 until crashing late, with eighteen laps to go. He won his first CART race at the Michigan 500 after a late race duel with Al Unser Jr., beating Unser Jr. by .56 seconds.^[1] His best championship finish with Patrick was in 1998, finishing sixth in points with three podium finishes and one pole position.

In 1999, Pruett changed to Arciero-Wells and participated in the Toyota engine-program development. He also earned Toyota's first pole on an oval (California Speedway) and earned Toyota's best qualifying effort on a road course at the current time (third at the Australian Grand Prix).

2000s

In 2000, Pruett raced the No. 32 Tide-sponsored Ford for Cal Wells in the Winston Cup Series. Replaced by Ricky Craven after the season, he briefly retired from NASCAR,^[1] but returned in 2001 to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTS Class in a factory Chevrolet Corvette C5-R.^[1] The following year, he won the GTS class in the 24 Hours at Daytona and also joined Speed as a reporter. For them he covered the 2002 FedEx Championship Series as well as the Champ Car World Series in 2003. This year, Pruett also won the Trans-Am Championships in the Motorock Trans-Am Series for Rocketsports Racing.^[2]

In 2001,Pruett made a number of NASCAR starts as a "road-course ringer," both in the Winston Cup Series and the Busch Series. For the Cup Series, he drove at Sonoma for Andy Petree and then at Watkins Glen for Chip Ganassi. For the Busch Series, Pruett drove one single race in place of Kevin Lepage at Watkins Glen in what Pruett felt was "likely his best chance to win, perhaps in his career." With Lepage's car, Pruett won the pole position and dominated early on before falling back to finish eighth. Fellow ringer Ron Fellows took the win.^[4]

In 2002, at Watkins Glen, Pruett replaced Jimmy Spencer in the No. 41 car for a one-race deal. Pruett started 19th and spent most of the race in the top 10. He finished sixth after getting an opportunity to steal a win from winner Tony Stewart. The next year in 2003, Pruett drove the No. 39 Ganassi car for Sonoma and Watkins Glen. At the Glen, Pruett finished second, his career-best finish. Pruett had almost pulled off the victory by taking advantage of cautions to climb through the field, leading nine laps in the process. However, that was the year that Robby Gordon swept the road courses and, as a result, Pruett never mounted a significant challenge against Gordon for the win.

In 2004, Pruett was scheduled to run three races driving the No. 39 Target-sponsored Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing and the No. 09 for James Finch. At Sonoma, Pruett spent all his time in the top-ten, leading one lap and nearly winning, but finishing in third spot behind his teammate Jamie McMurray. Pruett was the only road ringer to lead laps in that race. At Indianapolis, Pruett found his No. 09 Dodge losing an engine and his race finishing in an abrupt end. At Watkins Glen, Pruett did not qualify after qualifying was rained out. At Sonoma in 2005, Pruett ran some of the race in the top-ten but crashed late in the race. At Watkins Glen later that year, Pruett originally didn't qualify the No. 39 car due to rain. However, he ran the 2005 Sirius at the Glen in the No. 40 Coors car for Ganassi after Sterling Marlin left the race to attend his father's funeral. Starting 43rd due to the driver change, Pruett charged through the field to finish 4th after briefly contending for the win.

In 2006, Pruett returned to the Busch series in the No. 1 car for James Finch. Pruett had a promising race at Watkins Glen during the Zippo 200, starting second and finishing tenth. He drove the No. 40 car for the road-course races in Cup as well. Pruett managed to take advantage of a last-lap crash to charge from twelfth place to finish sixth during the final lap of the AMD at the Glen.

In 2007, Pruett won the overall race and Daytona Prototype in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Durán in the No. 01 Telmex, Target, Lexus Riley for Chip Ganassi Racing.^[1] Later that same year he nearly won his first Nationwide Series victory at the Telcel-Motorola Mexico 200 at the Mexico City road course only to lose it in the closing laps when his Chip Ganassi teammate the aforementioned Juan Pablo Montoya spun him out and Montoya would win his first NASCAR race. Pruett would recover to a fifth place finish, his best Nationwide finish at that time. After the race however Pruett was none too pleased with his teammate stating, "that was...nasty, dirty driving".^[5]

Later at Montreal in 2007, Pruett had a promising run and was in third spot on a restart with three laps left. In the first turn a hard-charging Kevin Harvick slammed into the back of Pruett who spun and collected Ron Fellows, Ron Hornaday Jr., Jeff Burton, Brad Coleman, and Scott Wimmer. Pruett recovered from the spin and was running fourth on the final lap but ran out of gas, finishing fourteenth after leading nine laps. To add insult to injury, Harvick won the race.

The next week at Watkins Glen, Pruett was running third with less than thirty laps to go and got a speeding penalty on pit road. After slipping to 33rd after the penalty, Pruett spent the rest of the race charging back towards the lead. Pruett was running 11th on the final lap but got spun out by fellow road racer Ron Fellows, throwing both of them into the final-turn gravel trap. Pruett recovered for an 18th-place finish while Fellows finished 24th.

The year 2008 was very successful for Pruett. He drove the No. 40 Fastenal-sponsored Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi again in the NNS series sharing the ride with close friend Dario Franchitti who was trying out the NASCAR series. Pruett dominated the Mexico City Nationwide series event, but lost the lead with 8 laps to go during a battle with Kyle Busch. Pruett finished third - his career-best finish in the Nationwide series. In qualifying the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Montreal, Pruett claimed the pole.^[6] The 2008 NAPA 200 in Montreal is his last career start in the NASCAR Xfinity series.

Pruett won the overall race and in the Daytona Prototype Class at the 2008 Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park and also the Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype season championship. In the Daytona Prototype Class at the Mexico City 250 he made the second place overall. Moreover, Pruett won the closest finish in the history of Grand-Am at the time, beating Alex Gurney in the finish to the 2008 Brumos Porsche 250 held at Daytona International Speedway by 0.081 seconds, after 145 minutes of racing.

2010s

Pruett was racing for Chip Ganassi in the Grand-Am Series during the 2010 season. In July, Hendrick Motorsports chose him as a standby driver should Jeff Gordon have to miss Watkins Glen due to the birth of his son.^[7] Gordon wound up driving the race. Pruett, combined with Memo Rojas, won nine of twelve races to win another Grand-Am Rolex Championship. The nine victories was a series record.

In 2011, Pruett won the 24 Hours of Daytona, his fourth overall victory in the event.^[8] In 2012, Pruett was one of the commentators for Speed Channel's coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Pruett once again led Ganassi Racing to their third Rolex Series Championship in-a-row with Co-driver Memo Rojas. The team put the No. 01 Telmex BMW Riley on the podium for nine out of fourteen races, top five for ten out of fourteen races with only two wins on the season, besting second place Ryan Dalziel by twelve points. This year's results mark Ganassi's fourth title in five years, and Pruett's fifth Rolex title.

In 2013, Pruett opened on a strong note, winning the 51st Rolex 24 at Daytona with co-drivers Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Charlie Kimball. 2013 marked his fifth win at the annual endurance race, tying the legendary Hurley Haywood for most victories in the grueling twice around the clock race. Despite some serious set-backs during the 2013 season, including accruing no points at Detroit, the Championship came down to the last race, with the No. 01 Ganassi Team taking the Team Title, but Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli taking the Driver's Title under Wayne Taylor Racing/Velocity Worldwide, with Pruett and Rojas taking second place in the Driver's Standings.

In 2014, Pruett competed in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship for a full season with longtime co-driver Memo Rojas in the Prototype Class.

In 2015, Joey Hand joined Pruett in the No. 01 for the full season. The team saw some very disappointing results early in the year due to the aging Riley chassis being outclassed by the Corvette Daytona Prototype. However, despite not having won a race until late in the season, the No. 01 had remained consistent enough to be in the championship battle by the last race of the season Petit Le Mans. By the end of the rain-shortened race only eight points separated the top-four teams with CGR taking the top spot.

Pruett departed CGR in 2016 and joined with Paul Gentilozzi, who fielded two Lexus RC F GT3’s in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He raced for the 3GT team lead by Paul Gentilozzi for a full season. He later announced that he would be driving for Action Express Racing part-time for the season.

Retirement

On January 5, 2018, Pruett announced his retirement after fifty years in racing, following the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona.^[9]

Broadcast work

Pruett worked for several years as a commentator for Champ Car races on the former Speed Channel. He is well known for his trackside interviews, frequently interjecting the greeting "Hi to my family at home" mid-sentence when answering a question. On January 26, 2017, he was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.^[10]

Personal life

Pruett and his wife have also opened Pruett Vineyards^[11] in Northern California. In November 2012, their Lucky Lauren Red was given a score of 93 points from Wine Spectator.^[12]

In 2021, Pruett returned to Chip Ganassi Racing as the strategist for IndyCar rookie and seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.^[13]

In 2025, Pruett was inducted into the Trans-Am Series Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class.^[14]

Motorsports career results

12 Hours of Sebring results

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

CART

Indianapolis 500

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500

Nationwide Series

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Supercars Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

References

1. ^ Phillips, John (October 2007). "World's Fastest Landscaper". Car and Driver. Hachette Filipacchi Media. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
2. ^ Biebrich, Richard (February 28, 2004). "Pruett Chasing A New Challenge". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
3. ^ "Archives". Los Angeles Times. 17 March 1990.
4. ^ McShea, Keith (July 7, 2001). "Pruett grabs Watkins Glen". The Buffalo News. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
5. ^ Grillo, Ioan (March 5, 2007). "Montoya wins Busch Telcel-Motorola 200". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
6. ^ "Another Montreal Pole For Pruett". Motor Racing Network. 2008-08-02. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
7. ^ Pockrass, Bob (August 6, 2010). "Jeff Gordon happy to have road-course ace Scott Pruett as backup driver with baby on the way". NASCAR Scene. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
8. ^ Dagys, John (January 30, 2011). "ROLEX 24: Ganassi Goes Big With Rolex 1–2". Speed Channel. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
9. ^ "Pruett to Retire Following Rolex 24 – Sportscar365". Retrieved 2018-01-05.
10. ^ Scott Pruett at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
11. ^ Pruett, Scott. "About Pruett Vineyard". Pruett Vineyard. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
12. ^ Worobiec, MaryAnn. "10 Affordable California Rhônes". Wine Spectator. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
13. ^ Cavin, Curt & Horrall, Zach (June 11, 2021). "Paddock Buzz: Pruett Joins Ganassi as Johnson's Strategist". IndyCar Series. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
14. ^ "Inaugural Class of Trans Am Hall of Fame Revealed". Speed Sport. February 5, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
15. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1988 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
16. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1989 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
17. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1991 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
18. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1992 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
19. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1994 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
20. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1995 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
21. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1996 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
22. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1997 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
23. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1998 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
24. ^ "Scott Pruett – 1999 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
25. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
26. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
27. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
28. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
29. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
30. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
31. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
32. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
33. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2000 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
34. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2001 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
35. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2005 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
36. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2006 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
37. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
38. ^ "Scott Pruett – 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
39. ^ "Scott Pruett". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved August 26, 2023.