Scott Pruett

Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is an American retired

1980s

Pruett began racing in karts at age eight,^[1] eventually winning 10 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, 10th, driving for Truesports.

1990s

While driving for the

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 4 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 18 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

In 2001, Scott 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

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 3rd 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 10th. 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 12th place to finish sixth during the final lap of the AMD at the Glen.

In 2007, he won the overall race and

Later at Montreal in 2007, Pruett had a promising run and was in third spot on a restart with 3 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 4th on the final lap but ran out of gas, finishing 14th after leading 9 laps. To add insult to injury, Harvick won the race.

The next week at Watkins Glen, Pruett was running 3rd with less than 30 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 3rd - 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.

He won the overall race and in the Daytona Prototype Class at the 2008 Porsche 250 at

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 9 of 12 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 3rd Rolex Series Championship in-a-row with Co-driver Memo Rojas. The team put the No. 01 Telmex BMW Riley on the podium for 9 out of 14 races, top five for 10 out of 14 races with only 2 wins on the season, besting 2nd place Ryan Dalziel by 12 points. This year's results mark Ganassi's 4th title in 5 years, and Pruett's 5th 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 marks 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 0 points at Detroit, the Championship came down to the last race, with the 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 2nd place in the Driver's Standings.

In 2014, Pruett competed in the

In 2015 Joey Hand joined Pruett in the 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 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 8 points separated the top 4 teams with CGR taking the top spot.

Pruett departed CGR in 2016 and joined with

On January 5, 2018, Pruett announced his retirement after 50 years in racing, following the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona.^[9]

Personal life

Pruett worked for several years as a commentator for Champ Car races on

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

Motorsports career results

12 Hours of Sebring results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1985	Mike Meyer/Daffy	Paul Lewis Joe Varde	Mazda RX-7	GTU	117	DNF	DNF
1986	Roush Racing	Caitlyn Jenner	Ford Mustang	GTO	265	4th	1st
1987	Roush Racing	Pete Halsmer	Ford Mustang GTX Special	GTP	179	39th	7th
1988	Roush Racing	Pete Halsmer	Merkur XR4Ti	GTO	275	11th	4th
1993	Rocketsports	Darin Brassfield	Oldsmobile Cutlass	GTS	213	10th	4th
1994	Brix Racing	Price Cobb Tommy Riggins	Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme	GTS	190	DNF	DNF
2014	Chip Ganassi Racing	Memo Rojas Marino Franchitti	Riley Mk.XXVI-Ford	P	291	1st	1st
2015	Chip Ganassi Racing	Joey Hand Scott Dixon	Riley Mk.XXVI-Ford	P	340	4th	4th
2016	Action Express Racing	Dane Cameron Eric Curran	Coyote Corvette DP	P	238	2nd	2nd
2017	3GT Racing	Sage Karam Ian James	Lexus RC F GT3	GTD	269	35th	18th

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

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2001	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	GTS	278	8th	1st
Source:[38]

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

External links

• Scott Pruett driver statistics at Racing-Reference