For over 70 years, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) has championed the participation of women in motorsport — but all this time, one critical element was lacking. How should the NHRA treat its pregnant competitors?

Women wishing to start a family have traditionally had to retire from drag racing competition to focus on those goals, but an incredible new policy introduced by the NHRA is designed to allow women to balance their career with their families.

NHRA’s new policy for pregnant competitors

Traditionally, if an NHRA competitor wanted to get pregnant and start a family, that racer would have to either retire from the sport, or take a hiatus, or withdraw from championship contention partway through a season in order to channel her efforts into that avenue.

But Leah Pruett, an iconic Top Fuel dragster, found it difficult to reckon with the implications her decision to start a family with husband Tony Stewart would have on the career she’s dedicated her life to building.

“I was looking at my own situation a couple of years ago after I got married and knowing that I wanted to have children,” Pruett said in an NHRA release.

“It was a very uneasy time when you have something you’ve done your whole life, which is to concern yourself with your team, your partners, your fans, and everything surrounding racing. I had to make what I considered one of the hardest decisions of my entire life, and that was to not race in 2024.

“I was having to make those decisions and have hard conversations with my team. I had just signed on to be their driver and just come the closest I had ever been to a world championship.

“I felt I’m not the only person that has felt this or is going to feel this. Something needs to change.”

Pruett isn’t alone. The fields of many NHRA categories are loaded with women, many of whom have struggled to reconcile their decision to start a family with their ability to pursue a career in motorsport.

This new policy eases that burden.

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In effect, this new policy allows pregnant drivers (or drivers otherwise undergoing fertility struggles) to swap in a replacement driver partway through the season. It also allows that driver to jump back in the car partway through the year to compete for the championship.

This policy is a bit complex, but the key elements adopted by the NHRA are as follows:

• If a driver has participated in at least one race in a season, she may elect to step back from racing at any point in the year in order to focus on her family, provided she has a signed letter from her healthcare provider.
• A replacement driver can then take her place, so long as that driver is properly credentialed and qualified to compete.
• If the replacement driver earns fewer overall points than the driver they replaced, all points will be credited to the driver who stepped back to pursue pregnancy or fertility treatments.
• If the replacement driver earns more points than the driver they replaced, then the replacement driver will be credited with those points they scored.
• If the replacement driver earns the same amount of points as the driver who stepped back from racing, the driver who won the most rounds during the season will be credited with the points.

As Pruett explained to Autoweek, “Say I wanted to get in the seat in July. I would take over the points that Tony [Stewart, her replacement driver] accrued for me.

“As long as I get in the seat before the Countdown [to the Championship, which determines the winner of the season] begins, I can take over the points and everything moves seamlessly forward.”

The NHRA has already implemented similar policies for drivers who need to step away from the car due to COVID-19 or other medical concerns; it makes sense that it would implement a similar policy for its drivers whose bodies will be deeply affected by pregnancy or fertility treatments.

Of all forms of motorsport in the world, drag racing is one of the most egalitarian and diverse. Women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community have all found a comfortable home in American drag racing thanks largely to the lower barriers for entry and the roots of the sport itself.

Where open-wheel racing and stock car racing often originated among men within a certain region and class, drag racing’s origins were far less organized and also catered to disaffected groups to begin with. In post-WWII America, the folks who were outfitting their cars with better engines and taking them to deserted highways to compete were doing so illegally — at least until organizations began to crop up to sanction the sport.

Where European Grand Prix racing evolved among elite, wealthy white folks, and where stock car racing evolved among the white men of the moonshine-running American South, drag racing didn’t evolve out of a certain segment of society. Going as fast as you could manage for a short distance was the kind of activity that didn’t require a ton of money, specialized equipment, or an origin from a specific place. If you had a car, you could race it.

Of course, access to an automobile did likely involve some element of privilege that made it simpler for white men to participate — but never exclusively.

Al Young, for example, was the fist Asian American to ever win a World Championship, which he did in drag racing. Shirley Muldowney made history for all women by becoming the first person ever to secure two, then three, Top Fuel titles — as well as being the first woman to receive an NHRA license. Antron Brown is the first Black drag racing champion, but there have been dozens of successful Black racers in NHRA history. Even Don Prudhomme, for example, hails from a diverse background, though he never considered himself to be one race or another.

Now, the NHRA is breaking ground with its pregnancy policy, which affirms the basic bodily autonomy of its competitors by allowing them to pursue both a career and a family without being penalized for it.

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