Scott Pruett

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

In 1987, Pruett won the SCCA Trans-Am championship.

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.

In the 1990s, Pruett competed in CART Championship cars.

After a brief stint in NASCAR, he returned to sports cars.

Pruett began racing in karts at age eight, eventually winning 10 karting championships.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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, but returned in 2001 to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTS Class in a factory Chevrolet Corvette C5-R.

The following year, he won the GTS class in the 24 Hours at Daytona and also joined Speed as a reporter.

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.

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.

In 2002, at Watkins Glen, Pruett replaced Jimmy Spencer in the No. 41 car for a one-race deal.

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 9 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 3rd spot behind his teammate Jamie McMurray.

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.