Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960 in Roseville, California) is an American race car driver who has competed in NASCAR, Champ Car, IMSA, Trans-Am and Grand-Am. He and his wife Judy have three children, and are children's book authors.
Pruett started racing go karts at the age of eight, and went on to win ten professional karting championships. In the 1980s, he established himself as a top American sports car racer, eventually winning two IMSA GTO Championships and three Trans-Am Series Championships.
In the 1990s, Pruett was a regular in the CART series. From 1988 to 1999, he made 145 starts with two wins, five poles and fifteen podiums (top three finishes). In a pre-season testing in 1990, Pruett was involved in a serious crash at West Palm Beach, Florida, where he seriously injured both his legs. Pruett spent the 1990 season recovering & on certain occasions calling ESPN IndyCar telecasts as color commentator with Paul Page doing the play by play.
In 1994 he joined the reformed Pat Patrick team in CART series testing Firestone tires. Later that same year he won the Trans-Am Series Championship. In 1995 he drove full-time for Patrick racing using Firestone tires in Firestone's return to the CART series & finally won his first race in a thrilling last lap duel with Al Unser, Jr. at the Michigan 500. In 1997 he won his final CART series race at Surfers Paradise Australia (Nikon Indy 300).
Following his Champ Car career, Pruett raced the 2000 season in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series with PPI Motorsports, although with little success, achieving just 1 top-10 and finishing 37th in the points standings. He then moved back to sports car racing and won his third Trans-Am Series Championship in 2003. Since 2004, he has raced in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series for Chip Ganassi Racing. Pruett is still a regular starter at NASCAR road course races and he is often referred to as a Road Course Ringer. Pruett has won eleven American sports car championships, five in Grand-Am (2004, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012), to go along with previous championships in IMSA GTO (1986, 1988), Trans-Am Series (1987, 1994, 2003) and IMSA GT Endurance (1986).
Pruett also worked for several years as a commentator for Champ Car races on Speed Channel.
Scott and his wife have also opened Pruett Vineyards in Northern California. In November 2012 their Lucky Lauren Red was given a score of 93 points from Wine Spectator.
Famous quotes containing the words scott and/or pruett:
“The man who arrives young believes that he exercises his will because his star is shining. The man who only asserts himself at thirty has a balanced idea of what will power and fate have each contributed, the one who gets there at forty is liable to put the emphasis on will alone.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Men have their own questions, and they differ from those of mothers. New mothers are more interested in nutrition and vulnerability to illness while fathers tend to ask about when they can take their babies out of the house or how much sleep babies really need.”
—Kyle D. Pruett (20th century)