Scott Pruett
| Scott Donald Pruett | |||||||
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| Date of birth | March 24, 1960 | ||||||
| Hometown |  Sacramento, California |
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| Awards |
IMSA GTO Champion (1988, 1986) SCCA Trans-Am Champion (1987, 1994, 2003) Indianapolis 500 co-rookie of the year (1989) Michigan 500 winner (1995) 24 Hours of Daytona overall winner (1994, 2007, 2008, 2011) Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Grand-Am Champ (2004, 2008, 2010, 2011) World Karting Association Hall of Fame inductee (1991) |
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| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series statistics | |||||||
| 2006 Sprint Cup position | 55th | ||||||
| Best finish | 37th - 2000 (Winston Cup) | ||||||
| First race | 2000 Daytona 500 (Daytona) | ||||||
| Last race | 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of March 4, 2007. | |||||||
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,[1] 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-AmRolex 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 eight American sports car championships, two with Grand-Am (2004, 2008), to go along with previous championships in IMSA GTO (1986, 1988), Trans-Am Series (1987, 1994, 2003) and IMSA GT Endurance (1986).[2]
Pruett also worked for several years as a commentator for Champ Car races on Speed Channel.
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] 1980s
Pruett began racing in karts at the age of eight. 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.[3] In 1987, Pruett won the SCCA Trans-Am Championship.[3] At the Indianapolis 500, he was the co-rookie of the year in 1989.
In 1989 and some seasons in the 1990s, Pruett started in the Indy 500s, but never won a position on the podium but started the race.
[edit] 1990s
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.[3]
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 won his first CART race at the Michigan 500.[1] His best CART career championship finish 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).
[edit] 2000s
In 2000, Pruett raced the #32 Tide Ford for Cal Wells in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Replaced by Ricky Craven after the season, he briefly retired from racing,[1] but returned in 2001 to win the 24 Hours Du 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.[3]
In 2007, he won the overall race and Daytona Prototype in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran in the #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 team mate the afore mentioned Juan Pablo Montoya spun him out and Juan Pablo Montoya would win his first NASCAR race. Pruett would recover to a 5th 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".[4]
The year 2008 was very successful for Scott Pruett. He 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.
[edit] 2010s
Pruett was racing for Chip Ganassi in the Grand Am Series during the 2010 seaon. 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.[5] 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.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Phillips, John (October 2007). "World's Fastst Landscaper". Car and Driver (Hachette Filipacchi Media). http://www.caranddriver.com/features/07q4/world_s_fastest_landscaper-sport. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/notebook?page=notebook/RacingNotes20080924
- ^ a b c d Biebrich, Richard (February 28, 2004). "Pruett Chasing A New Challenge". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-02-28/news/0402280142_1_comp-usa-lexus-rolex-scott-pruett. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
- ^ Grillo, Ioan (March 5, 2007). "Montoya wins Busch Telcel-Motorola 200". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. http://lubbockonline.com/stories/030507/pro_030507050.shtml. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
- ^ 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. http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Jeff_Gordon_happy_to_have_road-course_ace_Scott_Pruett_as_backup_driver_with_baby_on_the_way.html. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
- ^ Dagys, John (January 30, 2011). "ROLEX 24: Ganassi Goes Big With Rolex 1-2". Speed Channel. http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-ganassi-goes-big-with-rolex-1-2/. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Bill Vukovich III |
Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year 1989 With Bernard Jourdain |
Succeeded by Eddie Cheever |
| Chip Ganassi Racing | |
|---|---|
| IndyCar Drivers | Scott Dixon (#9) | Dario Franchitti (#10) | Graham Rahal (#38) | Charlie Kimball (#83) |
| Grand-Am Telmex #01 team drivers | Scott Pruett | Memo Rojas |
| Other | Chip Ganassi | Felix Sabates | Earnhardt Ganassi Racing | Target Corporation |
