Scott Pruett
Pruett in 2008
Born	Scott Donald Pruett (1960-03-24)March 24, 1960 (age 64) Roseville, California, U.S.
Championship titles
IMSAGTO (1986,1988) SCCATrans-Am Series (1987,2003) Grand-AmDaytona Prototype (2004,2008,2010,2011,2012) Major victories 24 Hours of Daytona (1994,2007,2008,2011,2013) Michigan 500 (1995) 12 Hours of Sebring (2014)
Champ Car career
145 races run over 10 years
Best finish	6th (1998)
First race	1988Long Beach Grand Prix (Long Beach)
Last race	1999Marlboro 500 (Fontana)
First win	1995Michigan 500 (Michigan)
Last win	1997Sunbelt IndyCarnival (Surfers Paradise)
Wins Podiums Poles 2 15 5
NASCAR driver
NASCARCup Series career
40 races run over 8 years
Best finish	37th (2000)
First race	2000Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last race	2008Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 6 0
NASCARXfinity Series career
11 races run over 6 years
Best finish	76th (2000)
First race	2000NAPA Auto Parts 300 (Daytona)
Last race	2008 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 4 0
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2001
Teams	Corvette
Best finish	8th (2001)
Class wins	1 (2001)

Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is an American formerracing driver who has competed in numerous disciplines of the sport. In the 1980s, Pruett established himself as a topsports car racer, winning twoIMSA GTO, and threeTrans-Am championships. Later in his career, he won fiveGrand-Am championships. In the 1990s, Pruett competed inCARTChampionship cars. After a brief stint inNASCAR, he returned to sports cars.

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 theIndianapolis 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.

While driving for theTruesports 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.^[3] Pruett spent the 1990 season recovering and on certain occasions callingESPNIndyCar telecasts as color commentator withPaul Page doing theplay by play.

Pruett won the opening round of the 1991IROC series season at Daytona.^[1] In 1994, Pruett joinedPatrick 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 forPatrick Racing and usually made the top ten in the series championship. In 1995 he was in contention for theIndianapolis 500 until crashing late, with 18 to go. He won his first CART race at theMichigan 500 after a late race duel withAl 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).

In 2000, Pruett raced the No. 32 Tide-sponsored Ford forCal Wells in theWinston Cup Series. Replaced by Ricky Craven after the season, he briefly retired from NASCAR,^[1] but returned in 2001 to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTS Class in a factoryChevrolet Corvette C5-R.^[1] The following year, he won the GTS class in the 24 Hours at Daytona and also joinedSpeed 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 forRocketsports Racing.^[2]

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 forAndy Petree and then at Watkins Glen forChip Ganassi. For the Busch Series, Pruett drove one single race in place ofKevin 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 ringerRon Fellows took the win.^[4]

In 2002, at Watkins Glen, Pruett replacedJimmy Spencer in the No. 41 car for a one-race deal. 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 winnerTony Stewart. 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 thatRobby 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 was the onlyroad 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 afterSterling Marlin left the race to attendhis 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 andDaytona Prototype in theRolex 24 at Daytona, withJuan Pablo Montoya andSalvador Durán in the No. 01Telmex,Target,LexusRiley forChip 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 teammate the aforementionedJuan Pablo Montoya spun him out and Montoya would win his firstNASCAR 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".^[5]

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 collectedRon Fellows,Ron Hornaday Jr.,Jeff Burton,Brad Coleman, andScott 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 racerRon 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 friendDario 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 withKyle Busch. Pruett finished 3rd - his career-best finish in the Nationwide series. In qualifying theNAPA 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 atBarber Motorsports Park and also the Rolex Sports Car SeriesDaytona 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 ofGrand-Am at the time, beatingAlex Gurney in the finish to the2008Brumos Porsche 250 held atDaytona International Speedway by 0.081 seconds, after 145 minutes of racing.

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 shouldJeff 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-driversMemo Rojas,Juan Pablo Montoya, andCharlie Kimball. 2013 marks his fifth win at the annual endurance race, tying the legendaryHurley 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, butJordan Taylor andMax Angelelli taking the Driver's Title underWayne Taylor Racing/Velocity Worldwide, with Pruett and Rojas taking 2nd place in the Driver's Standings.

In 2014, Pruett competed in theTudor United SportsCar Championship for a full season with longtime co-driverMemo Rojas in the Prototype Class.

In 2015Joey 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 theCorvette 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 seasonPetit 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 withPaul Gentilozzi, who fielded a Lexus RC F GT3 in theWeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The team was not ready for competition until sometime after the 12 Hours of Sebring. He later announced that he would be driving for Action Express Racing part-time for the season.

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

Pruett worked for several years as a commentator for Champ Car races onSpeed Channel. He is well known for his trackside interviews, frequently interjecting the greeting "Hi to my family at home" mid-sentence when answering a question. On January 26, 2017, he was named to theMotorsports Hall of Fame of America.^[10]

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 championJimmie Johnson.^[13]

In 2025, he was inducted into theTrans-Am SeriesHall of Fame as part of the inaugural class.^[14]

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	CoyoteCorvette DP	P	238	2nd	2nd
2017	3GT Racing	Sage Karam Ian James	Lexus RC F GT3	GTD	269	35th	18th

(key)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

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:[39]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results areoverall/class)

• Scott Pruett driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1960 births
• Sportspeople from Roseville, California
• Racing drivers from California
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• Indianapolis 500 drivers
• Indianapolis 500 Rookies of the Year
• Rolex Sports Car Series drivers
• Champ Car drivers
• NASCAR drivers
• International Race of Champions drivers
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• Supercars Championship drivers
• WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers
• International Kart Federation drivers
• 12 Hours of Sebring drivers
• Chip Ganassi Racing drivers
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