Pruett grew up competing in various drag racing categories before advancing to the national stage. Prior to her Top Fuel debut she competed in Pro Mod and Nostalgia Funny Car, winning the 2010 Nostalgia Funny Car title in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series. That foundation in multiple classes gave her a broad technical understanding of nitro-powered machinery before she transitioned to the sport's premier category.
Pruett debuted in Top Fuel in 2013 with Dote Racing, spending her first three seasons building experience without a national event victory. Her breakthrough came on February 28, 2016 at the Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in Chandler, Arizona, where she defeated Brittany Force in the final round. That final was the first all-female Top Fuel final since 1982, making it one of the most historically significant rounds in the category's modern era.
She finished seventh in points in 2016 with that single win, then elevated her performance significantly in 2017, collecting four wins at the Winternationals, Chandler, Houston, and Brainerd to finish fifth in the championship standings. Back-to-back fourth-place finishes followed in 2018 and 2019, with two wins at Atlanta and Denver in 2018 and one win at Brainerd in 2019. She maintained fourth place again in 2020 despite no wins, then added a win at the Winternationals in 2021 while finishing seventh.
In October 2021, Pruett was announced as the Top Fuel driver for Tony Stewart Racing beginning in 2022, marking a high-profile team change. She won once in 2022 at Denver, then delivered her best championship result in 2023, finishing third with two wins at Norwalk and Texas. Her career best elapsed time stood at 3.631 seconds with a top speed of 334.15 miles per hour.
Beyond her Top Fuel record, Pruett claimed the NHRA SAMTech Factory Stock Showdown championship in 2019, making her the first female champion in the short history of that class and giving Don Schumacher Racing its first series title in their debut season competing in it. Her total of eleven Top Fuel wins and three Pro Modified wins gave her fourteen national event victories overall across a professional career spanning more than a decade.
Pruett stepped away from Top Fuel competition ahead of the 2024 season, with her husband Tony Stewart, the former NASCAR champion, taking over her seat at Tony Stewart Racing as the couple planned to start a family. They welcomed a son, Dominic James Stewart, on November 16, 2024. The retirement brought a close to one of the more accomplished driving careers among female competitors in NHRA history, though her status was described as semi-retired, leaving open the possibility of a future return.
Pruett's 2016 win over Brittany Force in an all-female Top Fuel final stood as a landmark moment for the sport, arriving thirty-four years after the last such final. Her consistent top-ten finishes across multiple seasons demonstrated sustained competitiveness rather than isolated results, and her Factory Stock Showdown title in 2019 showed range beyond Top Fuel. She is not related to former multi-discipline racing driver Scott Pruett.