Road-course ringer Pruett rhymes in children's books

Scott Pruett is arguably the most decorated road-course racer in the country, but did you know his ability to rhyme is equally impressive?

Yes, it's true. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver is in the No. 40 this weekend in Montreal and is also making a name for himself in the literary world writing racing-themed children's books.

He and his wife Judy Pruett released their fourth title, Racing through the Alphabet, this season and are on their way to publishing two additional works: Harry the Hauler, based on the story of a truck driver, and Roy G. Biv, an educational book helping children to learn colors through racing.

"Two things are really important here; one is that we are creating something really good for the young fans and kids growing up around racing, and two is to provide something authentic for them to take away from the track, something that accurately reflects the sport," said Pruett, who has developed a fan following in NASCAR for his more than two dozen starts in road-course events dating back to 2000.

"Racing Through the Alphabet" was released this year.

The veteran driver's best finish on a road course is in the Sprint Cup Series where he finished second at Watkins Glenn International. In the Nationwide Series his best finish was third place at Mexico City in April, the last time Pruett wheeled the No. 40 Dodge.

Still, a NASCAR win continues to elude the driver who on average competes in the sport twice a year against other NASCAR teams who compete and test nearly year round.

"It's more of a struggle or a challenge when you're not in the car week in and week out. You don't have time to fine-tune the car or your relationship with the team, but I love driving road courses and racing period," said Pruett, whose full-time job for team owner Chip Ganassi is in the Grand-Am Rolex Sport Car Series where he and teammate Memo Rojas lead the point standings. "I'm still very much a student in this sport and I try and take all the knowledge from race to race and continue to learn and adapt as quickly as possible to do what I do best."

His success in NASCAR has been steady, but Pruett and his wife have found immediate success in their children's books published by their own company, World Weaver Books, established to maintain the couple's creative rights.

The way the books came to life was very accidental.

Pruett and his wife Judy, a retired occupational therapist, were home one rainy day with their newborn daughter Taylor, now 10.

It was 1998. Judy was rocking the baby with a rhyme in her head similar to the Three Little Monkeys song when she began putting cars into the lyrics.

"Then I went into Scott's office and asked him what were all the things that can go wrong in racing and then we both started making rhymes and it became a competition, who could come up with the better rhymes," Judy said. (Continued)