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.

The first line created for Twelve Little Race Cars reads: "Twelve race car drivers putting on their suits, fireproof underwear and fireproof boots. Starting up their engines, but one won't go. One little race car doesn't make the show."

Oh so fitting for today's competitive NASCAR arena.

The book, first adapted to Scott's career in open-wheel racing, progresses until one racecar is left and then the little race fans go to bed.

In 2001, the couple published Twelve More Little Race Cars to depict Scott's debut in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. The illustrations and content are very specific to incidents that have all happened to the driver.

"Racing Through the Alphabet" relates each letter to something in racing.

In fact, Judy jokes about a particular red stock car in the book where "eleven little race cars coming fast to race, all drivers trying to set the pace. One bumps another: Hey! That was mean. One little race car won't take the green."

Recall Mexico City and last year's Nationwide race when Pruett was taken out by teammate Juan Montoya with eight laps to go, robbing the driver of his first NASCAR win.

Once fences were mended, Pruett said the two were able to put the incident behind them and have had a few laughs.

The Pruett family aims to infuse high-moral messages throughout their books as well as educational tools.

In 2005, Rookie Racer, a tribute to father and son relationships in racing, was published. It's an inspirational story about a son racing hard to the finish and gets a push from behind from his father to win the race.

"We saw driver Boris Said somewhere and he told us he reads Rookie Racer to his son and said the last page always makes him tear up, every time," Judy said.

In May, their most recent book Racing through the Alphabet was released as an educational tool for learning letters and inspired by the help of the couple's 8-year-old son Cameron.

Cameron was drawing wheels on the letter R one day and the family started right away coming up with letters of items found specifically in racing. N is for Nomex, O is for official and P is for pit stop, etc.

Scott put a lot of effort into making the book as close to racing action as possible, right down to the number of over-the-wall crew members allowed on pit road.

Most racing books he found at typical outlets didn't touch on the finer details of the industry.

"You know parents in racing are gone from their families so often. It's nice to grab these books with the kids at home so they can understand what their moms or dads do at work," said Pruett, whose books have sold about 80,000 copies to date and can be found online or at Target stores.

For Judy, the biggest reward is the thought of children everywhere reaching for her family's books right before bedtime.

"That's the most exciting part," she said, "knowing they are going to be on some kids' bookshelves and so many of those little night stands."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.