From driver’s seat to car seat: NHRA’s Pruett to step away, grow family

From driver's seat to car seat: NHRA's Pruett to step away, grow family. Leah Pruett, in contention for her first NHRA Top Fuel title, will step away from the series at the end of this season to focus on having a second child with husband Tony Stewart. Pruett is currently third in the standings, one spot ahead of Stewart.

What happened

Elon Musk was thrilledThe billionaire and the party have developed a symbiotic relationship to spread their far-right views both in Germany and the USThe Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party rattled European politics this week after a convincing victory in a German state election, which placed it only a few seats away from forming the country’s first state-level far right government since the second world war. Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Composite: The Guardian/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreen Composite: The Guardian/Getty ImagesThe AfD won a shock election in Germany.

“Gut gemacht! ” Musk posted on X a week ago, using the German phrase for “well done” as he congratulated AfD party leader, Alice Weidel. It was one of at least a dozen posts the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made about the AfD following the result. The AfD reciprocated Musk’s praise, with the party’s Saxony-Anhalt leader, Ulrich Siegmund, thanking the tech mogul for his support. Siegmund, who wants German schools to focus less on responsibility for the second world war and whose top staffers include four former members of a banned neo-Nazi youth group, called Musk a “visionary”.

Musk has become a central figure in the global far-right in recent years, using his support and influence to back anti-immigrant activists, illiberal leaders and nativist parties.

The wider picture

Along with a preoccupation with race in the UK, much of that attention has been focused on the AfD, and the major results in the Saxony-Anhalt election, and Musk’s jubilation at their win, have revived scrutiny of his connections to it. Musk’s ties to the AfD and German far-right predate the Saxony-Anhalt vote and coincide with the billionaire’s own public rightward drift. His views on immigration, politics and race, which he expresses relentlessly on X, have over the years become indistinguishable from many AfD policies.

In boosting the AfD and receiving their adulation in return, Musk and the party have developed a symbiotic relationship to spread their far-right views both in Germany and the US. Boosting the international far rightAs Musk became more involved in politics in 2024, backing Donald Trump’s reelection with over $100m of his own money, he formed alliances with several other international far-right leaders who hold anti-immigration views and antipathy for democratic institutions. Musk has appeared onstage with Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei, presented an award to Italy’s ultraconservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, then attacked Italian judges ruling on migrant rights and gave a livestreamed speech at UK anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson’s rally where Musk claimed immigration was causing “the destruction of Britain”.

Musk also connected with Naomi Seibt, a German climate crisis skeptic and anti-immigration activist who frequently posts on X and was 24 years old at the time. Musk began personally messaging her after seeing her posts, Seibt told reporter Paul Ronzheimer of Axel Springer’s Global Reporters Network, and she promoted the AfD to him in their chats.

What has been reported

In late 2024, Musk wrote an opinion column for the German outlet Die Welt expressing his own support for the AfD. Musk’s op-ed claimed that Germany was on the brink of “economic and cultural collapse” that could only be solved by the AfD, which he called “the last spark of hope” for the country. He also argued that the party wasn’t extreme, giving the example that its leader Weidel has a same-sex partner who is from Sri Lanka.

“Does that sound like Hitler to you? ” Musk wrote. As Musk took a prominent role in the second Trump administration at the beginning of 2025, he used his platform and newfound political power to further boost the AfD. In early January of that year, Musk hosted a livestream for Weidel that researchers found gave her a huge boost on the platform as well as translated to a jump in German-language media coverage. “Musk did in fact have an agenda-setting effect on traditional media in Germany,” said Jan Rau, a researcher at Research Institute Social Cohesion and Leibniz-Institute for Media Research.

There was a huge spike of attention from traditional media for Weidel in that moment, and a lot of this attention was actually connected with Musk. ”Weeks after hosting the livestream with Weidel, Musk also appeared via livestream at an AfD rally.

What happens next

Only days after causing an uproar for delivering fascist-style salutes at a Trump inauguration rally, Musk told the AfD crowd in Germany that there was “too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that”. His remarks drew condemnations from Jewish leaders and accusations that he was attempting to normalize the far-right. The limits of Musk’s influenceMusk’s close proximity to Trump and prominent role in the White House following the 2024 election magnified his political power, as well as fears from foreign governments that he was interfering in their national affairs.

After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk made several changes that helped boost the divisive, far-right politics of parties like the AfD. He reinstated previously banned far-right accounts, such as pro-AfD, anti-immigration Austrian activist Martin Sellner – who has taken credit for mainstreaming nativist “remigration” policies – and often promoted international right wing accounts through reposts. “The changes Musk made to the platform has made it much easier for far-right communication,” Rau said. “That’s helpful for the AfD in many ways. ”But researchers including Rau also argue that the rightwing bubble Musk has created on X has its limits.