Jalopnik: eldora speedway

Tony Stewart Wins Prelude To The Dream At Eldora Speedway

Ray Wert — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:51:41 EDT

Despite a late-minute surge from folks like drag racing champion Cruz Pedregon, who proved quite adept at turning circles at Wednesday night's fourth annual Old Spice Prelude to the Dream charity race at Eldora Speedway, the winner ended up being the man that brought the racers there — Tony Stewart. We're assuming we'll have more in the morning — including hopefully some pictures. But at the moment, we're too busy rioting in downtown Royal Oak over the Red Wings Stanley Cup victory. Full list of finishes below the jump.

Final results: 1. Tony Stewart 2. Robby Gordon 3. Clint Bowyer 4. Kenny Wallace 5. Denny Hamlin 6. Matt Kenseth 7. Kevin Harvick 8. Jimmie Johnson 9. Kenny Schrader 10. Kyle Busch 11. David Reutimann 12. Ryan Newman 13. Red Farmer 14. Jeff Gordon 15. Cruz Pedregon 16. Ray Evernham 17. Ron Capps 18. Carl Edwards 19. Aric Almirola 20. Dave Blaney 21. JJ Yeley 22. Kasey Kahne 23. Bobby Labonte 24. Mark Martin 25. Bill Elliott

Eldora Speedway's Only Three Hours Away...

Ray Wert — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:50:00 EDT

...and the Prelude To The Dream race starts at 7:00 PM tonight. We could totally make it down to the Tony Stewart-owned track. And believe us, we seriously thought about taking a run down to the track from Detroit. But frankly after covering it last year, the thought of spending the next week wiping down the dirt from our laptop again is making us reconsider the idea — even if it's a blast watching Nascar drivers getting schooled on the dirt-track by the local soil-grinders. But — maybe we'll snag it on Pay-Per-View this year instead. Hey, the money goes to a good cause, right? At the very least we'll try to get some updates tonight — in between watching Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals. Jeez, why am I feeling like we're going all Deadspin over here? Whatevs — check out the sweet on-dirt action from last year below.

[HBO]

Prelude To The Dream: Watching NASCAR Drivers Learn How To Drive In The Dirt Is Dirty Work

Ray Wert — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:45:00 EDT

"You know better than anybody how much I like having the car sideways, and actually to be sideways and in control is pretty cool."
-Juan Pablo Montoya

Well, in case you haven't already heard, or weren't paying the mad money for charity for the HBO coverage last night, the winner of the Prelude to the Dream feature race was Carl Edwards piloting the #2 late model. If you're interested in the rest of the results, we've got them below the jump. But we've also got the skinny on some of the other fun that we experienced at Eldora Speedway last night — shots of the Qualifying runs, including Juan Pablo Montoya's first laps on a dirt track evah (including that shot above)! And since we're on the subject, if we'd ended up playing that drinking game off of JPM's laps as we'd posited earlier, we'd probably be pretty drunk. Although the man took a run directly into a wall in one of the late heats, he still managed to, as he said, "run pretty good." Juan made it through all 30 laps in the feature race at a middle-of-the-pack 15th place. Which ain't bad considering he knocked the front end of his car off. In addition, we've also got shots of the first heats to determine Group A and Group B status, which we've got to say — if you've never been to your local dirt track, get down there — it's exciting, it's fun and yes, it's dirty. But it's worth every bit of mud and grime you'll wipe off when you leave. Trust us. – Ray Wert

Eldora Speedway - NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream Presented by Old Spice
ROSSBURG, Ohio - Results of the NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream Presented by Old Spice Dirt Late Model event June 6 at the half-mile Eldora Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (2) Carl Edwards, 30

2. (8) Kyle Busch, 30

3. (4) Jeff Gordon, 30

4. (1) Ken Schrader 30

5. (11) Clint Bowyer, 30

6. (7) Kasey Kahne, 30

7. (16) Matt Kenseth, 30

8. (10) J.J. Yeley, 30

9. (15) David Reutiman, 30

10. (5) Mark Martin, 30

11. (9) Aric Almirola, 30

12. (18) Dave Blaney, 30

13. (13) Kenny Wallace, 30

14. (20) Kevin Harvick, 30

15. (25) Juan Pablo Montoya, 30

16. (17) Denny Hamlin, 30

17. (21) Red Farmer, 30

18. (12) Ryan Newman, 30

19. (24) Cruz Pedregon, 29

20. (22) Mike Wallace, 24

21. (6) Bobby Labonte, 17, Accident T2

22. (3) Tony Stewart, 17, Accident T2

23. (23) Ray Evernham, 5, Spin T2

24. (19) Ron Capps, 2, Mechanical

Elliott Sadler, DNS

Bill Elliott, DNS

Race Statistics

Margin of victory: .305 of a second

Cautions: 3 (Lap 2: Capps stalled backstretch; Lap 6: Evernham spin T2; Lap 17 Stewart, Labonte, Kahne accident T1)

Lead changes: 3 among 3 drivers

Lap leaders: Schrader 1, Edwards 2-10, Gordon 11, Edwards 12-30

Attendance: More than 20,000

Broadcast: HBO Pay-Per-View

Related:
All of our Prelude To The Dream coverage [internal]