Jalopnik: Prelude To The Dream

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]

Prelude To The Dream: Pretty Practice Pictures

Ray Wert — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:15:31 EDT

The race is about to start and unless I can find another dust- and dirt-free area to live-blog from with an outlet, y'all may not be hearing from me for a little while. But I did get out next to the dirt track a few minutes ago, and there's not much more to say other than...damn, those are fifty-five pretty pictures of some pretty drivin' on dirt. Enjoy, and check out the rest of our Prelude to the Dream coverage. – Ray Wert

Prelude To The Dream: Juan Wreck Watch?

Ray Wert — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:00:00 EDT

I feel like the shot above should be captioned "My name is Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Stewart is behind me, prepare to die!" Sorry, just had to get that one out of my system. Anyone want a drinking game idea for tonight? How about taking a drink for every lap Juan Pablo Montoya finishes tonight? Wait. Scratch that. We just heard him say "I'm not even sure where or how to shift these cars." It'll probably be over too quick to get drunk. Anyone have any other drinking game ideas? Sorry, after just walking through the driver scrum, we're kinda going to be bored before the race starts. For the meantime, here's our scrumtastic gallery. – Ray Wert

Prelude To The Dream: What To Watch For Tonight In The Dirt At Eldora Speedway

Ray Wert — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:00:00 EDT

Well, we're now here in lovely Rossburg, Ohio in the lovely ~~media room~~ trailer outside of the track. We've already had a chance to get credentialed and although we were supposed to sign some release stating we wouldn't be able to take photos of the track — we may not have had the chance to sign it — wink, wink. So we're going to try our damndest to bring you the fun as we see it. Already we're hearing all sorts of fun stuff, and we've even heard from our track insider their five key points we've got to be watching for tonight. So, in no particular order — other than, you know, the top one — just because it'll be fun to watch:

1.) Juan Pablo Montoya — here for a good cause, NEVER raced on dirt.

2.) Kurt Busch — is he coming? We know Tony hopes so? Will he and Tony get to "talk things over?"

3.) Jeff Gordon vs Tony Stewart — the prime matchup

4.) Red Farmer, the ageless wonder

5.) Schrader — is he the favorite tonight?

What are y'all gonna be watching for tonight on the dirt track — or what else should I be watching for? Stay with us tonight and I'll keep you in the loop at the Prelude To The Dream tag. – Ray Wert

UPDATE: Prelude To The Dream: Juan Wreck Watch?

UPDATE #2: Prelude To The Dream: Pretty Practice Pictures

UPDATE #3: Prelude To The Dream: Watching NASCAR Drivers Learn How To Drive In The Dirt Is Dirty Work

Related:
Jalopnik Gets Dirty With Nascar Tonight! [internal]

Jalopnik Gets Dirty With Nascar Tonight!

Ray Wert — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:00:00 EDT

This afternoon I'll be taking a drive down to Rossburg, Ohio, the home of the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway, for an evening of late model stock car dirt racing action. Eldora's a local track that turns into a boomtown each year for the "Dream Week" — a multi-day extravaganza of mud culminating in Saturday's "Dream," a feature race that's basically the biggest thing around in the world of late-model dirt track racing. But we won't be there for the "Dream" race this Saturday, because there's already more than enough outlets around covering the real racing. Instead we'll just be there for tonight's annual Nascar charity 30-lap dirt race called the "Prelude To The Dream." See how they've done that — they've appended "Dream" with "Prelude." Aren't those Nascar boys smart? Anyway, we'll be down there in the mud this evening live-blogging Nascar racers Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, track-owner Tony Stewart join up with other auto racing stars such as Juan Pablo Montoya and even drag racers Ron Capps and Cruz Pedregon. The last two might actually have the same turning-is-trouble problem as the Nascar folks — especially if they decide to run the race clockwise tonight. So check back here at the Prelude To The Dream tag throughout the evening and into the night as we'll be bringing you fresh and muddy coverage straight from the track. – Ray Wert

[Image credit to csyork65]

Related:
Prelude To The Dream [internal]