Old Spice Prelude To The Dream at Eldora Speedway

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By Deb Williams

Tony Stewart probably will spend most of Wednesday worrying about the weather while more than 25 of his closest racing buddies prepare for an evening of fun, sliding on the dirt at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, all for charity.

In the fourth annual Old Spice Prelude to the Dream, more than two dozen drivers will descend on the half-mile dirt track owned by Stewart to raise money for Victory Junction Gang Camp II in Kansas City and the Tony Stewart Foundation. It's an event that has gained so quickly in prestige and popularity that Stewart must now keep a waiting list of drivers wanting to participate.

“It’s been an honor to have all these guys that are willing to donate their time and come support what we’re doing here and the Victory Junction Gang Camp, and support Kyle (Petty) and Pattie (Petty) and the whole Petty family and what they’ve built in Adam’s (Petty) memory,” Stewart said about the June 4 event. “That’s the part that makes it very flattering that all these guys are willing to do that and take a day out of their schedules. The schedules every year get more complicated than the year before, so to get a day on somebody’s schedule is really big. We try to pay for the fuel for everybody’s planes to come here and none of them have let us to date. It shows how dedicated those guys are; it’s really a big thanks to those guys for what they do.”

Reserved seats are sold out for the event and Tuesday night less than 1,000 general admission tickets were available. Those tickets were to be sold Wednesday at the track, beginning at 11 a.m.

While preparing for last weekend's race at Dover International Speedway, Stewart said he was anxious to see how many of the drivers showed up for the June 4 event with their own cars.

“Last year, I had a car, Ryan Newman had a car, Bill Elliott had one of his cars, Bobby Labonte had one,” Stewart said. “This year Clint Bowyer has a team in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, so Clint’s got his own car, (Kevin) Harvick’s got his own car. There’s a lot of guys that either have existing cars or have built brand-new cars just for this event, so that’s kind of cool.”

In addition to his car, Bowyer is supplying a 2,300-pound Late Model Stock Car capable of producing more than 800 horsepower for defending NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

“I’ve been begging him [Bowyer] not to take me to a race track with a brand-new car,” Johnson said. “Shannon Babb just won the feature a couple weeks ago, so they’re taking that proven car and putting me in it so that they know the car is right and the set-up is right and it’s going to handle well. So, I almost feel more pressure now knowing that it’s a race-winning car. But I’m glad it’s not a brand-new one, to be honest with you. The bottom line is we will have fun.”

Carl Edwards, last year's winner, is returning to defend his title.

“Eldora, to any dirt racer, that’s the same as Daytona or Indianapolis,” Edwards said. “That’s an amazing race track, so to be able to go there and race was huge. To win that race was great, because it’s Eldora, and I got to race against Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. That was huge.

“The true thing that makes that so special, and the reason all of us go do it, is because it’s benefiting Victory Junction Gang Camp. I think that just puts the icing on the whole deal. It’s fun because we race, and then it’s really fun to realize that we’re raising almost a $1 million for such a great cause. So, for me, that ranks very, very high on my list of accomplishments in my life.”

Stewart said it seems the evening has turned into a “personal pride event” for the drivers, who can have fun and race without the stress they encounter each weekend in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

“I had a blast last year,” four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said. “A lot of us started on dirt tracks. I think a lot of the short-track racers think that we’re just these big time drivers that never really had to cut our teeth and work our way up and they forget those times.

“I think it shows the fans what kind of competitors we are, what type of people that we are, and to see us all having fun doing that, knowing that we’re not getting paid millions of dollars to do it, I think it speaks volumes about the drivers that are there, and for Tony to go through all he’s going through for charity.

“For me, I was a little hesitant to go (last year) because I’d never driven one of those dirt Late Models. I hadn’t been on dirt for a long time and, man, on about the third lap I was remembering these days and it was just a blast; just a lot of fun and I enjoyed it very much.”

The battle for dirt supremacy among racing's upper echelon is being presented by HBO Pay-Per-View. The live, commercial-free broadcast begins at 7 p.m. EDT with an immediate replay and subsequent replays throughout the week and the following weekend. HBO Pay-Per-View's racing telecast has a suggested retail price of $24.95. To order the event, one must have a digital cable box or satellite service. A HBO subscription isn't required.

Cable customers should scroll through the PPV channels on their electronic program guide on June 4 at 7 p.m. EDT and look for "Auto Racing:

Stewart/Gordon Race In Prelude/Dream." If your cable system does not accept orders from your remote control, contact a customer service representative.
DirecTV customers can find the event on channel 121 in standard definition and channel 98 in high definition.

DISH Network customers can find the event on channels 455/472 in standard definition and channel 539 in high definition. Scroll through the programming guide for those channels for June 4 at 7 p.m. EDT, and look for "Auto Racing: Stewart/Gordon Race In Prelude/Dream."

Anyone encountering a problem should contact a customer service representative anytime on June 4 to make sure the order has been processed.