Tony Stewart Shows Who's the Boss in Prelude to the Dream at Eldora

Being the boss and racetrack owner may give him a leg up, but it was Tony Stewart's talented right foot that once again proved to be the difference in Wednesday's Gillette Young Guns' Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

For the third time in the Prelude's five-year history, Stewart won on his home turf in front of a standing room only crowd of more than 23,000, as well as a national pay-per-view audience.

Stewart's other Prelude wins came in 2006 and last year.

And while Stewart may have led the entire race from start to finish last year, this time he won Wednesday's event in convincing fashion, defeating closest challengers Clint Bowyer (who also started from the pole) and former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch by nearly a full straightaway on the celebrated half-mile dirt track in west-central Ohio.

"Hometrack advantage," is how Bowyer explained Stewart's supremacy. "He's not a two-time [Sprint Cup] champion for nothing. He deserves to win. It was a good day. I'm happy. It was a lot of fun."

Just before the midway point of the 30-lap main event (five laps longer than last year's race), Stewart expertly maneuvered through a four-wide pack of cars to grab the lead and never looked back in an event that had to be rescheduled after being rained out for the second time in the event's history back in June.

"This was an awesome race and we had a lot of fun tonight," Stewart said. "It makes up for the spring rainout, for sure. We had an awesome run there and were lucky to get by them."

In its four previous years, the Prelude had raised over $3 million for charity. Wednesday night's event was expected to close in on a cool million, if not more, with the proceeds going to four charities to help soldiers who have been wounded in battle.

"We're proud to do it and something we're very passionate about," Stewart said of the Prelude's charitable foundation. "The fans keep making it bigger and better every year, and as long as they keep coming and I can keep getting drivers, we're going to keep doing it.

"This is probably the best one I've run. We won last year and led the whole thing, but we weren't perfect tonight ... hopefully we raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity tonight."

Added veteran NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace, who won the inaugural Prelude in 2005, "This is a great cause and a great way to pay it forward."


Wallace was knocked out of last night's finale after a skirmish with runner-up Bowyer and failed to finish, ending up 17th of the 23 cars entered.

After three heat races that were relatively uneventful -- won by Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola -- the night's finale had early wrecks that eventually led to the race being stopped while wreckage was cleared.

Stewart's Sprint Cup teammate, Ryan Newman, finished fourth in the race, followed by Matt Kenseth. Rounding out the top 10 were drag racer Cruz Pedregon in a surprising finish from a guy who typically never turns on a drag strip, followed by David Reutimann, Almirola, Kahne and Johnson.

Six other cars and their drivers finished the race in 11th through 16th: Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers, drag racer Ron Capps, Marcos Ambrose, Casey Mears and the always awesome Red Farmer.

Failing to finish, most primarily to a multiple car wreck two-thirds of the way through that knocked several drivers out of the event for good, were Wallace, Robby Gordon, Ken Schrader, Joey Logano, Ray Evernham, A.J. Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin.

The sixth edition of the Prelude will likely be held once again next June at Eldora Speedway.

Several drivers who had previously committed to running in the event were unable to attend:

* Carl Edwards, who won the 2007 Prelude, was forced to withdraw due to the broken right foot he suffered last week while playing Frisbee with friends.

* Bill Elliott was a no-show for a similar reason after sustaining three broken ribs in a dirt bike accident last week.

* Dave Blaney was unable to make it due to the death of his aunt.

* Jeff Gordon, who did attend the rained-out event in June, was unable to return due to a previously scheduled engagement.

Among the night's other highlights:

* Five of the 23 drivers in the field had their first experience racing on dirt in their careers: Allmendinger, Vickers, Ambrose, Logano and Mears.

* Welcome to dirt track racing, kid: You have to pity Logano in a way. In his first time ever on dirt, the 19-year-old Sprint Cup rookie had his hands full all night. First, his primary car was wrecked when he lost control and hit the wall in a heat race. Then, after Stewart loaned him his backup car for the main event, Logano totaled that car. Only this time, it wasn't his fault. He was caught up in a multi-car wreck that brought out the red flag. Logano had told reporters that he was apprehensive about coming to Eldora. I bet he was probably VERY happy heading back home from it after perhaps the most trying night of any of the nearly two-dozen participants.

* Fabled driver Red Farmer, founding member of NASCAR's legendary Alabama Gang, will turn 79 in October (although some reports have him as old as 82). Farmer, who ran his first competitive race 61 years ago, had issues with his car, yet still managed to be the pilot of the last car running Wednesday night.

* Speaking of Farmer, he had arguably the best line of the night during pre-race interviews: "I have to keep moving. If I don't, I'm going to freeze up from arthritis."

* Proving that Stewart really does know every inch of the track he owns, his qualifying effort prior to the three heat races was a new track record of 15.40 seconds.

* Stewart, Kahne and Farmer all received the greatest amount of cheers from the fans in attendance.

* Not surprisingly, Kyle Busch received the most boos during pre-race introductions.

FINAL FINISHING ORDER
1. Tony Stewart
2. Clint Bowyer
3. Kyle Busch
4. Ryan Newman
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Cruz Pedregon
7. David Reutimann
8. Aric Almirola
9. Kasey Kahne
10. Jimmie Johnson
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Brian Vickers
13. Ron Capps
14. Marcos Ambrose
15. Casey Mears
16. Red Farmer
17. Kenny Wallace – DNF
18. Robby Gordon – DNF
19. Ken Schrader – DNF
20. Joey Logano – DNF
21. Ray Evernham – DNF
22. A.J. Allmendinger – DNF
23. Denny Hamlin -- DNF
DNF = did not finish