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Tony Stewart Raised Clouds of Dirt and a Million Bucks for the Kids

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by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

June 5, 2008 9:47 pm UTC 4 Comments

Tony Stewart on track in the Prelude 2008I finally got a chance to attend Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream All-Star race for Dirt Late Models, NASCAR  super-stars and the kids of Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang Camp II.  It was a blast.

A work buddy of mine has attended every year and after the 2007 race I decided that, since I’m only a couple hours away, I needed to be there this year.  So I was.

Western Ohio had been drenched with rain leading up to race day.  It threatened throughout Wednesday too but the weather held off.  The wet prelude to the Prelude was seed for some new Tony Stewart legends though.

The night before the the big Wednesday event had seen tornado warnings in the area.  Reportedly it was Smoke driving his four-wheeler through the camping areas surrounding the track, advising campers to batten down for the coming storms.

The heavy rains made for a lot of extra preparation work to get the dirt surface ready for the powerful dirt late models used in the Prelude to the Dream and Tony was out personally working on the track well past one o’clock in the morning Wednesday.

Before the racing started Wednesday evening, we watched Stewart drive one of the track trucks lap after lap – part of the time with passenger Kyle Petty – trying to get the surface just right.

And it worked.  The racing  came off without a hitch – either natural or man-made.  The crowd was big and boisterous.  In the end, Tony Stewart won the feature and then presented Kyle Petty with a check for one million bucks for Victory Junction Gang Camp II.

It was a fun day and it felt a little special to be part of that million dollar donation.  I’m going back next year for sure.

Photo credit: Split Second Sports and Panther Creek Design & Photo

Filed under: Eldora Speedway, NASCAR & the Media, Nascar Legends, Prelude to the Dream, Robby Gordon, The Pettys, Tony Stewart 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Tony Stewart Raised Clouds of Dirt and a Million Bucks for the Kids”

  1. User Avatar Marc on June 5th, 2008 11:48 pm

    Charlie, you KNOW where you can go doncha?!

    :-)

  2. User Avatar Charlie Turner on June 6th, 2008 12:20 am

    Marc, it was one of those rare deals that is even better than you hope. Great facility. Fantastic program. Little, inside stories that you couldn’t get unless you were actually there. I’m still digging dirt out of my ears, but it was GREAT. And those people down there, track workers and local fans both – it’s obvious that they love Tony Stewart. It was cool.

  3. User Avatar Marc on June 6th, 2008 5:40 am

    Yeah sure rub it in.

    OH the PAIN!

  4. okla21fan on June 6th, 2008 7:47 am

    Dirt is for farming!!!!!! ;)

    Sounds like a good time had by all.

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