Eldora Speedway | 13929
St Route 118 | New Weston | OH | 45348
For immediate news release e-mail: mail@eldoraspeedway.com
DIVERSE
RACING BACKGROUNDS CONVERGE AT ELDORA
NEXTEL
Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice on June 6
Features
Veteran Dirt Track Drivers Racing Against Dirt Neophytes,
with
all of the Action Live on HBO Pay-Per-View
ROSSBURG,
Ohio (June 2, 2007) – Tony Stewart, J.J. Yeley and Dave
Blaney say they regularly play on it. Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman
have had a long hiatus from it. Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin and
Kevin Harvick have very limited experience with it. Juan Pablo
Montoya might have only seen it in a flower bed.
What are
all of these race car drivers referring to? They are talking
about dirt, specifically the clay surface of the half-mile Eldora
Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, home to the June 6 NEXTEL Prelude
to the Dream presented by Old Spice.
The ultra-competitive
all-star race, featuring a diverse cast of some of motorsports’
most talented drivers with dirt and pavement experience, will
be broadcast live for the first time on HBO Pay-Per-View with
proceeds from this ground-breaking telecast supporting the Victory
Junction Gang Camp and the Tony Stewart Foundation.
The live
broadcast will begin at 7 p.m. EDT (4 p.m. PDT), with an immediate
replay and subsequent replays throughout the week and the following
weekend. Prospective viewers can order the pay-per-view broadcast
beginning Sunday, right up until race time. All that is necessary
to order the broadcast is digital cable or satellite service.
A subscription to HBO is not required. The suggested retail
price for the event is $24.95. It is available to more than
61 million pay-per-view homes. Ordering information and up-to-the
minute racing information is available at www.hbo.com/sports.
Of the
26 drivers scheduled to compete in this year’s event,
10 have significant experience on dirt. Stewart, Yeley, Blaney,
Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Ken Schrader, Red Farmer, Clint Bowyer
and Kenny and Mike Wallace grew up on dirt and continue to test
their skills in extra-curricular dirt track races across the
country.
Other drivers,
such as Bill Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and David
Reutimann have only begun running on dirt in recent years.
Still others
have a ton of dirt track racing experience, but not recently.
Jeff Gordon hasn’t run a dirt race since coming to NASCAR
in 1991 when he competed in the NASCAR Busch Series. And Ryan
Newman is another NASCAR driver who cut his teeth on the dirt
bullrings of USAC, but has seen only limited dirt track action
since joining Penske Racing’s NASCAR operation in 2000.
Then there
are the drivers with little to no experience on dirt. Ex-Formula
One driver Montoya has never raced on dirt, and just behind
him with only a handful of dirt appearances – most of
which came in the previous two NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream presented
by Old Spice events – are Hamlin, Martin, Harvick, Aric
Almirola, Kyle Busch, Ray Evernham and Elliott Sadler. Also
included in this group are Ron Capps and Cruz Pedregon from
the NHRA, where neither dirt nor turning left is a part of their
regular driving regimen.
Gordon
is set to make a return to the dirt of Eldora Speedway for the
first time since 1991. He last turned a lap at the facility
in a USAC National Midget Car Series event en route to winning
the championship later that season.
“It’s
been a long time since I’ve raced at Eldora,” said
Gordon. “Of course, that was in a Sprint car or a Midget
or a Silver Crown car. So, I’m really looking forward
to racing one of the late models. I’ve never done that
before. But it’s going to be spectacular. If you look
at the list of drivers – it’s like a Nextel Cup
event with dirt late models, which I think is going to be very
cool.”
Gordon,
a four-time Nextel Cup champion, knows the transition back to
dirt won’t be easy after a 16-year break.
“I’m
sure it’s going to be a transition,” said Gordon.
“Any time you haven’t done something in awhile,
it is going to take you a little while to get the hang of it
again. Plus, I’ve never driven a late model on dirt, and
they drive a lot differently than Sprint cars or Midgets do.
So I’ve been talking to Tony (Stewart) a little bit about
it and I’m looking forward to going there and giving it
my best shot.”
Another
driver with dirt experience who will look to hone his skills
at Eldora is Kasey Kahne. The seven-time Nextel Cup race winner
last competed on dirt this past winter in Australia, but will
tackle a new challenge at Eldora in a dirt late model.
“I
have a lot of experience on dirt,” said Kahne. “I’ve
raced on dirt in Sprint cars and Midgets, with and without wings.
The last time I was on dirt was at a couple of dirt races in
Australia over the winter, but I’ve never raced a dirt
late model car.
“The
best part about racing on dirt is being on the edge, and being
able to race on the edge like that, sideways, getting all you
can. Eldora is such a fun race track to be on. You can get all
you can and not be on the edge of crashing. So this is a little
bit different of a deal. It’s fun and I can’t wait
to get there and get started and try to figure out those cars.”
Then there
are guys like Yeley, a five-time USAC champion, and Blaney,
who raced in the World of Outlaws. Both grew up racing on dirt
and look to jump back into a dirt car every chance they get.
“That’s
what I grew up doing,” said Blaney, whose family owns
Sharon Speedway, a dirt track in Hartford, Ohio. “That’s
the only thing I knew for a long, long time. I started in the
early ‘80s and it was mid-‘90s before I got to run
any NASCAR races, or even on pavement, so there are 12 or 15
years where I was nothing but a dirt track guy.”
Yeley also
has a passion for racing on dirt, particularly at Eldora, where
he has competed in countless USAC races dating back to 1997.
“Eldora
is probably one of my favorite race tracks in the world,”
said Yeley, who started his career racing on dirt at Manzanita
Speedway in his hometown of Phoenix. “Any time we get
the opportunity to go run on dirt, I’m the first one in
line. The most difficult thing about racing on dirt, especially
at Eldora, is trying to find the right groove to suit your race
car. It’s not like the race tracks we drive on Sundays,
where the bottom is the predominately fastest groove. It’s
a matter of finding the groove that fits your race car, and
it’s not always the most favored groove.”
The third
annual NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice will
take place at Eldora Speedway on June 6. Gates open to the public
at 3:30 p.m. EDT, with practice scheduled to begin shortly after
6 p.m.
For more
information regarding ordering the event on HBO Pay-Per-View,
log on to www.hbo.com/sports.
-TSC-
