After knocking on the door to Victory Lane countless times in five
previous runnings of the Prelude To The Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg,
Ohio, Kyle Busch finally broke through Wednesday night to score his first win
in the all-star dirt Late Model race benefiting Feed The Children.
“This is cool,” said Busch, who outlasted strong challenges from
Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer before finishing 2.283 seconds ahead of runner-up
Tony Stewart. “This is what it’s all about when you go dirt racing. It’s a lot
of fun. I can’t say enough about (team owner) Scott Bloomquist and all these
guys. They give me great racecars every time we come here and I’ve torn them up
a few times, including tonight. We were able to come back through, get a good
heat race, get a good starting spot for the main event and run up front there
with the leaders all night.”
Busch started the 40-lap feature event in second place and
dueled with Kahne and Bowyer, who together led the first 24 laps (Kahne 1-12;
Bowyer 13-21; Kahne 22-24). Busch took over on lap 25 when Kahne suffered a
hard crash into the spun car of Bobby Labonte, sidelining both drivers for the
night. Busch then checked out, beating three-time Prelude winner Stewart to nab
his first career victory at Eldora.
“When Kahne had his
mishap, we inherited the lead and just were able to set sail from there,” Busch
said. “I felt like Kahne had a fast car tonight. He was probably the class of
the field. Bowyer was really hustling hard and making it work through traffic
and got by him. Then we caught the lapped cars and everybody just slowed down.
The pace slowed up and everybody got loose trying to slide each other. Crazy,
freak deal there with Kahne sliding (into Labonte) in (Turn) Three. From there,
we had 16 laps to go and it felt like the longest 16 laps of my career here at
Eldora.”
Austin Dillon finished third in his second Prelude To The Dream start,
with four-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz fourth
in his dirt Late Model debut. Stewart’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Ryan
Newman, finished fifth. Aric Almirola, Cruz Pedregon, Dave Blaney, Ty Dillon
and Justin Allgaier completed the Top-10, with each of the first 10 finishers
receiving a tractor-trailer filled with food from Feed The Children, delivered
to their hometown or city of choice.
Stewart, owner of Eldora Speedway, took great pride in seeing
the sixth different winner take the checkered flag in the charity race he
created back in 2005.
“We had another first-time winner tonight. That’s what the fun
part is,” said Stewart, who like the rest of his Sprint Cup colleagues flew to
Eldora immediately after a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series test at Pocono (Pa.)
Raceway. “There’s a lot of stuff going on. Five days in a row at Pocono, and
for these guys to leave practice at the end of the day today, fly here and
race, and then fly back to Pocono tonight and be back in cars at Pocono at nine
in the morning, I think that speaks volumes to what this event is all about and
what it means for these guys to be here. I’m honored they were that committed
to doing this with us tonight to benefit such a good cause as Feed The
Children.
the best $29.99 i have spent in a long time i just need to find me a dirt track now
ReplyDeleteBest bang for the buck.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Dr. Dirt getting presented with the helmet from Tony's championship run last year and immediately say, its going to his museum for everyone to see, further illustrates the man who has graced us with his passion and knowledge all these years, continues to give.
That's really what last night's show was about isn't it? Giving. I had no problem telling my Wife/Mother of my Son that 100% of the PPV proceeds went to Feed the Children. None of the drivers took a dime. As a matter of fact, those boys just reminded us why we love em. They can't just go to a charity event. They have to create a covert race team and blow through I don't even want to know how much, to put on the best show we're prithee to all year.
It's awesome to see D-Dub screaming and carrying on. Explosions that shook the cameras! Ty Freaking Dillon and Tony going at it in the heat swapping slide jobs. Newman throwing his slide job from the on board camera of Danica, and Cruz Pedregon reminding all the circle track guys that there was an inside to the track.
Tony has put together an IROC that not only works, but has made it appeal so much to be able to charge a premium, and make you feel like you not only got a once a year treat on humpday, but your money is doing something good. He's made the viewers a part of the giving.
So, we give money, they give our money to the needy, they give us a helluva show, Tony gives Dick a helmet, he gives the helmet to the museum, the top 10 give trucks of food away, Danica gave a check for 25k, Tony gave D-dub a ride... Thats a lot of giving!
Extremely gruntled.