NASCAR: Tony Stewart Raises Clouds of Dirt, $1 Million For Kids

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I finally got a chance to attend Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream All-Star race for Dirt Late Models, NASCAR superstars 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. 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 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 1 a.m. on 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 $1 million 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