Tony Stewart purchased Eldora Speedway from the Baltes family, which had owned it since the 1950s.

Drivers who own tracks go back to racing roots

So much attention is focused these days on drivers in the Nextel Cup Series that it's easy to forget that the drivers of today were, at one point in their careers, the drivers of tomorrow.

Every driver got his or her start at a local racetrack, one of the 3,200 or so that dot the countryside from Maine to Alaska and Hawaii to Florida.

As is usually the case in NASCAR, several drivers have gotten it in their heads to give something back to the place where they got their respective starts.

Ken Schrader owns I-55 Speedway in Pevely, Mo. Dave Blaney runs Sharon Speedway in Ohio. Tony Stewart is owner and promoter of Eldora Speedway in Ohio. Dale Earnhardt Jr. owns a track as well.

OK, you might ask yourself, there's enough on these guys' plates that they really don't need to add one more thing to it, right?

If it were any other sport, you might have a point. But this is racing, and roots not only have sentimental attachments, they are ties to the future as well. And it's not only drivers these guys are looking for: sponsors are high on the list as well.

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"Obviously we do have a different angle that other short tracks don't because of who we are with NASCAR," Stewart said. "Hopefully what we are doing is opening the eyes of corporate America to the value of short-track racing.

"Even if they only run 100,000 or 150,000 people through their grandstands a year, that is very important because it is the same amount of people they run through on one Cup weekend at a lot of tracks. Even though it is done through the length of a season, we actually put through more than that.

"At that level, it is an affordable price for corporate America that can make a huge impact on the sport."

Stewart was the beneficiary of such an impact last weekend at Texas, when Crown Royal announced it would sponsor one of the most prestigious open-wheel events in the world: Eldora's Kings Royal for winged sprint cars.

Ken Schrader is just at home at I-55 Speedway as he is in the driver's seat of a Nextel Cup car. Credit: Autostock

Crown Royal has made a major splash in NASCAR the past few seasons, backing one of the all-conquering Roush Racing machines and becoming the title sponsor of the Crown Royal International Race of Champions.

So why would a company that is spending millions of dollars in the top level of NASCAR put money into a track in rural Ohio?

It's all about reach, and grassroots racing is viral (that's marketing-speak for word of mouth) in a way that some of the larger series aren't. It's a big deal, as Stewart said.

"This is huge, with so many more drivers like Kenny Schrader, Dale Jr., Dave Blaney, myself owing racetracks, having corporate sponsorship be able to come down to the grassroots level," he said. "A lot of people that come to our facilities are families that can't afford to go to a NASCAR race.

"Having Crown Royal have involvement with what we are doing, not only at the short-track level, but with what they are doing on the national level with NASCAR, really ties it all together and it really makes sense. They have been able to do things for the participants as well."

Crown Royal is adding $1,000 to the purse for each of the 24 starters in the A-Main at the Kings Royal, and while that sounds like pocket change to most NASCAR fans, it goes a long way in the world of dirt-track racing.

Dave Blaney's roots run back to Sharon Speedway in Ohio. Credit: Autostock

It's not even about the money, in all reality. It's about the attention.

Crown Royal gets some solid pub, plus a new field of endeavor in short-track racing. Stewart gets more money for his racers, more attention for his track and the hope of something bigger in the future to help the next Tony Stewart or Kasey Kahne or Jeff Gordon get the push he needs to take the next step.

Plus, it provides a degree of comfort to Stewart for the future.

"There is going to be a day that I am not going to be able to drive racecars any more," he said. "You sit there and wonder, 'What am I going to do with the rest of my life?' I have something now that I can dedicate the rest of my life to helping other drivers come through Eldora Speedway in their quest to get here also."

One thing that helped Stewart and Gordon get where they are is television. Both spent many a night on ESPN during that network's "Thunder" programming, and that got them noticed by the right people in North Carolina.

Stewart said he's trying to get TV coverage for the Kings Royal, and that with the help of a bevy of sponsors, he hopes it can happen soon.

"We are trying to work with SPEED and the Outdoor Channel to see if we can get more TV races at Eldora at some point," he said. "I think with the sponsorships that are coming in, that can help us bring TV to the facility and make it a bigger event for our sponsors.

"We don't have anything currently planned. What we have been mainly focused on last year and this year are what improvements we can make to the facility to dress it up and make it when we get TV there, we can make a huge impression."