Racing on Eldora's dirt path special for big-time drivers (cont'd)

"All kidding aside, he's one of the coolest guys around. Not because he's Tony Stewart, but because of what he's done for this sport -- and I'm not talking about just NASCAR," Yeley said. "Here's a guy who has given back. He's just a pure racecar driver. He's taken one of the best dirt tracks in the country and made it better. Being a fellow dirt guy -- and all of us love dirt racing -- it's just really neat to see that."

Bowyer, whose background also is in dirt racing, said that going to a place like Eldora to race brings back fond memories of sleeping 10 to a room at a cheap motel and competing for the pure joy of it more than anything else.

Track Facts

LAYOUT:	Half-mile dirt oval
BANKING:	Turns, 24 degrees; straightaways, 8 degrees
CAPACITY:	17,905 permanent seats plus hillside seating

Back in the day, he said, "No matter how you run, you could go out and have fun and have a beer afterward and then get up the next morning and get things rolling again for the next night. Now, if you run bad, you've got a lot of people to answer to. You've got a pretty angry boss; you've got sponsors who are wondering what's going on. It's your career, you know? It's your life. So it is different."

Yeley added that anyone with a background in dirt racing always jumps at any opportunity to go back and run on it again.

"That's where all the fun is at," he said. "It's not that I don't have fun on Sundays. But at this level, the Nextel Cup level, there's not a lot of fun to it -- because there is a lot of pressure. Your races are so long. You're always intense, if it's focusing on your line, racing somebody or racing the racetrack, making sure you take care of all you're sponsor commitments. You don't get to just show up on Sunday and race.

"I've always been very hands-on. When I get to go to a dirt track, I'm getting dirty and working on the car, signing a few autographs and then you go out and get to race with no pressure. It's fun when you get to go do that, because it's more like a pastime versus a job."

No one realizes that more than the often-controversial Stewart.

"There is a simplicity to it," Stewart said of returning to race on the dirt of Eldora. "With every bit of fame and fortune that you have, there is responsibility and pressure that goes along with it. It's an even scale. It's a lot of fun to go there and not be there for three days -- to just show up in the afternoon and race and then load up and go home that night.

"That's what makes an event like this fun. Everybody can go there, and they're not worried about what time do I have to be at hospitality and what time do I have to be there or what time to I have to do this or do that. It just makes it a lot simpler."

Eldora is a simple kind of place. On the nights of really big races, the main concession stands stay open all night -- as in overnight -- to accommodate hungry and thirsty customers, many of whom cram the on-site campgrounds for up to a week at a time. They serve cold Mountain Dew in cans and the establishment's most famous menu item is what once was described by a reviewer as "something called a Pizza Steak" -- a double burger with Italian dressing and Mozzarella cheese.

Natives of Ohio are familiar with the Pizza Steak concept, and it's a tasty one. It's just that the rest of the world has yet to catch on.

The bottom line is that Stewart knows what makes his customers at Eldora happy, and works hard to keep them that way. His Prelude event is just that: a prelude to The Dirt Late Model Dream that is one of dirt racing's premier events every year and will be run later this week at the same venue.

The Prelude also is lots of fun and raises a large amount of money for a very worthwhile charity in the Victory Junction Gang, which benefits disabled and disadvantaged children. (Continued)