Daylight turns into another special evening at Eldora

ROSSBURG, Ohio -- There is so much more to the Prelude to the Dream than merely who actually wins.

That, of course, brings bragging rights in the Sprint Cup garage to any driver of that series who is able to pull it off. And other sure winners every time the event is held include the various charities that benefit greatly, especially the Victory Junction Gang Camp that was founded by the family of Kyle Petty after the tragic racing death of his son, Adam.

But to truly understand what the Prelude is all about and how it all comes together each year, and has with increasing efficiency over the last four years at the charming little Eldora Speedway facility owned by Cup driver Tony Stewart, one must spend the night there (and, as it turns out, a good part of the day as well).

Here is a breakdown of how the running of the Prelude shook down from one first-time visitor's view Wednesday:

7:04 a.m. -- Sitting in the airport in Charlotte, N.C., it is first learned that heavy rains and even a couple of tornadoes ripped through the general area where Eldora is located on Tuesday night. Furthermore, severe thunderstorms appeared to be blanketing the entire state of Ohio early Wednesday, throwing the running of the Prelude into serious doubt.

And just where is Eldora located? Well, the address is Rossburg, Ohio. But one cynic remarked once of a similar out-of-the-way destination: "You know how people say somewhere is out in the sticks? Well, to get to this place you go out to the sticks -- and then you go about seven sticks more. It's in the middle of nowhere."

9:42 a.m. -- Upon arrival at Dayton International Airport in Ohio, it's evident that it has been raining so hard that many areas seen from the air are not just soaked, but completely flooded. What was a light drizzle at the moment of landing has become a complete downpour again in the matter of minutes that it takes for the airplane to taxi to the terminal.

Jon Edwards, public relations whiz who helps get driver Jeff Gordon where he needs to be all the time, places a call to Gordon and tells him it does not look good. Clicking off his cell phone, he adds that Gordon is staying put in New York City until further notice.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Kyle Petty examines the surface at Eldora.

"I figure he's got until about 2:30 p.m. before he has to fly out," says Edwards, who then adds that he's headed to his hotel to wait out the storm. "This does not look good."

9:45 a.m. -- In all the excitement (and in the rush to avoid the raindrops), my one piece of luggage besides the computer bag is left behind on the rental car bus.

"This does not look good," I think to myself, but the abandoned bag is quickly retrieved. Maybe there is hope, after all.

Approximately 10 a.m. -- Stewart, a notoriously late sleeper, rises to the news that it has rained through much of the night and is continuing to pour.

"I'm probably going to die from ulcers. This has not been an easy week from the nerves standpoint," he later admits.

11:46 a.m. -- Bill Janitz, part of the Truespeed Communications PR team that makes all the moving parts of the Prelude work in unison (Mike Arning, Joe Crowley and Laz Denes are among the other prominent players), is reached by phone at the Eldora track. Everyone wants to know the answer to the simple but important question: What is the deal?

"The rain is letting up. We still have hope. Right now we're saying it's still a go," says Janitz, sounding almost as if he was trying to convince himself it were true. He added that more would be known within the hour.

1:01 p.m. -- Another call is placed to Janitz. This time he is more genuinely upbeat.

"It stopped raining a while ago. The clouds are starting to break up and the sun is even poking through in spots," Janitz says. "My suggestion would be to go buy some rubber boots at K-Mart or wear some old shoes whose final resting place might be your room at the Dayton Marriott. It's going to be a muddy mess up here, but I think we're going to get it in."

2:08 p.m. -- On the hour-long drive from Dayton to Rossburg, sunglasses are broken out for the first time all day.

2:28 p.m. -- It's strange seeing houses looming virtually as islands surrounded by muddy water on many farms during the drive. Even as the sun belatedly shines down, the radio blares warnings of flash floods and possible tornadoes in nearby counties.

Are they really going to race on dirt in a few hours?

3:10 p.m. -- Signs for Eldora Speedway cannot be located, even though the Rossburg city limits have been breached. There is, however, a prominent sign advertising the upcoming Rossburg Fire Department ice-cream social.

This is noted just before passing the Rossburg post office, which coincidentally is an all-brick building about the size of a postage stamp.

3:38 p.m. -- After sitting in traffic for a spell right in front of the track, which sits right off State Route 118 and apparently needs no advertisement for its location (at least for the locals), entry into the media lot is at first blocked by Sandy, the friendly parking lot attendant.

Only after a few moments does she relent, laughing and admitting that she had been told to put on the ruse by freelance photographer Jim Vogel, who emerges from a nearby hiding place, grinning widely.

4:12 p.m. -- The media trailer in the infield is located after a long trek through the mud and the famed "Eddie Gossage Tunnel," which track owner Stewart named in jest after the president and general manager of Texas Motor Speedway.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Drivers meet just before the events begin at Eldora.

4:30 p.m. -- Ten minutes prior to a supposed scheduled meeting with the media along with all the other Sprint Cup drivers present, Stewart is spotted piloting a tractor as he works furiously to help get the muddied track into racing condition.

The media will have to wait, as far as Stewart is concerned.

4:44 p.m. -- Cup drivers David Reutimann and Aric Almirola admit they are surprised to be in the Eldora Ballroom, talking with reporters about getting to race in the Prelude. Both were convinced earlier in the day that it would be necessary to postpone the event.

"I got up and looked at the radar, and I was ready to cry," Almirola said. "Everybody gets excited about this race. At least I think everybody does. I know I do."

Reutimann nods his head. "Everybody would have been really disappointed if we couldn't have got it in."

No one more so than Almirola, a Cup rookie but a veteran of all previous runnings of the Prelude.

"He's finally a veteran at something," jokes Reutimann, smiling.

Almirola liked the sound of that.

"You bet. Absolutely," he says.

Then he explains why he likes it so much.

"The biggest thing is just how much fun it is," Almirola says. "We get to come up here, we get to race some of the best dirt Late Models in the country, and we get to race for pure fun and bragging rights. And a trophy.

"There is no money involved. We don't have to impress our sponsors; we don't have to impress our car owners. There's none of that. We just go out there and race and have fun."

4:49 p.m. -- The somewhat media-shy Reutimann has been talking with the media for five minutes. He keeps glancing at his watch.

Is he already bored with us? Or just itching to get to the actual racing?

"No, no, no, it's good that you guys come out and cover the deal, and the money is going for a great cause," he tells a reporter. "So it's an ideal event. Plus this is a historic racetrack.

"I always had wanted to race here and never had the opportunity to do it until last year. So it's neat to be able to come here and race, and to do it for such a great cause. The only thing is, you come here once and you don't ever want to miss it again. It's like once you're in, you don't ever want to get out. So it's pretty phenomenal, but you really look forward to getting out there."

Reutimann says that Stewart is an outstanding track owner. He seems touched that Stewart even arranged to feed the drivers.

"Tony treats us great. We had barbeque and chicken. Good, ol' racetrack food, you know? He even had a little salad for us -- which you don't get at the racetrack too often," he says.

The man speaks the truth.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Red Farmer

4:55 p.m. -- Veteran driver Ken Schrader, who has built a long-standing reputation as a man who will drive pretty much anything anywhere at any time, says he loves coming to Eldora to race.

"It's just so fun because you're not under the usual pressure," Schrader says. "You're still under pressure, but it's just from yourself because you want to run well. It's not like it's a points race or nothin' like that. You don't have to worry about all that stuff."

As for Stewart, Schrader adds: "He's definitely a great track owner; I'm just not sure how he is as a track preparation man. That's got me a little concerned that he's out there on that tractor right now."

4:58 p.m. -- Carl Edwards is still basking in the glory of being the defending champion of the Prelude, after winning in 2007.

"We kind of showed up here last year just to see what was going to happen. We ended up winning the thing, and it was just huge. It was so much fun," he says. "To come back this year as the defending champion is very cool. I think it's going to be an exciting night. The track conditions, I think, are going to be real heavy, and it's going to be real fast racing. I think all of us really look forward to this event."

Again, the subject of Stewart tooling around on a tractor came up.

"I didn't know Tony was on the tractor. I've seen him drive, and I hope it's his tractor. I hope nobody loaned it to him," Edwards cracks.

He added that this night's race was bound to be much different than the one he captured the previous year.

"A year ago, it was a totally different race. I don't know what they do to keep the rain off -- if they tack this down to try to get the rain run off it or what," Edwards says. "But there has been so much rain here lately that this is going to be an amazing race. It's going to be very, very fast. It's way faster when it's wetter like this."

5 p.m. -- Across the room, Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth admits that he is a little overwhelmed by the prospect of racing on dirt. He never did it coming up through the ranks.

"I still have a hard time getting those tear-offs to come off one at a time," he says with a smile. "I tear a whole clump off at once and then I'm in big trouble. I'm going to really have a problem with that if it happens again tonight."

5:03 p.m. -- Ray Evernham, co-owner of Gillett Evernham Motorports, former crew chief and a former dirt-track driver long ago, is asked why the Sprint Cup Series doesn't include a couple dirt races in its schedule.

His eyes brighten at the thought of it.

"That would be awesome," Evernham says. "You'd probably see me come out of retirement and be a mechanic again. I think it would be great. These guys are the greatest drivers in the world, and, you know, why not? We run short tracks; we run superspeedways; we run mile-and-a-halfs; we run road courses. Why not run dirt, too?

"We could do it, and I think these guys would love to do it."

Evernham seems just happy to be here. And to be driving again.

"For me, it's great to be a part of it. I haven't driven competitively since 1991," Evernham says. "To be part of something that raises a lot of money and to be out there with guys you work with every week, you hope you can go out there and have the guys say, 'You know, for an old guy who doesn't race all the time, he didn't do too bad.'"

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Jeff Gordon talks with Tony Stewart before they hit the dirt.

5:06 p.m. -- Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are entered in the event together for the first time. Gordon said it is because he talked Johnson into it.

"I don't care if it's a soap box derby car, a Late Model or a Sprint Cup car, we're going to go out there and try to win," Gordon says.

Gordon says he wasn't sure why their fellow Hendrick Motorsports teammate, the ever-popular Dale Earnhardt Jr., didn't join them.

"We couldn't talk Junior into it yet. We're still working on him. Maybe next year," he says. "I don't think he's afraid. I think he would do well. I think maybe it's his schedule. It's hard to say.

"You know, I didn't come at first -- and didn't really know what to expect and how it was going to go when I did come. And now, after experiencing it one year, I wouldn't miss it for anything. And I think that's the thing: we've got to get him here. Once we get him here, he'll want to come back every year, too."

Told that two years ago, when the event eventually was rained out and postponed, Earnhardt had offered to be the flagman, Gordon chuckled and raised his eyebrows.

"Flagman? I know him. He doesn't want to be the flagman," Gordon says. "He's like a lot of us. He's competitive. He wants to go out there and do good, and not look stupid. That's the way I was last year. I was excited that it went well. Hopefully it goes well again, and I don't look stupid again this year."

5:08 p.m. -- Told Gordon was taking credit for offering him some advice about how to run on dirt, Johnson shakes his head.

"He did? I think he's lying to you. Really, all he did was explain how much fun he had. He's got me so charged on the excitement side," says Johnson, who later would tell others that this was "one of the most intense things I've done in a while."

5:10 p.m. -- Kyle Busch, who has been winning seemingly everything of late for Joe Gibbs Racing, says he expects to see a more relaxed Stewart at Cup events after the Prelude is completed.

"It's a big deal for him, this race. He puts a lot of his energy into this race and this racetrack. So he wants to see it go off and do well. He wants to make sure everybody is happy and wants to come back again next year -- not only the drivers, but for the fans on the outside," Busch says.

"And then you'll probably see him after this week probably in a better mood and probably racin' better, too, because he's not worried about all this stuff."

5:15 p.m. -- As the pre-race session with the media winds down, Midwesterner Ryan Newman, a native of South Bend, Ind., nods toward Ohio native Dave Blaney nearby and observes: "I'm one of the few guys outside of Blaney who actually knows how to get here. So it's nice to come back to the dirt, and it's nice to come back to the Midwest.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson fared well in his Eldora debut.

6:45 p.m. -- Reutimann may be impressed by Stewart's menu selection for the drivers, but the infield concession stand offers up great standard track fare as well.

One of the favorites: the pizza steak burger for $2.50 (the secret to its success is the cheese that is melted in the middle of the burger).

7 p.m. -- The HBO Pay-Per-View live telecast goes on the air. This is important because it was responsible for virtually all of the $800,000 that was raised last year for the Victory Junction Gang Camp, the Tony Stewart Foundation and other charities. The goal this year is to raise a minimum of $1 million for Victory Junction alone.

7:39 p.m. -- Dave Blaney, long ago nicknamed the Buckeye Bullet, breaks Stewart's own two-year-old qualifying record by turning a lap of 15.436 seconds (116.611 mph) at a venue he visited more than once while working his way up in sprint cars earlier in his career. The Ohio crowd cheers its native son lustily, as it does when Kyle Busch slaps the wall on his later qualifying run.

In the end, the top five qualifiers are Blaney, Stewart, the surprising Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and -- despite his second-lap mishap -- Kyle Busch.

8:35 p.m. -- The first three Prelude heats are won, in turn, by Clint Bowyer, Stewart and Robby Gordon. Taken out in early wrecks, respectively, are Mark Martin, Almirola in the first heat, Busch in the second, and Newman in the third.

10:02 p.m. -- As hard as it is to believe after the events earlier in the day, the Rockford Community Fire Company water truck is called out onto the track to settle the dusty conditions that have developed and make the track wetter (i.e. quicker) for the 30-lap main event.

Tony Stewart dominated the Old Spice Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway by leading all 30 laps en route to his second victory in the charity event.

• Complete story, click here
• Complete video highlights

10:47 p.m. -- After leading all 30 laps of the main event, Stewart becomes the first two-time winner of his own extravaganza. Robby Gordon impresses his fellow competitors by finishing a solid second, which is remarkable for a man who had logged a total of 50 laps on dirt ovals previously in his career. Rounding out the top five are Clint Bowyer, former Prelude winner Kenny Wallace and Denny Hamlin, another of Stewart's teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.

11:04 p.m. -- Stewart and his pit crew thrill the sellout crowd of more than 23,000 by climbing the fence in front of the main grandstands.

"I wish people would forget I started that tradition," Stewart jokes afterward.

11:10 p.m. -- Kyle Petty talks with the media about how Stewart promised at least $1 million in proceeds from the night will be handed over to start a new Victory Junction Gang Camp in Kansas City. It will be the second such camp started in Adam Petty's honor, benefiting children who suffer from terminal diseases.

"When Tony started talking about doing the Prelude, the camp was a big part of it," Petty says. "And then when we started talking about Kansas City, Tony sat down with HBO and Old Spice and Coca-Cola and a number of sponsors and said, 'I really want to raise a million dollars, and I really want to dedicate that to Kansas City.'

"We've talked about building a camp out there, and now Tony has gone a long way toward making that a reality. ... It takes people like him, and companies like the ones he brought on as sponsors, to make things like this happen."

11:15 p.m. -- After all the post-race victory poses have been struck and appropriate pictures taken in Victory Lane, Stewart finally catches his breath and meets with the media. Schrader, transformed from fellow driver to reporter for SPEED, jokingly asks about all those laps he logged on the tractor beforehand, wondering if it gave him an edge.

Stewart prefers to talk glowingly of how hard his staff at Eldora Speedway worked simply to get the track in shape to get the event in. He grudgingly admits there are boxes of Schlitz beer, one of his old-school favorites, on ice somewhere nearby in the infield.

"Man, this is dirt-track racin'," he says, as if there ever was a question about it.

Then he turned philosophical.

"Mike Arning said at about eight o'clock or nine o'clock this morning there was about a 99 percent chance this was not going to happen," Stewart says of getting the event in. "I would say Adam Petty had a hand in this today. Everything that was on the radar broke up and dissipated. Watching the Weather Channel, the whole state of Ohio was supposed to have severe thunderstorms the whole night -- and we didn't have one drop of rain. So I would say Adam Petty definitely had his hand in this. It was a miracle."

Indeed, it was -- as it is every year, each one seemingly more than the one before it.