Their focus is on Dover, but all eyes are on Eldora track

DOVER, Del. -- Carl Edwards has won 10 times on NASCAR's premier circuit, including lucrative events at Texas and Las Vegas. He's won on the iconic short track at Bristol. He's won one championship in what's now the Nationwide Series, another in a smaller stock-car association, and a pair of track titles at Capital Speedway outside of Jefferson City, Mo. And ranking right up there with all those accomplishments is a victory in an exhibition dirt race in an Ohio town with a population of just 224.

But that's what the Prelude to the Dream, an exhibition organized by two-time NASCAR champion and Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart means to so many of the Sprint Cup stars who have taken part in it. They may be at Dover International Speedway for Sunday's Best Buy 400, but they can't wait to get to Eldora for Wednesday night's all-star dirt race benefiting the Victory Junction Gang Camp's new Kansas City wing, the Tony Stewart Foundation, and other charities.

Prelude to the Dream

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"Eldora, to any dirt racer, that's the same as Daytona or Indianapolis," Edwards said. "That's an amazing racetrack, so to be able to go there and race was huge. To win that race was great because it's Eldora and I got to race against Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. That was huge. The true thing that makes that so special and the reason all of us go do it is because it's benefiting Victory Junction Gang Camp. I think that just puts the icing on the whole deal. It's fun because we race and then it's really fun to realize that we're raising almost a $1 million for such a great cause. So, for me, that ranks very, very high on my list of accomplishments in my life."

Last year's event in tiny Rossburg, Ohio, attracted 20,000 fans and raised $800,000 for charity. But for the Sprint Cup drivers, many of whom started on dirt and see Eldora as a mecca of the discipline, it also presents a welcome diversion from the regular grind. Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne are among the drivers who for one night will forego their Cup cars for snub-nosed, 800-horsepower, dirt-churning machines.

"I had a blast last year," Gordon said. "Just getting back on to the dirt, sliding sideways. I think there's just no pressure, it's a fun event. I think that the way the teams prepare the cars and the way that Tony prepares the track, and the fans, it just takes you kind of back to the roots that you started with. A lot of us started on dirt tracks. When you come here there's so much on you, there's so much pressure on everybody. It's a business. You've got sponsors that you have to try to make happy. You've got timing and scoring, you're trying to move up and go faster all the time. It's just you don't have that pressure when you go there. You go there, you're sliding sideways, you're having fun and it doesn't matter if you win or lose or where you finish, you just had a good time by being there."

How big has it become? Consider that Johnson, appearing in the event for the first time this year, last drove on dirt in 2000, hot-lapping a dirt car at Texas Motor Speedway. Prior to that, hadn't raced on the surface since 1997. But he'll be there Wednesday night. Eldora has that kind of allure.

"It's a track that, regardless of what type of surface you race on or what kind of car you drive, you know it's Eldora. And in a dirt world, it's Daytona. So it means a lot," he said. "The only thing I would say that would mean more to Carl from winning that last year, is if all the dirt late model guys were there. When you're running in someone else's cars, the guys that do it week in and week out are better than any professional coming in and running that car. Carl runs a lot of dirt races and he's won plenty of them. So I would really take the sincerity in winning that event and what that means. It means a lot."

Who's building Johnson's car? That would be Bowyer, an ace dirt racer in his day, and someone with a strong appreciation for both the surface and the venue. He's not taking it lightly. "We're going to have a car for Jimmie Johnson to run, and I made sure it's a car capable of winning. I'm more nervous about Jimmie running than I am. I've got a two-time champ in my seat. As a car owner you don't get that opportunity very often, so I better make sure I take full advantage of it and give him a good ride," he said.

The event, which will be televised on a pay-per-view basis, has presented some drivers with new challenges. Harvick said he's focused on trying to get better as a dirt racer, because nobody wants to go to Eldora and look bad. Hamlin actually tested a dirt car at North Georgia Speedway. Gordon had never driven a dirt late model until last year's race. They all seem to relish the newness of the experience.

"To me it was neat to see guys that have never done that before," said Bowyer, himself no stranger to dirt. "These are the best drivers in the world, I feel like. It was neat to be able to see how quick they adapted and how well they were. I know a lot of the [regular dirt racers] were like, we'll see how they do, they've never done that before, they're gonna suck. My argument was, he isn't running in the Cup Series for nothing. You watch, he'll impress you. Look at Jeff Gordon, he hadn't been in a dirt car in probably 20 years or something and almost won that thing and it didn't surprise me one bit to be honest with you."

Of course, not everyone is headed to Eldora on Wednesday. For some drivers, Sundays are enough. "I like the day off," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.