'Lucky' Stewart Wins Military Charity Event
Reid Spencer - SportingNews.com
Sep 10, 2009
ROSSBURG, Ohio -- Tony Stewart said he was lucky.
His fellow competitors in the Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream charity dirt late model race at Stewart's Eldora Speedway might not think he's a gracious host.
But with a pass of Kenny Wallace on Lap 13 of the 30-lap feature, Stewart shot to the front and stayed there through two subsequent cautions and won the Wednesday night race by a whopping 3.358 seconds over Clint Bowyer, who shoved Wallace out of the way after a restart with 10 laps remaining.
Kyle Busch finished third in the event benefitting four military-themed charities, followed by Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth. Cruz Pedregon, David Reutimann, Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson completed the top 10.
"Kenny Wallace got a really good start and got out, but after that caution (on Lap 2), it seemed like his right rear went off a little bit, and he lost some drive," said Stewart, who won the race for the second straight year and the third time since its inception in 2005. "Kyle and Clint and myself and Ryan and whoever else was behind Ryan there, we all kind of ganged up on Kenny there, unfortunately, and we all caught him.
"Because the top (line) was so much faster, it made for a really good race, guys moving around and trying to find a spot on the bottom to get by. We just got lucky. We got very, very lucky that Clint and Kyle went to the bottom at the same time on the same corner, and we were able to run around the top pretty hard and catch Kenny.
"But there was a lot of luck, because I tore the racecar up pretty bad. I hit the wall on the first two starts pretty hard and bent the suspension on the right front and bent both wheels. It wasn't a clean race on my part by any means."
Stewart's home-court advantage was apparent during qualifying, when he covered the half-mile distance in 15.405 seconds to break the record of 15.436 seconds set last year by Dave Blaney. Denny Hamlin was second fastest at 15.664 seconds, followed by Newman (15.688) and Busch (15.762).
The heat races helped set the starting order for the main event and produced several surprises. Johnson, who struggled in last year's Prelude, held off Stewart to win Heat 1. Kahne ran away with Heat 2, winning by a full straightaway over Kenseth and Hamlin.
Almirola fought off a persistent challenge from dirt-track ace Bowyer to take the checkered flag in Heat 3, after Eldora rookie Joey Logano slammed the wall in Turn 3 on the third lap in an incident that also eliminated AJ Allmendinger from the heat.
Proceeds from the event will go to Operation Homefront, Fisher House, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and Wounded Warrior Project. The final tally of money raised will depend on the proceeds from the HBO Pay-Per-View broadcast of the event.
The event was scheduled originally for June 3 but was postponed because of rain.
Turnabout is fair play
Nelson Stewart, father of the Prelude's host, likes to tell the story of the pedestrian tunnel Tony Stewart built after purchasing Eldora Speedway, where the elder Stewart has been a frequent visitor since 1956.
The name Stewart gave to the tunnel actually derives from the dedication of the south tunnel bridge to the infield at Texas Motor Speedway, after Stewart complained to track president Eddie Gossage that he had gotten stuck behind the Budweiser Clydesdales on the way to a drivers' meeting.
The solution to alleviating traffic was to build a pedestrian bridge to the infield, which Gossage and Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith christened formally -- but tongue-in-cheek -- "Tony Stewart Bridge," complete with a plaque that bears the name.
Stewart, however, always likes to have the last word.
"When he built the tunnel over there, he named it Eddie Gossage Tunnel," Nelson Stewart said Wednesday.
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