Kyle Busch wins Prelude to the Dream, crosses another event off his ‘bucket list’
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It was billed as the perfect night and the 2012 Prelude to the Dream lived up to its billing.
Kyle Busch has been trying to win this thing for six years and the inevitable finally happened on Wednesday night as Shrub held off a hard-charging Tony Stewart and Austin Dillon to cross yet another achievement off his ‘bucket list.’
He’s won the Snowball Derby, he’s won numerous races at the NASCAR Sprint Cup level, and now Busch can call himself a winner of the Prelude to the Dream, winning for car-owner Scott Bloomquist.
I’m on the record as saying that racing success is 90 percent chance and momentum and that’s exactly what Busch had at Eldora Speedway on Wednesday night. What he didn’t have was the fastest car. That honor likely belonged to Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer who battled for the lead in the early laps before they both succumbed to mid-race accidents.
Busch ran the smartest race, keeping his very-fragile nose out of trouble, cruising unopposed over the final 16 laps to win $10,000 for his charity of choice - the City of Mooresville, N.C.
Each of the top-10 finishers will have a food truck donated from Feed the Children in the city of their choice. Busch becomes the sixth different winner of the event, succeeding Stewart, Bowyer, Ken Schrader, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards.
“I can’t thank Scott Bloomquist who works on these cars for us,” Busch said. “We’ve been so close and to finally to win one of these is a big deal for us.”
Twenty-six drivers, including 14 from the Sprint Cup series, competed in late-model stock cars in the 40-lap event that benefited Feed The Children with the net proceeds from the HBO pay-per-view telecast. Feed The Children also will send a food truck to the hometown or a city of choice of the top-10 finishers. The event has raised more than $3.5 million for various charities since its inception in 2005.
Credit has to go to Tony Stewart who promoted his tail off to make this a signature event. The 26-driver roster was one of the deepest in event history, featuring stars from every discipline of motorsports.
Each heat was bookended by fireworks and pyro, rivaling the production of Bruton Smith on his best day. And Stewart’s not done yet with the driver/promoter hoping to have a video monitor in place by next year’s Dream Weekend.
In short, it was a great event for a great cause. Why don’t we do things like this more often?
Feature Race Results
1.) Kyle Busch
2.) Tony Stewart
3.) Austin Dillon
4.) Donny Schatz
5.) Ryan Newman
6.) Aric Almirola
7.) Cruz Pedregon
8.) Dave Blaney
9.) Ty Dillon
10.) Justin Allgaier
11.) Jimmie Johnson
12.) Kenny Wallace
13.) Ray Evernham
14.) Bill Elliott
15.) Danica Patrick
16.) Kasey Kahne
17.) Bobby Labonte
18.) Jason Leffler
19.) Clint Bowyer
20.) David Gilliland
21.) Ron Capps
22.) Tony Kanaan
23.) J.J. Yeley
24.) Ken Schrader
25.) Steve Kinser
26.) Kurt Busch
The complete qualifying, heat, and feature results can be found here.
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