The seventh annual Prelude to the Dream will take place Wednesday at the half-mile dirt oval Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The mid-week exhibition race will see some of the best racers from NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA try their hand at Dirt Late Model stock cars in an effort to raise money for a worthy cause.
The event will be shown on HBO Pay-Per-View at 8 p.m. ET and the net proceeds of the coverage will benefit four of the top children’s hospitals in the nation: Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C., Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and Children’s Medical Center Dallas.
The drivers have been broken up into four teams, each team representing one of the hospitals. The teams will take the five highest finishing drivers and add their results together and the team with the lowest score will win.
Eldora Speedway, Tony Stewart Host NASCAR Stars In 2011 Prelude To The Dream
The winning team will donate 30 percent of the net proceeds from the pay-per-view telecast, the second-place team will receive 25 percent and the third- and fourth-place teams will receive 20 percent of the net proceeds.
Here is how the teams are broken up:
- Team Levine: Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Bill Elliott, David Reutimann, Austin Dillon, Ray Evernham and Cruz Pedregon.
- Team Atlanta: Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Ken Schrader, Jason Leffler, David Gilliland and Ron Capps.
- Team St. Louis: Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Justin Allgaier, Kenny Wallace, Ron Hornaday and Ricky Carmichael.
- Team Dallas: Tony Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose, Aric Almirola and J.J. Yeley.
This is the seventh year the Prelude to the Dream has been held, with track owner and host Tony Stewart taking the win three times. Kenny Wallace won the inaugural event in 2005, Stewart won in 2006, 2008 and 2009, Carl Edwards won in 2007, and Jimmie Johnson led all 30 laps last year.
Once the Pay-Per-View event gets underway at 8 p.m. ET, the drivers will have two qualifying laps and run heat races to set the stage for the 30 lap feature event. Marty Reid, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be calling the action in the booth with Dick Berggren and Dale Earnhardt Jr. crew chief Steve Letarte serving as pit reporters.
If you would like to view tonight’s event, you will have to order the Prelude to the Dream on HBO Pay-Per-View. For ordering information visit www.PreludeToTheDream.org or www.HBO.com. Cable customers can order the event using their digital cable box by looking for “Auto Racing: Prelude to the Dream.” DIRECTV customers can find the event on Channel 121, and DISH Network customers can find the event on Channel 455/472.
