Dirt Racing Shines As Austin Dillon Wins At Eldora

"Now this is real racing right here," exclaimed an elated Austin Dillon as he was interviewed in victory lane following the Mudsummer Classic at the Eldora Speedway. I wasn't there, but I was one of hopefully very many who tuned in to the live coverage on SPEED and I am not going to get into depth here. However, in this day and age where it seems like somebody always finds fault with something, I just wanted to say how proud I am of the sport of dirt track racing right now.

Congratulations to Tony Stewart and his entire Eldora Speedway crew. Thanks to Mike Helton and NASCAR for taking this huge step and bringing the sanction back to dirt after a forty-three year absence. The booth announcers of Allen, Parsons and Waltrip did a great job and the duo of Krista Voda and Clint Bowyer, along with their guests filled the downtime very nicely. A tip of the hat to all 35 drivers who participated and to the 30 who qualified and ran a much cleaner race than most expected. Congratulations to journeyman racer Norm Benning who earned his fifteen seconds of fame by keeping his foot to the floor while bouncing off the wall to hang on to the final qualifying spot. Heat races and a Last Chance race at a NASCAR event, you gotta love it!

As expected the star power of Kyle Larson continues to rise and most of all a tip of the cowboy hat to Austin Dillon for coming from a mid-pack starting spot to take the win. The grandson of Richard Childress is no stranger to dirt having raced both Late Models and UMP-type Modifieds the past few years under the tutelage of Dale and Shane McDowell. One of his more recent Late Model starts was at Florence Speedway where he finished third behind Scott Bloomquist and Shannon Babb during a UMP Summer Nationals event at the 1/2-mile oval just miles south of Cincinnati. His combined experience as a former Camping World Truck Series champion along with his time on dirt paid off big time tonight with the historic victory.

I don't see any reason why this event won't be on the schedule again in 2014 and, despite the fact that Brendan Gaughan cautioned NASCAR to not go to the well too often, perhaps a second event on dirt within a season should be considered. I know a classy little track here in south central Iowa that could pack 'em in nicely.

Back Stretch readers know how great dirt track racing is. Hopefully our side of the sport gained some new fans tonight who will be buying a ticket for the first time at a track near them soon!