FanHouse Prelude To The Dream

NASCAR fans, join us here at FanHouse.com as we chat with Ryan Newman on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 4:15PM ET.

Ryan will be joining us from Eldora Raceway, site of Tony Stewart's rescheduled (rained out in June) Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream race featuring nearly two dozen NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, as well as racers from other series including the NHRA and World of Outlaws.

If you can't be there, catch "The Prelude" on HBO pay-per-view at 7PM ET.

Join 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth on Friday at 12:15 PM ET for a live chat. Kenseth, who will drive the No. 17 R+L Carriers Ford Fushion in Saturday's Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, is ranked 12th in the championship standings. He is one of two drivers in position to have qualified for the Chase for the Championship playoff format every year since its 2004 inception.

Next Wednesday, Kenseth will join an elite lineup of the sport's best when he competes in the Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream at Eldora (Ohio) Speedway -- a charity race organized by Tony Stewart and broadcast live on HBO pay-per-view. Join this year's Daytona 500 winner on the chat as he answers your questions live.

Richard Childress Racing driver Clint Bowyer took a moment this week to chat with FanHouse. Here's what the Kansas native told us about good meals, gettin' back home, next Wednesday's Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream (live on HBO pay-per-view) and Elvis:

1) What's the one race, across any division or any type of race cars, that you've always wanted to win?

Clint Bowyer: It'd definitely have to be Daytona. The Daytona 500 has always meant so much to our sport and to me personally. Kansas Speedway would certainly be a close second -- just because I have all my family and friends there.

Since rain ruled over racing again on Wednesday to postpone Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream (no, really, I love four-hour road trips for nothing!) I figured a nice little story from my chat with David Reutimann last week would be something to tide over your dirt track racing cravings.

By now, you've probably heard of "Buzzie" Reutimann.

Whether you're a Florida short track aficionado that lives and breathes places like East Bay or you're still wondering how in the world David Reutimann snuck out a win in the Coca-Cola 600 two weeks ago, you've at least seen something about the elder Reutimann -- "Buzzie" -- as he was on hand for his son's first Sprint Cup victory.

Since we're a little late on this week's edition of Sprint Cup Notes & Quotes, we're gonna do both a rewind of last weekend's festivities at Dover and a bit on Wednesday night's Prelude to the Dream. Capisce? Capisce.

Prelude to the Twitter - Can't be in or around the booming metropolis that is Rossburg, Oh., (Pop: 224) for Wednesday night's Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway? No problem, FH has you covered with live twittering from the fourth row up behind the start/finish line just for you! Follow us here: www.twitter.com/FanHouseRacing

Rain, for the love of Pete, go away - What happens when you invite 20-plus NASCAR drivers to compete in a charity race at a half-mile dirt oval? Well, they bring rain -- just as they have for three of the past four NASCAR event weekends.

Tony Stewart likens it to Tiger Woods taking his buddies out to the local putt-putt golf course or Michael Jordan playing a pick-up game at the neighborhood park.

As the two-time NASCAR champ Stewart hosts the fifth rendition of his "Prelude to the Dream" exhibition race on Wednesday, it's very evident that what may have started as a favor to help Stewart's charitable foundation is now also one of the hottest invites in all of racing.

A five-day span of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing couldn't have any better for David Reutimann and his suddenly surging Michael Waltrip Racing.

Friday afternoon, the driver of the No. 00 Toyota scored the pole for Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Raceway, just days after his Monday win in the rain-delayed and then shortened Coca-Cola 600.

And to hear Reutimann tell the story earlier this week, there was a time when this type of success for MWR was not only unexpected, but the whole operation of MWR appeared to on the brink of closure.

Several of NASCAR's biggest names and personalities will descend on a tiny Rossburg, Ohio, half-mile clay oval next Wednesday for what has now become the hottest sideshow of the NASCAR season.

Hosted at the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway, the drivers will be joined by over 20,000 fans and hopefully many more for the HBO pay-per-view broadcast of the fifth annual Prelude to the Dream. Nationwide Series driver and SPEED TV personality Kenny Wallace, though, can't help to think how cool it would be to have NASCAR return to its dirt track roots.

"It would be nothing new, right?" said Wallace on Wednesday. "NASCAR used to run on dirt all of the time."