A New Deal at Dream XVII/Catchup

I know this is a LOT later than I would like, but here is a summary of my Dream XVII weekend, and a general catch-up post all in one. It all started when I rolled out Wednesday with my mom, who had never been to Eldora Speedway before, to go see the 7th Annual Prelude to the Dream. I ended up going to this event thanks to the fine folks at Eldora Speedway having a trivia contest about previous NASCAR champions who have competed in the event.  Without that, I most certainly would have just stayed home and purchased the Pay-Per-View broadcast.

The racing itself was not too bad, but I had still seen better racing at the track.  However, it was a fun time, even though, sadly, some fans had to be a bit ignorant.  You could really pick out the dirt track and overall race fans from the straight NASCAR fans who had no clue what a Late Model even was.  
The race would end up being dominated by Clint Bowyer

After this, it was back home thanks to the fact I had to interview for internships for school.  I had packed everything I possibly could have in the motorhome before then so come Friday I could just get changed and then Grandpa and I could hit the road and get to our campsite at the track.  We hit a few snags, including overheating over the Indiana border, and we arrived just as it began raining harder and round 2 qualifying ended up being restarted.  I had missed Jimmy Owens breaking the track record with the first ever 14 second lap for a dirt late model around the high banks.  Fortunately, I got to see Jared Landers go out and set the mark that is now the new track record at 14.922, which is an average speed of 120.630 MPH.  Landers was flat out around Eldora, which was incredible.  With only 91 cars there, that meant no non-qualifier races.  I had predicted 93 cars for the event, while some had thought that there could be 130 or 140, but most fans and insiders believed it would be down, and we all were right.
Saturday early in the morning there was more weather coming.  It hit hard, with heavy rain and strong winds.  I had seen lightning out of the window up top where I was sleeping, and we were able to shut the windows in time.  For some of my friends and fellow fans, it put a large damper on their weekend.  Saturday was the first time I go to grill out at the track.  The wind sucked horribly, but I was able to grill out some delicious brats, but they didn't quite cook fully.
The heats were event filled, but not terribly racy, and the feature was the same way.  Moyer lead most of it with Steve Francis in pursuit most of the way.  Don O'Neal, who to this point had NEVER won a "crown jewel" event.  However, late in the race, O'Neal, who made contact with Moyer, was able to get by Moyer for what was a popular win.  Overall, I'd say the race SUCKED.  The track was one groove around the top and fast.  O'Neal was able to move to the middle and make it work, but he was alone in that.  I had a good time as always, but the racing was by far the worst I had seen in all of my trips to Eldora so far, but considering that was the worst, I won't be too harsh.  Every track can have a show that sucks every once in a while. I will admit, I was happy to see O'Neal FINALLY get a long overdue big race win, as he has been so close before.  No longer will he be dogged by that.  Below are victory lane shots I got of the 2011 Dirt Late Model Dream champion, and the trophy that his name will go on now as well as the field from the race.  There are a lot of victory ceremony photos below.  Congratulations to "The Real Deal" on the big win.  It really was a "New Deal" for someone who has been bitten with bad luck late in big races.