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Tony Stewart’s NASCAR ambitions are going through a rough patch this season. SHR rolling up its shutters has led to a lot of speculations and one of them is Eldora. Remember Eldora Speedway? It is the legendary dirt oval Stewart owns. It is not just any track—it’s where Stewart cut his teeth as a USAC driver.

However, SHR’s woes have led to unfavorable rumors about Eldora Speedway. But ‘Smoke’ is having none of it. He shut down the baseless stories and set things straight. What exactly did he say?

Tony Stewart has all the answers!

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Stewart-Haas Racing’s collapse has led to a whirlwind of reactions from the racing community. ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast owner and Cup driver Denny Hamlin dissected the incident. Hamlin cited economic constraints stemming from NASCAR’s flawed sponsorship model as the reason. According to him, this could be an aftermath of big brands like Anheuser-Busch leaving SHR last year.

But what about Eldora? SHR’s dissolving led to rumors about Stewart selling the Speedway due to financial reasons. However, Tony Stewart vehemently opposed this ridiculous story. Speaking to FloRacing’s Ben Shelton, he fumed, “I don’t know who was really bored at home and thought they were gonna play a nice practical joke. But this track is not sold, and it is not for sale. This is a tradition with Earl and Bernice that they started back in ’54. And we’re proud to be owners of this racetrack. It’s something we’re passionate about.”

Tony Stewart purchased the dirt track from Eldora’s builder and original owner, Earl Baltes, in 2004. It was in the early days of his career, but Stewart became more hands-on in owning Eldora after retiring from the NASCAR competition in 2016. Attracting 15,000 spectators on an annual basis, Eldora hosts some of the largest dirt racing events in the country, like the Dream and Kings Royal.

In fact, Stewart won USAC races like the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio (1995). Thus, any question of letting go of this sweet project enraged Stewart, as he opined, “Trust me, when my phone started blowing up yesterday, it did not make me happy.”

 

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Tony Stewart further outlined how such baseless rumors are harmful to a team, its reputation, and everyone. “Literally, I had to spend three hours sending text messages to people saying that this is not true. And it does, it affects everybody involved. It affects the fans, it affects our partners, our sponsors. It’s just unnecessary and unneeded. It created a lot of problems yesterday that we didn’t need.”

Now that Stewart has cleared the air of tension over Eldora, he can focus on its dirt events as a robust sponsor is helping them, as envisioned by a late Eldora official.

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American Rebel Light Beer is set to fulfill a dream!

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American Rebel Light Beer is sponsoring the Dirt Track Late Model Dream Week on June 5–8. Its beverage cans will be commercially available for the first time at Eldora Speedway, with the help of Bonbright Distributors. This also happens to mark a special yet sad occasion as Jerry Gappens, the former general manager of the dirt track, passed away on May 28th at the age of 63.

American Rebel CEO Andy Ross acknowledged how they are honoring him at the speedway. “I want to recognize the recent sudden passing of Eldora Speedway General Manager and 2023 Promoter of the Year Jerry Gappens.” He further added, “Jerry was very enthusiastic about launching American Rebel Beer at Eldora and we’re heartbroken he won’t be there with us in person, but he’ll certainly be with us in spirit.”

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In fact, he also said that he couldn’t think of a better place to launch Rebel Light than Eldora. He called it the ‘World’s Greatest Dirt Track’ and he isn’t wrong here. The Speedway hosted some of the most known dirt races. Think of Eldora Million, King’s Royal, and Dirt Late Model Dream. In fact, it also hosted the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races (2013-2019). The track in Rossburg, Ohio, is a half-mile dirt racing facility.

Now that Tony Stewart has set the record straight, do you think he might potentially sell the racetrack in the future? Let us know in the comments below.