Stewart leads early, finishes sixth in the Dream

Tony Stewart started from the pole for Saturday night's Dream at Eldora. He led for a while and had a spirited battle with Scott Bloomquist before fading to sixth at the checkers—but that is more than respectable in a field of more than 100 cars (including heats).

Our View: Stewart won his heat and earned the respect of the late model crowd.

Stewart 24th fastest in time trials for the Dream

With the Prelude to the Dream washed out, Tony Stewart is making it up to fans by trying to race his way into the Dream itself. On Friday night, he had the 24th fastest Late Model dirt car in time trials with a lap of 16.089 on the half-mile Eldora Speedway.

"Kid Rocket" Josh Richards posted the fastest lap of 15.655.

Our View: To further put this in perspective, 109 Dirt Late Models took time and another seven cars are signed in to run the heats.

Rain everywhere

Rain has slowed activity in Indianapolis and Charlotte both. Qualification for the Indy 500 is on hold, but hopefully tonight's All-Star activity will go as planned.

Our View: For that matter, the World of Outlaws Late Model race in Lawrenceburg, Ill. has been canceled by rain. It's hard to be a race fan some weeks.

Schrader to run WoO Late Models

Ken Schrader might not have a NASCAR ride for the moment, but he'll be racing on Memorial Day. He joins the World of Outlaws Late Model series for a tripleheader at US 36 Raceway, 34 Raceway and Charter Raceway from 5/22 through 5/24, according to the WoOLateModels Web site.

Our View: You can't keep Schrader out of a car, and it's great to see him competing in a major series such as this.