It’s been a long time since NASCAR star Jeff Gordon skidded his way around a dirt track.
The four-time Cup champion and current points leader will join other Cup stars next Wednesday at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
The unique all-star race will also feature Eldora owner Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya. They’ll race 2,300-pound dirt late-model stock cars.
“I can’t remember the last time I was on dirt,” Gordon said. “It would have been in the early ’90s when I was still racing midgets and sprint cars, before I went full time into the Cup series.”
The HBO pay-per-view event will be broadcast live nationwide, with proceeds going to the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Tony Stewart Foundation.
The format includes practice sessions, two-lap qualifying, inverted heat races, a last chance race and the 25-lap main event.
“It’s a typical Saturday night short-track format, but it’s the largest field of Cup drivers outside of an official NASCAR Nextel Cup event,” Stewart said. “You get to race against your peers and the guys you compete against every weekend, but in a lot more relaxed atmosphere.”