NASCAR's best battle for pride and charity in Ohio

	Carl Edwards held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch Wednesday night at Tony Stewart's track in Ohio. Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for Eldora Speedway

America's racing cultures crossed paths Wednesday night at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, when the stars of the Nextel Cup mixed it up on a half-mile dirt track in late model stock cars.

This was Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward doing summer stock or Harry Connick Jr. dropping in at your local jazz club; premier talents on a small stage working cheap. Very cheap.

They raced for no money, but they didn't race for nothing. With 23,000 fans packing the grandstands and hillsides and an HBO pay-per-view audience, they raised a big chunk of cash for Kyle and Pattie Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Tony Stewart Foundation.

They also put on quite a show. Nobody cruised. No matter what the stakes, when you put those born to race behind the wheel, they go for it.

Carl Edwards kept the lead over Jeff Gordon in a mid-race, slide-job duel and held off the charging Kyle Busch by a car length to win the Nextel Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice.

This wasn't a NASCAR event, but the title and 18 Cup regulars racing in it speaks volumes about how the event was embraced by the NASCAR community.

"Watching them come off Turn 4 three-wide for the checkered flag was pretty impressive," Stewart said. "My jaw dropped."

Stewart owns Eldora, which celebrated its 53rd anniversary on Wednesday, and the Prelude to the Dream is his baby. The Dream is Saturday's dirt late-model race at Eldora that pays $100,000 to the winner, meaning every top car is in town. Stewart talked them into coming a few days early to supply their machines and the Prelude was born. Now three years old, the event is growing fast.

"To win this race in front of so many folks is unreal," Edwards said. "Put dirt tires on our Nextel Cup cars and come here and it would be the same thing. The type of car doesn't matter. The competition and the way you win the race is what's fun."