NASCAR’s Popular Return to Dirt To Swell Ohio Heartland Population

ROSSBURG, OHIO (January 29) – Eldora Speedway officials have announced that all reserved grandstand seats have been sold for the Inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Mudsummer Classic, NASCAR’s first national series race scheduled on a dirt track since September 1970.  The historic event takes place on Wednesday, July 24.

The final pairs of tickets were sold last Friday and sales of the remaining single seats continued throughout the weekend until the final one (Sec NTD Row 1 Seat 78) was purchased at 12:35 a.m. Tuesday morning.

There are 300 General Admission tickets remaining for the event.  Eldora’s popular General Admission grassy hillside area, which allows fans to watch from blankets or their own lawn chairs in a festival-style setting, are going fast.  General admission tickets are priced at $36 for adults and $12 for children 12 and younger.  They are available from www.eldoraspeedway.com or by calling the Eldora Speedway Ticket Office at (937) 338-3815.

The celebrated race will establish another milestone – that of being the smallest community to host a NASCAR national series event.   Nestled in the sprawling farmland of southwestern Ohio, Eldora Speedway carries a New Weston mailing address, a village of 136 residents, but is more popularly associated with Rossburg, Ohio, the village just south of the Speedway on State Route 118, which boasts a population of 201.  The village of North Star, the location of a stoplight on US 127 where many make their turn towards Eldora, is the home of 236 residents.

Despite its heartland location, Eldora’s rural address provides a unique atmosphere and has become widely known within the auto racing fraternity.  On many race dates that number swells to the point of becoming Darke County’s largest city and nearly doubles the county seat of Greenville (13,189).  Fans from 48 states, the Virgin Islands, seven Canadian provinces, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand will be charting directions to Eldora for the Mudsummer Classic.

That ritual is repeated many times throughout the season, as Eldora Speedway is the home to many nationally recognized events, including the $100,000-to-win Dirt Late Model Dream (June 6, 7 & 8), the 30^th Annual $50,000-to-win Kings Royal weekend (July 12 & 13) and the 43^rd running of the World’s Greatest Dirt Track Event – the World 100 (September 5, 6 & 7).

The complete 2013 schedule, Eldora’s 60^th consecutive season, including ticket and camping information is posted on www.eldoraspeedway.com and can be requested by phone at (937) 338-3815.  Fans can get behind-the-scenes access by following @EldoraSpeedway on Twitter, hitting ‘Like’ at Facebook.com/EldoraSpeedway and view video highlights at YouTube.com/EldoraSpeedwayInc.  The new Eldora Speedway app for the iPhone, iPad and Android is now available for download via iTunes and Google Play.