Two nights of racing and four Features are in the books at the 55th running of the World 100, but only two drivers have made their way into Eldora Speedway Victory Lane.
Dale McDowell and Jonathan Davenport opened the weekend with victories in Thursday’s pair of 25-lap preliminary Features, and both Georgia legends backed it up with another score on Friday to further establish themselves as the odds-on favorites heading into Saturday’s finale.
Feature 1
The opening laps of the first race of the night saw Ethan Dotson take command as he looked to wheel his Merle Haggard tribute ride to the checkered flag. While he went to work on building a gap to Devin Moran and the rest of the field, McDowell was busy fighting his way up from 10th in the starting order.
It only took “Mac Daddy” one lap to get up to fourth, and he snuck by Dennis Erb Jr. on the bottom to grab third on the next circuit. He needed a bit more time to reel in Moran, but McDowell’s pace around the inside groove ended up being too much for Moran to match through the middle.
With the No. 99 out of the way, McDowell had a two-second gap to make up to Dotson and 18 laps left to get the job done. He only needed five to make it a side-by-side battle for the lead, and when Dotson got too high off Turn 2 after getting around a slower car, McDowell had all the opening he needed to drive away.
The No. 17M went on to lead the rest of the way, but the win didn’t come easy in the final laps. By the time McDowell got the two-to-go signal, Bobby Pierce had passed Dotson for second and gotten within striking distance of the leader. However, the No. 32 had trouble working his way around a lap car, eliminating the opportunity for a Hail Mary attempt on the last lap.
“I knew where [Pierce] was,” McDowell said. “I figured he was rolling around that top, but I kind of rolled around the middle and the bottom to get there, so I wasn’t going to move up until maybe he showed it to me or whatever. Man, I’m just at a loss for words, I’m in awe to be up here two nights in a row. Tomorrow night, it’s going to be tough getting through the Heat Races and all that stuff. Maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to.”
Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 17M-Dale McDowell[10]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 3. 74X-Ethan Dotson[1]; 4. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 6. 1-Brandon Sheppard[11]; 7. 9M-Tim McCreadie[9]; 8. 58-Garrett Alberson[7]; 9. 22-Chris Ferguson[14]; 10. 93-Carson Ferguson[8]; 11. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 12. 11R-Josh Rice[12]; 13. 1T-Tyler Erb[15]; 14. 114-Jordan Koehler[4]; 15. 96-Tanner English[21]; 16. 10-Garrett Smith[20]; 17. 3S-Brian Shirley[19]; 18. 40B-Kyle Bronson[18]; 19. 12-Jason Jameson[24]; 20. 14-Haiden Cowan[25]; 21. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[16]; 22. 8-Kyle Strickler[22]; 23. 81F-Jadon Frame[23]; 24. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 25. T1-Todd Morrow[13]; 26. 13-Dylan Thornton[26]
Feature 2
Following a brief rain delay after the first Feature, Nick Hoffman led the field to green with Davenport on his outside. A “Superman”-like run through his signature middle groove in the first set of corners allowed Davenport to rocket into the lead down the backstretch.
It looked early on like Davenport was set to ride off into the sunset at the “Big E” yet again, but Hoffman never let him get too far out of reach. The gap closed to less than a second in the final 10 laps as Davenport fought his way through traffic, but a move down toward the bottom allowed the No. 49 to find enough traction to bring it home uncontested. The win marked Davenport’s sixth prelim-night triumph on World 100 weekend and the first time he has picked up two trophies prior to the 100-lapper.
“I didn’t know how much it was going to rain and how much it was going to change the track,” Davenport said. “It actually picked it up quite a bit, and then it was just back to chasing brown once again. It didn’t change it as much as what I thought it would, especially once we got out there rolling around. There was really a lot of brown that came back and went back over the black there.”
Hoffman held onto second to earn high-point honors over the course of the two nights of preliminary competition. That gave him the right to spin the invert wheel, which landed on the six to send he and the rest of the top six in prelim points to the outside of the third row in their respective Heat Races on Saturday.
“It’s really cool that we’re this competitive and been this fast all weekend, we’ll just try to do it for 100 laps tomorrow,” Hoffman said. “I think I’ve started this race now seven times, so I’ve got quite a bit of experience at this 100-lap stuff, so that means a lot. I know JD, Dale and all these guys have got way more than I do, but it still helps our program when we get better for all these big races.”
Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 3. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[7]; 4. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 5. 57-Zack Mitchell[3]; 6. 19M-Joseph Joiner[4]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard[13]; 8. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[8]; 9. 22X-Drake Troutman[6]; 10. 44-Chris Madden[20]; 11. 60-Dan Ebert[16]; 12. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[14]; 13. 20-Jimmy Owens[10]; 14. 17D-Zack Dohm[19]; 15. 18J-Chase Junghans[18]; 16. 157-Mike Marlar[11]; 17. 6-Michael Chilton[12]; 18. 25F-Jason Feger[21]; 19. 15K-Wil Herrington[9]; 20. 14JR-Trey Mills[26]; 21. 76-Brandon Overton[17]; 22. 88-Trent Ivey[24]; 23. 44D-Dalton Cook[25]; 24. 89-Mike Spatola[23]; 25. 49M-Luke Morey[15]; 26. 31-Tyler Millwood[22]
UP NEXT: The most prestigious event in dirt Late Model racing concludes on Saturday night with the $72,000-to-win World 100 finale. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
