Eldora Speedway
Notes: Madden seeks clean air, first World 100
By Kevin Kovac and Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt
Chris Madden (44) leads Jonathan Davepnort (49). (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 4) — Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., fell short of victory in Thursday's second 25-lap World 100 weekend semifeature at Eldora Speedway, but his runner-up finish was certainly no quiet performance.
After overtaking Eldora master Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., to lead laps 9-12 before ceding the spot back in lapped traffic taking the checkered a modest 0.809 of a second behind the race’s $12,000 winner, it seemed like Madden had given the indomitable J.D. something to think about for the rest of the weekend. | Complete World 100 coverage
At least most observers were talking that way about Madden. The 50-year-old standout, though, refused to proclaim himself as Davenport’s biggest threat.
“I don’t know … I’m not like that. I'm not a bragger,” Madden said when asked if he had stamped himself as a driver to taken down Davenport. “But I would say that we got something that can race with him. You know, we have before.”
Yes, the ultra-confident Madden has gone toe-to-toe with the 41-year-old Davenport in the past on Eldora’s big stage, including in 2022’s Eldora Million when Davenport turned back a stiff challenge from Madden over the final two laps to secure the seven-figure winner’s prize. But Davenport owns 10 crown jewel triumphs at Eldora while Madden is still seeking his elusive first such win in more than two decades worth of trips to the half-mile oval, putting the pair at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Davenport is well aware that Madden’s talent is at a Eldora crown jewel-winner level. After spending a few minutes chatting with Madden in the pit area during Thursday’s postrace inspection, he acknowledged that his fellow Southerner has his attention as a prime driver to beat Saturday if he’s going to collect a record-tying sixth career World 100 victory.
“Hell, I don't see how anyone who hasn’t won here yet is as good as he is,” said Davenport, who recorded his 13th career preliminary feature win at Eldora (seven Dream, five World 100, one Eldora Million). “And we drive kind of the same in those same (slick) conditions. He’s just had bad luck or something's gone wrong (in Eldora crown jewels). Just the dice ain’t fell in his favor.
“I still say, he’s one of the ones that when the racetrack gets to a certain condition, he’s one of the toughest out there.”
Driving the Kale Green-owned Longhorn Chassis on a limited basis since late June, Madden gave Davenport everything he could handle on opening night of the 55th World 100. In fact, Madden was confident he could have held on for the win after assuming command on lap nine if he hadn’t experienced trouble with a slower car.
“(Clayton Stuckey), you know, we’re lapping him and he wants to race with us,” Madden said. “We got up under him down here going into three and four and he kept coming left and about knocked me into the wall down here. We didn’t touch, but if I didn’t, you know, stop, we were going to.”
Madden lost his momentum on the bottom of the track when Stuckey slid in front of him in turn four heading to complete lap 12. While Madden still led the circuit, Davenport, charging hard off the top of turn four, had the speed to drive under Madden entering turn one and regain the lead.
A caution flag on lap 20 gave Madden a restart opportunity to challenge Davenport but he couldn’t pull off a pass. Staying close to Davenport in the closing circuits, however, did allow Madden to closely analyze Davenport.
“We can watch lines, we can watch and see where he carries speed and picks speed up,” Madden said. “If I’m running a different line I can watch his car and judge, ‘OK, he’s carrying a lot more speed doing this,’ so I can even see it in my car. You can see that.”
Madden appeared satisfied with his outing to kick off what he hopes is a memorable weekend for him at Eldora.
“We’re fine. We got a good race car,” Madden said. “It’s just, clean air is everything here. I needed to stay off in front and not let him back by me.
“That 100 laps, we’ve raced on (the track) when it’s been just like that tonight. They did a great job to give us a good racetrack. We’ll tweak on it a little bit and see if we can get a little better. The good part, I'm not 100 percent and getting beat. I feel like we can pick up a little bit. I feel confident that Saturday we’ll have something to race with.” — Kevin Kovac
NASCAR interloper
Making just his fourth-ever Dirt Late Model start, Bayley Currey is an unfamiliar face in the World 100 pit area. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know the Driftwood, Texas, driver because he comes from the pavement world driving for the Niece Motorsports NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
The 28-year-old driver is participating at Eldora this week largely because he wanted to be the driver representing the throwback paint scheme honoring 1980s Dirt Late Model racer Chuck Efaw, the father of Niece Motorsports CEO and president Cody Efaw.
Three previous Dirt Late Model starts — third vs. July 4’s 13-car Crate field at the Ararat (Va.) Bullring, eighth in July 5’s 14-car Crate field at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga. and Aug. 2’s DNQ in Super action at County Line Raceway in Elm City, N.C. — have stirred enough desire from Currey to moonlight more often in the 900-horsepower machines he’s still learning about.
“To be honest, I just love it.” Currey said when asked why he’s entered the World 100. “Decided to come up here, and this is Chuck Efaw’s car. He never got to come to Eldora, so figured we’d bring him here this weekend and give it a shot.”
Currey placed three spots shy of transferring into the second 25-lap prelim, finishing 11th in his 12-lap shootout that transferred eight. All things considered, it was a clean outing for Currey, whose top goal this week is logging clean laps where he keeps the No. Zero entry as spotless as possible.
“Keeping it in one piece is big, you know, being my first time here and second-ever Super Late Model start,” said Currey, who added that the pomp of the World 100 is also what drew him. “I want to do as good as we can … just go have fun and enjoy it. Got here last night, and what an awesome place … all the stuff that goes on after the races and out in the campground and stuff, it’s a really good time and a good place to be.”
Niece Motorsports has fielded Dirt Late Models for established drivers in other disciplines before, such as current NASCAR Cup regulars Carson Hocevar and Ross Chastain and big-block modified ace Matt Sheppard. Currey leaned on Mount Holly, N.C., driver and Victory Seats owner Chris Ferguson when preparing for this week, heeding his advice and applying his pointers in recent test sessions at Ultimate Motorsports Park in Elkin, N.C.
“I run a Victory Seat, so I’ve talked to (Ferguson) and a handful of other people to get some ideas,” Currey said. “Watched a lot of YouTube, a lot of FloRacing to try and figure it out.”
Currey, who has logged 190 starts across NASCAR’s Cup, Xfinity and Trucks since 2017, pointed out that Dirt Late Models are unlike anything he’s ever driven. Navigating the sport’s dirty air and aero-sensitivity, however, is a learning process he hopes won’t be too
“The dirty air is what we deal with a lot in NASCAR and stuff,” he said. “I feel like I have a little bit of that. It’s figuring out my positioning on people on where I’m going to be in dirty air and where I’m not, and where I can use the air to my advantage. It’s something I’m going to have to figure out
“Everything else is completely different, from the way you throw these things in the corner. It’s incredible how much grip they do make with 900 horsepower on dirt. It’s really cool. Excited to make some laps.” — Kyle McFadden
Veteran’s tribulations
Jerry Bowersock of Wapakoneta, Ohio, had a simple objective for Sunday’s Baltes Classic.
“I told my wife, ‘I just want to get out of this night without any damage to fix,’ ” Bowersock said of the World 100 tuneup. “I was so close.”
Indeed, Bowersock, 59, was just one corner from completing Sunday’s first 25-lap semifeature unscathed. But it didn’t happen because, with the checkered flag literally in sight, he was swept up in a turn-four tangle that included Tyler Millwood and Todd Brennan.
Bowersock’s Rocket Chassis — a former Tyler Erb car that’s 8 years old — took a beating in the incident. So did the veteran driver, whose right hand got caught in the spokes of his steering wheel, injuring his thumb.
There was no time for Bowersock to seek medical attention for his injury, however, because he was pulling double-duty and had to jump into his modified for the open-wheel division’s feature. He spent a few minutes icing his throbbing thumb and then promptly went out and won the modified headliner.
With all the repairs his Late Model needed, Bowersock couldn’t spare any extra time during the week to have his thumb looked at. He said he had to put every available minute into making his machine race-ready for World 100 weekend — a project that took several days and was made possible by “a whole bunch of people who kept coming to the shop to help out.”
Bowersock said before the start of Thursday’s preliminary program that his thumb was still sore and swollen, but it’s been “feeling better every day.” He began the night wearing a light brace on his right hand, but he removed it and ran without it because he couldn’t pull his racing glove over it.
While Bowersock still is gradually gaining more movement in his thumb, it caused him no trouble on the track. The reason for his poor outing that resulted in a DNQ was more self-inflicted: “I just didn’t set the car up right.”
A stalwart entrant in Eldora’s major events, Bowersock has been competing in the World 100 since the late ‘90s. He has four career feature starts (best finish: 13th in 2012) but has failed to qualify 10 straight times since his last appearance in the 100-lapper in 2013. — Kevin Kovac
Odds and ends
Following his ninth-to-third run in the first 25-lap prelim, Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., pointed out that Thursday's racetrack, for him at least, “had a greasy film” on top of the half-mile surface that made it especially “difficult to steer,” perhaps from patches of moisture around the bottom that sprayed across the track. The two-time World 100 champion said that Thursday’s track “reminded him of (Lake City, Fla.’s) All-Tech Raceway” in a way, the half-mile that's known for keeping drivers on their toes. … Jonathan Davenport generally agreed with Pierce in his assessment of the Eldora track that he described as “just a little bit different than what it normally is.” Said J.D.: “I’m not gonna say it’s rough, it’s just wavier. It's definitely rough early because we're going so fast, but, like, you can’t get a real smooth, consistent line going. I tried to run consistent laps in a line, but I never really found anywhere where I could do that. Then that made me move around more and more. I know probably just looking from up the stands, people were probably like, ‘Where in the hell is he going the next lap?’ ” … Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., who made waves in June with a $30,000 Dream preliminary victory, felt fortunate to record a 10th-place finish in the first semifeature after starting 26th thanks to a fast-time provisional. He thought he had experienced motor failure when he pulled up lame while leading with two laps to go in his shootout qualifier, but help from engine builder Vic Hill and some work on his car’s electrical system seemed to correct the problem in the 25-lapper. “I’m about sick of starting in the back and having to pass so many cars,” quipped Rice, who made a 22nd-to-sixth advance in one of Sunday’s Baltes Classic features following a heat-race tangle.
