Eldora Speedway
In McDowell's twilight, going for broke at Big E
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Dale McDowell emerges in victory lane. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 4) — Dale McDowell certainly hopes Thursday’s crowd-stirring, last-corner pass of Devin Moran to triumph in the first split-field World 100 prelim isn’t the final Eldora Speedway victory he’ll savor.
But as the 59-year-old expressed in his on-track pursuits and postrace sentiments Thursday, he doesn’t know how many golden opportunities he’ll have left at capturing another World 100, much less opportunities he’ll have driving his brother’s Shane McDowell Racing No. 17m machine. Every opportunity, at Eldora at least, could be his last. | Complete World 100 coverage
So with that foremost in mind, McDowell drove a little more determined Thursday. So determined that on the final restart of his shootout, he stayed on the fuel to blow around Ricky Thornton Jr. via the high side, the eventual qualifier-winning move that landed him the all-important front-row starting spot in the 25-lap semifeature. And in those 25 laps, he stayed on the attack all the way to the thrilling finish in which he upended a young, risk-taking driver in Moran off the final corner.
On the track, McDowell treated every opportunity as a potential last quest toward reaching Eldora victory lane. Off the track, he cherished every victory moment with whomever chose to celebrate with him.
“I know I'm not going to be able to pull up on that stage for as many years as (Moran and Thornton have) got left to pull up on it, so I took a few chances tonight,” said a smiling McDowell, who pulled himself away from sharing a beer with a group of fans wanting to celebrate his victory with him. “You know, I got a little bit more aggressive and it worked out for us.”
McDowell knows full well races are just as easily lost at Eldora as they are won. Since his 2005 World 100 prelim victory that’ll go down in history with an asterisk beside his name because apparent winner Shannon Babb was disqualified for being light at the scales, he’s experienced more tantalizing loss than triumph.
He’s led five World 100 finales for a total of 69 laps over the last 19 runnings — laps 42-65 in 2010, laps 1-18 in ’14, laps 1-16 in ’16, laps 59-71 in ’21 and twice for a total of seven laps last year (laps 1-4; 92-95).
But this time, he’s gratified that circumstances enabled him toward Thursday’s victory, his seventh overall between the Dream and World 100 weekends.
“I mean, we had some breaks and we were on different tires. Ricky left me a little bit of a lane (in his shootout). He didn't leave me a whole lot, but he left me a lane,” McDowell said. “You know, he could have taken more from that slider than he did. … When I was racing Devin and got there late (for the lead battle in the first prelim), I could’ve slid him, but I left him a lane, you know, and he drove back by me. I thought, ‘Well, right there was my chance.’
“And then we got back to that traffic and was able to get by him. But, you know, it just takes it all. I mean, the car is pretty good. We're a little bit tight still, but Shane's working hard on that. I have to go back and study our lap times to see. Jonathan (Davenport) looks awfully good. You know, a lot of them guys that are right there. Chris Madden’s good … Bobby (Pierce is) going to be good, you know, throughout the night at some point. So you just got to keep plugging at it.”
Outside Davenport, who captured Thursday’s second semifeature, perhaps there’s nobody better at staying on top of the ever-challenging tire management at Eldora than the McDowells. Knowing that their Team Zero Race Car performs at its best on longer runs, the McDowell brothers gambled with harder tires.
Once McDowell felt the harder tire compound activate beyond the halfway mark, he erased a 1.5-second deficit in traffic with 10 laps left to drive around both second-running Brandon Sheppard and Moran.
“Devin went soft, I was hard. Sheppard was kind of a mix in between. I think Bobby (Pierce, who went ninth-to-third), was like us, so he was going to come late,” McDowell said. “So you really couldn't be, you know, real aggressive to begin with. And then once the tires started coming in, I was able to be a little bit more aggressive through lapped traffic, make more moves and charge the corners a little bit harder.
“You never know here because when we got out, you know, on the start, when they went out on soft tires, Devin jumped out there and Sheppard drove by me,” McDowell added. “I was able to get back to Sheppard. But, you know, I didn't really know. I mean, it's just a guess. And you're in that first heat, so you don't know what tire combinations are going to last and not last. It’s a gamble. (On Saturday) everybody will probably be on the same (tires). … But in tonight's race, you saw dicing around because people had different tire combinations on.
“But you know, in those short races like that, you just have to go. The track was awesome. I mean, it just slicked off the bottom, you know, and you just kind of had to pick your poison and pick your line, and it just was our night.”
McDowell doesn’t consider himself a one-dimensional racer, but he knows his aging Team Zero machine performs best in slicker conditions. That’s why he’s often so good in the World 100, where he’s finished eighth or better 11 consecutive years.
McDowell can work the top side of Eldora to find manageable speed, but by no means is he prepared to adjust to a top-heavy track should the half-mile ever race that way.
“These cars like the middle of the racetrack. However, the middle of the racetrack was choppy in both ends (Thursday). So that could have come from, you know, throwing some of the moisture up earlier, or just right there in the bevel of the racetrack being a little bit more wet,” McDowell said. “But it was rough and choppy across the middle, so it did stay brown for a little longer there, but you know, when that stuff crumbles up and gets up top, it just moves the line around.
“Because in the heat, you know, we were in the middle-bottom, and in the next heat, we all moved up in the heat. But like in some of the first heats, they were around the bottom, middle bottom. Like the first heat, that was around the middle-bottom. Our heat kind of went out, you know, because it was so wide. So you're just chasing the line as the track changes, and that's what makes this place so difficult. It’s hard to balance your car not knowing where the groove is going to be.”
McDowell’s racing with a 6-year-old car built in 2019 this week. It’s the same car that won 2023’s Topless 100 in at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark.
“It's got a little age to it. I appreciate that especially,” McDowell said. “I struggle around the top a little bit. Some of it's me, some of it are the characteristics of the race cars, you know, but I have to get up there and run that in the heat race.”
The McDowells debated employing the same car they nearly won the World 100 with last year, but since then, it’s been involved in a few wrecks. While McDowell can’t tell the difference between the two cars, the duo figured the fresher chassis is best.
“We've had the same cars for the past five six years. We ran this car here (at the Dream in 2023 where he started 23rd and finished 14th) a couple of years ago, and then we left here and went and won the Topless,” McDowell said. “(But) it wasn’t very good here. We got fiddling with it and got better. And then we haven't ran it here since (the 2023 Dream). We actually wrecked this car last year a couple times, so we didn't know about it.
“We went and tested it at Smoky Mountain (Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.), tested two cars back-to-back. This car’s the same speed as the other. Shane was like, ‘Let’s bring the fresher car.’ But they’re identical. I can’t tell which one I’m in.”
Dale commends brother Shane for carrying his race program this year, that despite competing in a quarter of the races that the majority of national touring teams do, they remain Eldora contenders year after year. As McDowell mentioned, no Team Zero Cars have been built since 2019.
The McDowell racing stable has three of those cars remaining — the one they’re racing with this weekend at Eldora, the car they finished runner-up with at the World 100 last year and then brother Shane has one fresh, unused chassis left that’s been stashed in their East Tennessee shop since the Team Zero Cars were last built.
“He’s eight years younger than me and he’s still got that fire, you know? So he works hard at it,” McDowell said of his brother. “Last year, we thought last year was maybe the last year. We had some people come on board and step up and make it possible. So, you know, he works his tail off. I'll be honest, I haven't been in the shop all year. You know, so he works earlier, everything, and I just show up. Now if we tear up or something like that, I’ll go up if I need to. But we kind of do the same thing, you know, off and on, and he works really, really hard at what’s he doing.”
As long as Dale feels capable behind the wheel and as long as brother Shane continues to masterfully manage their part-time operation, the McDowells have all the reasons to keep going.
For a realistic shot at winning Saturday’s finale, they’ll first need another productive qualifying night Friday as well as a clean heat race come Saturday. From there, a starting spot closer to the front, the better for McDowell, who ideally would like to start inside the first seven rows to have a fighting chance at the coveted globed trophy.
“You want to start as good as you can here. But, you know, with what they're doing with the inversions and the points, it’ll shake it up a little bit,” McDowell said. “So, just go as hard as you can and then hope to get in it, you know, and to be honest with you, if you make it, you have to ouse your tires up a little bit more if you’re in the back to keep from getting lapped, and so it's hard to conserve. But if you start to midpack up, it's a little easier on your equipment.
“We’ve ran well from a lap down before, so it all comes to the second half of the race most of the time when you can manage you tires, you know, and have your car right. Just getting in (the feature) is gonna be the hard part.”
