Eldora Speedway
Dotson reps Bakersfield, rebounds in Big E prelim
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Ethan Dotson (74) leads at the outset of a semifeature. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 5) — Ethan Dotson wasn’t going to let a nightmarish Thursday outing define his visit to the Eldora Speedway for the 55th annual World 100. He had too many supporters along with him to give up on the weekend without a fight. | Complete World 100 coverage
“I had a lot of family and sponsors come here for this weekend that helped me out,” Dotson said after Friday’s preliminary program. “I didn’t want to go out there and do what I did last night and not have a backup plan to make it worthwhile for them to be here.”
Dotson, 26, of Bakersfield, Calif., could scarcely have made a better recovery for his backers. He labored through a difficult opening night that included two lowlights — his involvement in a heat-race tangle that bent the rear clip of his ASD Motorsports Longhorn Chassis and a scrape with leader Nick Hoffman in the first 25-lap semifeature as he was being lapped — but rebounded by driving his backup car to a third-place finish in Friday’s first preliminary.
A World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series rookie making just his second attempt at the World 100 and seventh Eldora crown jewel appearance overall, Dotson looked like a revitalized racer after earning a podium finish behind $12,000 winner Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., and runner-up Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill.
“It’s super cool,” said Dotson, whose previous best finish in a semifeature during an Eldora major event was a fifth at last year’s World 100 (he placed 24th in the finale). “My family’s here — my mom and dad, my sister and nephew. They hardly ever get to come (to his races), so it’s been a really fun week and I’m glad we could turn around. Yesterday, I was a little worried about it.”
Dotson arrived at Eldora pumped for the weekend with his car carrying a new, Day Glo yellow wrap themed to his hometown of Bakersfield. His fortunes dive-bombed quickly, however, on the opening lap of the second 12-lap shootout qualifier when a tangle between Shane Clanton and Michael Page sent Clanton into the turn-two wall and then back into traffic. The nose of Clanton’s car nailed the right-rear corner of Dotson’s machine, spinning him at high speed.
“I thought I was going to roll for sure, but luckily I just spun around,” said Dotson, who felt Clanton was at fault in the incident. “But it tore up the car a lot. It knocked the left-rear four-bar mounts off of it and the rear end was like an inch bent. We just pulled it off the jig the other day — not new, just repaired. She’s probably gonna be heading back to Longhorn next week (for more framework).”
Despite the significant damage, Dotson managed to continue and finished sixth to transfer to the semifeature. His team “didn’t have enough time to change cars” for the evening’s headliner, however, so he had to run the race with his vehicle just “pieced together” the best he could and that resulted in him being off the pace and ready to be lapped by Hoffman on lap 10. When Hoffman pushed that circuit between turns one and two while sliding Dotson, the two cars met and Hoffman’s right-front fender was torn off.
“It was a bad deal,” Dotson said of the contact that led to Hoffman fading to a fifth-place finish. “I was hanging on, and I was in the way, and I wanted to be anywhere but out there because I was just super bad. But I had to stay out there and get some (event) points, it’s just way the format is.
“I didn’t really get a chance to do good yesterday. I got wrecked before our day started. Didn’t qualify the best yesterday, but didn’t get the opportunity to pull us out of a hole. I was just kind of in maintain mode all night after the wreck.”
Dotson and his crew parked their battered car after his 24th-place finish in Thursday’s semifeature. They unloaded the backup and spent most of Friday morning and afternoon prepping it, including taking replacing its body with the one on the sidelined car. After all the planning that went into the World 100 wrap, Dotson was determined to showcase it even after switching cars. It had special meaning to him.
“Everybody out here (in the east) thinks California is like New York (City) or something, you know what I mean?” Dotson said. “And I get a lot of hate from being out there, so I just kind of thought it’d be cool to do a Bakersfield, Calif.-themed wrap. I grew up in the country in Bakersfield, oil and farms and stuff, and I know a lot of good people there and they kind of gave me an opportunity.”
Dotson said “all these names on (the body) are from Bakersfield, all friends of mine,” and he thanked them all for their support. The wrap also included a street map of Bakersfield on the roof, scenery from the city and area oil fields on the doors and quarterpanels and, on the front of the hood, a memorial to late country music legend Merle Haggard, who grew up in Bakersfield.
“A lot of his songs are about Kern County,” Dotson said of Haggard, whose image appears on the car’s hood. “My grandpa used to work for him … I met him a couple times when I was younger before he passed (in 2016 at the age of 79).”
With Haggard still riding with him after the car and body swap, Dotson had new life on Friday. He hit the inversion well by timing 14th-fastest in the first group, won the first shootout qualifier and burst off the pole in the semifeature to lead the first 13 laps. The 59-year-old McDowell proved to be too much for Dotson to handle, though, once the race’s 10th starter caught up.
“They kept showing a white car with a black car under him (on the video board), and I thought it was (McDowell) at the beginning, and then it was somebody else,” Dotson said. “So I just kept driving again, and then he come by there once we got in them lapped cars. I tried to follow him and learn something, but yeah, as soon as got in front of me he kind of took off there. I wanted to follow him, but he was just too dang good.”
Dotson said he “finally felt really good there through the middle” of the track, but McDowell was simply better. That led him to attempt running higher on the half-mile oval in search of more speed — an endeavor that nearly ended badly for him.
“I kept seeing crumbs come down the track, so I figured that Bobby (Pierce) or somebody was up there beating the wall down and I figured I needed to get up there and give that a run and try to get back to Dale,” said Dotson, whose car owner, John Henderson of Aiken, S.C., is not at Eldora because he’s planning to compete in Saturday’s Ultimate Southeast Series event at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. “Then as soon as I went up there in one, Bobby slid me” to grab second on lap 16.
“And then I hit the wall and knocked the deck out, and my right-rear quarterpanel was into my tire. It cut the tire and then I was just trying to hang on, and luckily I went by the checkered (flag) and the tire blew there. Got a little lucky there, but all in all, it was a good night.
“This car was really good tonight, and I just can’t thank all my guys enough,” he added. “They had to work a lot the last couple days. They worked really hard and did a good job for me so I appreciate them.”
Dotson’s Eldora experience is limited; in addition to entering the last two World 100s, he’s attempted two Dreams (DNQs in 2024 and ’25) and two Dirt Track World Championships (25th in 2023 and failed to qualify in ’24). He also has one appearance in his native division, the open-wheel modifieds, but “it ended very badly,” he said. “I knocked the stub off the first lap of the feature.”
Friday demonstrated, though, that Dotson is getting the hang of the famed speedway.
“Honestly, it’s one of my favorite racetracks,” said Dotson, who is scheduled to start outside the front row of Saturday’s second heat as he seeks his second straight qualification for the sport’s most prestigious event. “There’s so many lines you can run and like change your lines, and the air’s hard. It’s super hard, but it's really fun to race that.
“I mean, I like to go around the cushion, but tonight’s the best I’ve felt for sure through the middle there. I need to be a little better, and be a little better on my tires. I think maybe I took off and went too hard and then they kind of gave up on me there at the end without a caution to cool them down. We’ll just see what we can do tomorrow.”
