Jonathan Davenport At Eldora Speedway With An Air Of Inevitability

After Jonathan Davenport won the Castrol FloRacing Night in America at Eldora Speedway, everyone was thinking who could stop him from winning his sixth World 100.

Is Jonathan Davenport… going to happen?

People thought that the 40-year-old superstar from Blairsville, Ga., would win the record-tying sixth World 100 globe trophy on Saturday after he easily won the 50-lap Castrol FloRacing Night in America feature at Eldora Speedway on Wednesday, taking home a $20,000 cheque.

This is how strong Davenport looked when he won the first race of four nights of racing at the famous half-mile track. That’s how big his fame has grown at a track where he’s won 10 major races since 2015, including his second straight and third overall six-figure Dream payout three months ago.

Davenport, for his part, seemed to be well aware of how his dominance during the week affected his rivals. Someone told him that everyone in the pit area was having trouble sleeping over how to deal with him. This made him smile.

Davenport thought that was great, since it’s always good to know what your competitors are thinking. “Like we’ve seen with other people all year, the more you work on your s—, the slower you normally move.” That is, you always want to do better. I’m always trying new things, and there will always be more that doesn’t work than that does. You move more slowly when you want to go faster.

Even though there were two nights of preliminary races before Saturday’s 54th World 100, no one was giving up. However, it was clear that outrunning his No. 49 would be very hard. At the end of Wednesday’s main race, the drivers who were closest to Davenport—if more than seven seconds and well over a straight behind can be called close—were the first to admit that he was faster.

Runner-up Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Arizona, came in third place and was standing next to Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, after the feature. They were both asked at the same time what they were going to do to deal with Davenport the rest of the week.

Moran said with a smile, “A lot of f—— speed.”

He also said, “Put my car and Devin’s car together, and we might be able to stay on the same straightaway.”

When asked the same question about Davenport, Bob Pierce, a Hall of Fame driver who now works as a mechanic for his son Bobby Pierce in Oakwood, Ill., half a pit road away on the inside of turns one and two, sighed.

Bob Pierce shook his head and said, “Whew, man.” His son had done great in the race, finishing fifth after starting eighth and falling as far behind as eleventh. “But it’s going to take a lot more to beat J.D. than what Bobby did at the end before the surface got sticky.” He is the man here now. Just like when Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer, Donnie Moran, Larry Moore in his prime, and Jeff Purvis were all very strong.

From lap 15 to the end, Moran, who is 27 years old, was second to Davenport, but he never showed any danger. He was driving the same Longhorn Chassis that he showed off at June’s Dream events and won a $25,000 practice race in, but he hasn’t raced it since. He couldn’t beat Davenport.

“He was just much more balanced than I am,” Moran said. This was Moran’s 16th second-place finish of the 2024 season; he has won 11 times. “He could go in anywhere he wanted, turn down the hill, and drive straight off the corner. He could also drive with authority.” That’s a great way to get by cars. And that’s what I think we need to work on. I couldn’t quite do that as well as you could.

“Second place out of 80 cars isn’t bad,” he said. “But it will be hard to catch Davenport’s 49th place finish at Eldora if he gets a head start like that (starting on the outside of the front row).”

Moran works with Vinny Guliani of VG Performance, who is a Longhorn Chassis and Bilstein Shocks expert. Guliani pointed out where Davenport was better.

Guliani said, “We just need to “carve” a little better,” which means getting more grip in the turns. “(Davenport) can really carve, and he can come down the hill without going sideways.” When you tighten up in the slick, you can’t make the corner cutting right-front first. All of them are very tight, so they move.

“If we can just get the right front wheel to turn a little better, Moran will be able to drive straight…” He said he could leave the corner good, but we look loose and tail-out there. That’s because we’re not as good at carving as J.D. It looks like he’s on tarmac, so it’s much easier to keep the tires on the track when all four of them are on the right path. If you can’t carve as well as he can and have to slip it sideways, you’ll never catch up. Plus, his tyre edges will be better in the long run because we’re slipping.

Thornton, who is 33 years old, said that his Koehler Motorsports Longhorn machine didn’t have enough power against Davenport, just like Moran’s.

“You either have the traction or you don’t have the traction to get my car tight enough to where I need to steer,” Thornton said. “I think I can get into the corners well, but if I do, I’ll be too free.” There is some grip if I get in too tight, but you can’t move about then.

Thornton was looking for an answer to Davenport’s amazing Eldora skills and thought that Davenport’s Eldora-specific Longhorn car might have something special about it because it is so old. This is the only car he’s driven in the track’s crown jewels since the autumn of 2021.

According to Thornton, Davenport’s car doesn’t seem to have as much “skew” to its body as newer models. “Actually, you look at the body on that car, it’s more of the old-school stuff,” he said. “We’re still kind of aero-grip, but he’s mechanical-grip.” We’re making some progress towards that. That’s where he probably has most of us, but J.D. is really good at making every track we go into a mechanical-grip racing.

After seeing how well the Eldora had done, Bob Pierce thought that Davenport “believes in that car.” He also said that the machine’s suspension “just seems like it’s softer,” which could be its secret.

Pierce said, “I’m not sure he’s doing something like lowering the height of the shocks and the high-speed out to make the car softer.” “Like the old oil-shock days, because we’re on top of the racetrack right now, and things are stiff when you’re on top of the racetrack. That’s gas pressure, valves, and all that stuff.

It seems like we’re losing our depth and forgetting how to do things the right way. This is where we’re going wrong. Things are going wrong with the car, and we’re working on it. Shocks are… everything. You don’t need a “good” set of shocks when it’s this slippery. They need to get to work and move. I believe that we are not on the same page about that.

People have different ideas about how powerful Davenport is, but the man himself didn’t feel like he was at his best on Wednesday.

David Port said, “Everyone keeps saying, ‘We killed them, we killed them,’ but I wasn’t happy at all in the seat.” “I’m sure I’m better than that.” I feel good about that.

Davenport laughed when someone said that he sounded like the late Scott Bloomquist, the 12-time Eldora crown gem winner who was known for being so sure of himself that he played mind games with his competitors.

David Port said, “I guess, but I’m telling you the truth.” “I’m sure we can do better.” Over the summer, we tried different things, and I got bad, good, or whatever. I wanted to bring the good to here and try out. I only put it on for the feature, and I didn’t think it was that good. The way I know where to hit the gas and my angles, I couldn’t do it the way I need to. Even though it wasn’t terrible, I know I could have done it better.

Still, Davenport looked unstoppable. In his heat race, he passed Piece for the lead off of turn two on the first lap and never looked back on his way to starting on the outside of the front row in the feature.

“The heat, I was shocked that we were that good against Bobby, but I think I also wore them out,” Davenport said. “I think we made the right choice there. The fact that we had a different tyre on made it look like we really killed them.”

If you run around Bobby and there’s a lip around the top, you’ll always come in second. But I got off to a great start and had a good run on him. Then I took the lead, and the tyre took over.

Davenport got past Pierce with a strong move that might have made him look a little more powerful than he usually does.

David Port joked, “Hey, I mash it every once in a while.” “I’m old and have a lot of grey hair, but I can shave it off now and then.”

“But that’s just Eldora,” he said next. “I got off to a good start, so I was close to him going into the first turn. He was going to slide me.” Is that what you do here? If you slide someone as you come through the field, you won’t pass them that lap. You’ll pass them on the next lap because you’ll be going back and forth. I knew he was going to slide me, so I just let off and made sure I got all the way in the brown. I then got a good run through one and got close to two so I could turn under him. There isn’t much brown left for him to skate on, so he couldn’t get going. It was kind of planned, but people who know this place well knew it was going to happen.

In the main event, Davenport also sprinted out of the starting gate quickly, taking the lead from Tim McCreadie of Watertown, New York, who was pole-sitting.

She said, “I got off to a great start again, and we were pretty even.” When you get there to turn one, the inside guy is usually a car length ahead. Then you can go up and mess up the guy’s air. I was pretty sure Timmy was going to give me a lane, or I would have turned around earlier. But I stayed up there and made sure I got a good run. I had to lift a little and then come back down. I thought he might be able to slide back under me, but there was just enough moisture in turn four for me to be able to go all the way to it and get down the front straightaway. I then kind of slid myself into turn one to try to stop him from sliding me back.

“Only chess and checkers.” But you have to plan your moves and play them out first. You also need to have a great car. I know when and how to do it because I’ve been at the front of the pitch for a long time. This is just practice.

In fact, Davenport is the only person at Eldora who has run up front more times in the last ten years. Since his first crown jewel win in 2015, he’s led 672 laps in 100-lap races at the track, which is three times more than any other driver. He’s also won six of the last ten events.

And Davenport got even better practice for Saturday’s main event with Wednesday’s 50-lap race than he does with the 25-lap semifeatures during the preliminary races.

Davenport said, “I went full, 100%, 100-lap race mode right there, except for the little changes I wanted to try.” “I wasn’t going to do it, but then I told crew chief Cory Fosvedt, ‘If we don’t do it now, I’m not going to do it all weekend, because we won’t get a long enough run, the track won’t be like this.'” That’s what I would have asked for if I could have: a racecourse.

The way we did this made it seem like the World 100.

After the race, Davenport said, “My car was freer than I thought it was going to be.” He would have to “go back and think about it and figure out why it didn’t do what I thought it would do,” but it looked good enough to win World No. 6. That’s what everyone who saw it was sure of.