Davenport Is Eldora’s $100,000 Dream Weaver Again

Jonathan Davenport celebrates in victory lane Saturday night at Eldora Speedway. (Emily Schwanke photo)
ROSSBURG, Ohio – There’s simply no stopping the current Jonathan Davenport era in crown-jewel dirt late model races at Eldora Speedway.
Davenport dominated Saturday night’s 31st Dirt Late Model Dream at the half-mile dirt oval, winning by 10.135 seconds – or half a track – over Bobby Pierce to pick up the $100,000 winner’s check.
It marked Davenport’s fourth win in The Dream and his third in a row. Though he started in thirteenth, Davenport didn’t waste time working through the field. With 61 laps to go, he took the lead from Dale McDowell on a restart and never looked back.
Even with a massive advantage for most of the race, Davenport never let up and pushed hard all the way to the checkered. He didn’t want to take any chances or leave any openings for others to jump on.
“Girl’s pretty good ain’t it?” Davenport said in victory lane of his race-winning car. “[It’s] awesome. I thought they watered the track too much. I was a little nervous about it because I was afraid it was going to build that big lip up there and I was going to have to run with Bobby [Pierce] and Josh [Rice] around the outside there. And Hudson [O’Neal]’s been really good here lately.
“I got to Dale [McDowell] and I could kind of [keep] pace with him there. I felt pretty good at the start of the race, [but] I just couldn't go anywhere. I was just stuck behind Ricky [Thorton Jr.] and he started moving around,” Davenport added. “I saw Bobby start moving around and then [we] had that caution and everybody forgot about the bottom. They just left it open and I drove right up through there on the bottom and stayed there.
“[I] never really abused my tires and then I started moving out. I got to the top [of turns] three or four there just to see what we had if we had another restart, that way if I got stuck on the outside, I would have some kind of idea what to do … but man, this car was really, really good.”
Shane Clanton started the race on pole and spent the first lap side-by-side with second-starting McDowell, both battling for the lead. However, before a lap was completed, Chris Madden spun in turn three and got collected by an onrushing Spencer Hughes.
The field lined up for a full restart, and McDowell took the lead on the outside. The leaders caught lap traffic quickly, with McDowell wasting no time getting by them, making three-wide passes when he needed to.
Brandon Sheppard was second at that point and stayed close for a few laps, but McDowell pulled away fairly quickly.
The field got a two-lap run in before the second caution flew for Jason Jameson blowing a tire. McDowell held the lead on the restart, but a new challenger approached in Chris Ferguson.
Ferguson took over the second spot on the restart and set his sights forward, but once again McDowell was able to pull away. With 68 laps to go, Hudson O’Neal jumped the cushion in turn three and damaged his car so badly he almost stopped, forcing the caution for the third time.
With 61 laps to go, Jimmy Owens brought out the fourth yellow when he had a tire failure. That was the restart where Davenport got past McDowell and proceeded to set sail.
Pierce got by McDowell for second with 54 to go, but cut a tire two laps later. He pitted and the crew changed both rear tires on the No. 32, with Pierce lining up at the tail of the field for the restart.
Ricky Thornton Jr. took second from McDowell on the restart and became the next person to challenge for the lead. Again though, there wasn’t much to challenge as Davenport opened the gap quickly.
With 34 to go, Daulton Wilson blew a right rear tire to bring out the final caution of the race.
Davenport held strong on the restart, but someone that no one expected was now in second. After starting 24th, Devin Moran got past Thornton to move into the number two spot.
But nearly as quickly as that happened, McDowell got past Thornton and then overhauled Moran to reclaim the second position.
Thornton entered a freefall from there, falling all the way back to eighth. Moran, Tim McCreadie and Nick Hoffman had an incredible battle for third from 20 to go until 10 to go, when Pierce finally caught the trio – ultimately passing McDowell for second with eight laps left.
Pierce made the most of the new tires he put on just before halfway, and was actually faster than Davenport at the end, but there was just no way for him to make up 10 seconds in eight laps.

Jonathan Davenport takes the checkered flag to win Saturday night's 31st Dirt Late Model Dream at Ohio's Eldora Speedway. (Mike Campbell photo)
As happy as Davenport was in his own right, he was equally appreciative of his crew for all their hard work in helping him to the victory.
“This one here is all my crew. They worked their tails off this week for sure,” Davenport noted. “From me sticking it in the fence, to them unloading the backup car and getting it ready, to working all day on this one on our off day and then working on it all day again yesterday and today … I just can’t say enough for them. They do an excellent job for me.”
Davenport has been one of the best at Eldora Speedway as of late. The half-mile dirt oval is one of his favorite tracks, and according to him, a home away from home.
“It’s home, man. I love taking [track owner] Tony [Stewart]’s money, that’s for sure,” he chuckled. “This place is just awesome. It’s the only place you can come to, I feel like, [that] if you’ve got the best race car you can win no matter where you start when the track is right.
“Hats off to the whole track crew [and] the whole staff here. Eldora does an amazing job … from concessions to bathrooms to the gates letting people in. It's an army of people here and every one of them do a great job.”
While Davenport winning wasn’t too much of a shocker, Pierce finishing runner-up was after all he went through over the course of the night.
“It's honestly a blessing the tire went flat because I knew I was probably killing them,” Pierce said after the race. “There was a caution with about 60 laps to go … so really early in the race, where someone had a flat tire … and I was debating pulling in and changing tires but was running about seventh at the time. I didn't really want to give up the spot. I just knew, though, that when they do that track prep and the surface is so hard it gets little sharp pieces of dirt that just kill the tires. I couldn’t get going in the beginning, so I had to jump up top and get the line burnt in, but when you do that you hurt your tires.
“All in all, an awesome rebound for us. Can’t thank my crew enough. They did a good job on the pit stop there. Congrats to JD on the win. I guess that's his fourth [Dream] win now. He’s just dialed here.”
All Pierce needed was a caution to have a chance, and he thought he could have won if there had been one more restart.
“I kept trying to look for JD up ahead; I couldn’t see him. I was hoping for a caution,” he noted. “I think if there was one, it would have been a hell of a race, for sure. The top wasn’t really there, but at the end you just throw it all out the window and don’t really need your spoiler once you’re banging off the wall.
“I would have loved that opportunity … but thanks to Eldora for having this race and everyone here associated with it.”
Davenport became the second driver to win three straight Dirt Late Model Dreams, but the first to do so in three successive years. Brandon Overton won the 2020, 2021, and 2022 editions, but the 2020 Dream was rescheduled to June 12, 2021 due to the pandemic, and 2021’s race was run on June 10 that year.
Behind Davenport and Pierce, Hoffman completed the podium ahead of McCreadie and Moran.
Sixth through 10th were McDowell, Max Blair, Thornton, Josh Rice, and Brandon Sheppard.
The finish:
31st Dirt Late Model Dream (100 laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport [13]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce [9]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman [20]; 4. 9M-Tim McCreadie [7]; 5. 99-Devin Moran [24]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell [2]; 7. 111-Max Blair [12]; 8. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr. [11]; 9. 11R-Josh Rice [14]; 10. 1-Brandon Sheppard [3]; 11. 25-Shane Clanton [1]; 12. 22-Chris Ferguson [5]; 13. 40B-Kyle Bronson [16]; 14. 76-Brandon Overton [19]; 15. 20-Jimmy Owens [4]; 16. 58-Garrett Alberson [18]; 17. 18D-Daulton Wilson [8]; 18. C8-Timothy Culp [15]; 19. 19-Dustin Sorensen [25]; 20. 114-Jordan Koehler [21]; 21. 44-Chris Madden [17]; 22. 22X-Drake Troutman [26]; 23. O1-Tyler Erb [6]; 24. 71-Hudson O'Neal [10]; 25. 12-Jason Jameson [22]; 26. 19M-Spencer Hughes [23].