BREAKING: Jonathan Davenport Finally Breaks Silence on Shocking Eldora Speedway Departure, Citing “Unresolvable Differences with Management, Directional Shift in Track Philosophy, and Desire to Refocus on Personal Racing Goals” in Emotional Statement That Sen..
Jonathan Davenport was just trying to point out a hard truth about Eldora Speedway. The problem? His statement didn’t seem to apply to him.
As the 40-year-old superstar from Blairsville, Ga., sat behind a desk in Eldora’s media center taking questions from the press following his flag-to-flag victory in Saturday night’s 100-lap Dream XXX finale, he matter-of-factly said: “It’s so hard to win here.” But was that really the case considering the historic rate at which Davenport collects checkered flags at the famed half-mile oval?
The two drivers flanking Davenport — runner-up Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., and third-place finisher Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga. — saw the irony in his words judging by the smiles that creased their lips. And DirtonDirt.com founder and FloRacing general manager Michael Rigsby, who emceed the press conference, interjected that Davenport’s wild success at Eldora over the past decade made winning there appear almost … easy.
At that, Davenport paused for a moment, acknowledging how his comment could be perceived. He had, after all, just won the Dream and its $100,030 prize for the second straight year and third time overall and reached double-figures in major-event triumphs at Eldora, including his five World 100 victories and wins in the 2021 Eldora Million and 2020’s Covid-year Intercontinental Classic.
“So the numbers say,” Davenport said, that winning at Eldora isn’t difficult for him, but he nevertheless insisted that “in my mind, in my heart, like, it’s so hard to win here. It truly is.”
And no matter how often Davenport has reached Eldora’s winner’s stage since his breakthrough in the 2015 Dream, he’s right. Victory at the most well known track in Dirt Late Model racing should never be taken lightly. It’s always a supreme accomplishment, a testament to a driver’s talent, a team’s relentless toil and the vagaries of fortune coming together in just the right combination.
Davenport simply happens to be melding it all into a winning Eldora stew better than anyone else alive right now.
“It just fits me,” Davenport said of the legendary track founded by the late Earl Baltes and now owned by former NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart. “You gotta think through the whole race. Like I’ve said it before, this race is like a chess game. You can’t just go out there and just run wide-open and expect to be there at the end. It starts on prelim night with qualifying, heat races, and just steadily dialing your car in.
“I’ve become, like, really good I guess at telling my crew what I need for here. I’ve got a good feel for where the racetrack’s gonna move and when it’s gonna move, for just watching lap times. It’s just experience. That’s all it is.”
