ROSSBURG, OH (June 7, 2013) — Matt Miller’s Dream week continued at Eldora Speedway on Friday night, as he won his second 25-lap feature in as many nights on the famed .500-mile clay oval. With twin 25-lap A-Features on the docket, Joining him on the victory stage was Dennis Erb Jr. Both drivers scored $5,000 for their winning efforts.
The payday — and the laps, of course — amp up Saturday (June 8) for the Dirt Late Model Dream XIX presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers. The 100-lap feature pays $100,000 to the winner. The Dream, one of racing’s crown jewels, remains the highest playing Dirt Late Model race in the country. Miller, who also earned $2,500 for his preliminary win Thursday, now becomes as good of a bet as anyone to claim that coveted prize. He also won the Dream in 2005.
The driver from Whitehouse, Ohio, wrestled the lead from Steve Casebolt (Richmond, Ind.) on a restart with three laps complete after their cars touched on the frontstretch. Miller rocketed away leaving Casebolt to battle Jimmy Owens (Newport, Tenn.) for second. A caution after seven completed laps brought the field together for another double-file restart. Casebolt took advantage, if only briefly. Casebolt slid under Miller in the first turn but Miller regained the lead for good down by powering away down the backstretch.
Miller, running a high line against the wall in Turns 1-2 and sliding through the middle in Turns 3-4, caught lapped traffic with six laps to go but navigated through the potential pitfalls. He beat runner-up Owens to the line by 2.175 seconds.
“The car was better tonight, the track was slick and we’re getting a lot closer to where we need to be for 100 laps,” said Miller, who last summer teamed up once again with car owner and fellow Whitehouse resident Rick Delong. “I couldn’t do it without Rick. He’s just a regular working guy. They work their butts off. There’s no paid guys on this team. Just friends of mine and guys who wanna have fun and do well.”
Casebolt, Josh Richards (Shinnston, W.Va.,) and Brian Birkhofer (Muscatine, Iowa) rounded out the top five.
“Going into it we thought we had a better shot to win than what we did,” said a disappointed Casebolt. “I couldn’t really maneuver around those lapped cars like I needed to. Matt kind of got into me on the restart and I wasn’t really happy about that. He was going to beat me anyway. He didn’t have to hit me. We’re going to have to work on it to get better Saturday.”
In the second 25-lapper, Erb (Carpentersville, Ill.) and Chris Madden (Gaffney, S.C.) put on a racing clinic in the closing laps. Madden and Erb each led for a stretch on lap 20, then traded the lead at the line on laps 21-23 with an Erb-Madden-Erb see-saw battle. Once holding the lead Erb used lapped traffic to keep Madden from mounting a serious challenge.
“We started reeling them in with traffic and went to the bottom. We had a good run,” Erb said. “We’ve been working on this thing and it’s been getting better. Hopefully in the heat races (Saturday) we can make our way through there and get in the Dream.”
Madden, Billy Moyer (Batesville, Ark.), Don O’Neal (Martinsville, Ind.) and Doug Drown (Wooster, Ohio) rounded out the top five.
“We were good in open traffic when we had the clean air,” Madden said. “I got up on that lapped traffic and my car just got real free at the end and we couldn’t hold on.”
Jonathan Davenport (Mount Avery, N.C.) topped Friday qualifying with his best lap of 15.386 seconds in the two-lap session that saw 76 cars make an attempt. That was one-thousandth of a second faster than Georgia driver Shane Clanton’s fast time of 15.387 that topped Thursday’s qualifying.
The Dream XIX by Ferris weekend continues Saturday starting with heat races and ending with the Dirt Late Model Dream. Heat races for the Dream XIX by Ferris will be aligned using drivers’ best qualifying laps from time trials on Thursday and Friday. Action starts at 7 p.m.
Fans can obtain tickets information for the Dream XIX by Ferris by going online to www.EldoraSpeedway.com or contacting the Eldora offices at 937-338-3815.
Fans who can’t make it to Eldora in person this weekend can still watch all the action live by purchasing the live Pay-Per-View video broadcast of all three nights of action that is available at www.EldoraSpeedway.com.
– E –
HEAT 1 – 1. 1-Josh Richards [2]; 2. 49D-Jonathan Davenport [3]; 3. 20C-Duane Chamberlain [1]; 4. 1WC-Wayne Chinn [4]; 5. 32-Chris Simpson [7]; 6. 91E-Tyler Erb [6]; 7. 28P-Jeff Provinzino [9]; 8. 18D-Danny Mitchell [10]; 9. 72-John Mason [8]; 10. 19-Chad Smith [5]; 11. 20JB-Jerry Bowersock [DNS];
HEAT 2 – 1. 21-Billy Moyer [2]; 2. 71-Don Oneal [3]; 3. 17M-Dale Mcdowell [1]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard [6]; 5. 99M-Devin Moran [5]; 6. 6S-Steve Shaver [7]; 7. 21M-Jason Montgomery [8]; 8. 4C-Ernie Cordier [10]; 9. 71C-R J Conley [DNF]; 10. 41-Brad Neat [DNS]; 11. 7R-Kent Robinson [DNS];
HEAT 3 – 1. C9-Steve Casebolt [2]; 2. 1G-Scott James [1]; 3. 39-Tim Mccreadie [4]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley [6]; 5. 46-Tim Rivers [9]; 6. 15-Steve Francis [5]; 7. 89-Mike Spatola [8]; 8. 33-Don Gordon [10]; 9. 23-John Blankenship [DNS]; 10. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr [DNS]; 11. 44-Earl Pearson, Jr [DNS];
HEAT 4 – 1. 25Z-Mason Zeigler [1]; 2. 44M-Chris Madden [3]; 3. 99-Donnie Moran [7]; 4. 25C-Shane Clanton [8]; 5. 20H-Jacob Hawkins [6]; 6. 2-Justin Chance [11]; 7. M14-Brandon Thirlby [9]; 8. 75P-Terry Phillips [4]; 9. 17-Shannon Thornsberry [2]; 10. 555-Justin Coulter [5]; 11. 79U-Shane Unger [DNF];
HEAT 5 – 1. 3-Matt Miller [2]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens [3]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist [5]; 4. 55-Jeep Vanwormer [6]; 5. 5-Jared Landers [4]; 6. 28M-Jimmy Mars [1]; 7. 75M-Dusty Moore [7]; 8. 32S-Chad Stapleton [DNF]; 9. 11R-James Rice [DNF]; 10. 18W-Eric Wells [DNS];
HEAT 6 – 1. 63-Doug Drown [2]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr [5]; 3. 19F-Tim Fuller [1]; 4. 20R-Jeremy Payne [4]; 5. 32P-Bobby Pierce [8]; 6. 3N-Ross Nicastri [7]; 7. 15J-Greg Johnson [6]; 8. 31-Nick Latham [9]; 9. 14M-Morgan Bagley [3]; 10. 1J-Jeff Babcock [DNS];
HEAT 7 – 1. 11-Tyler Reddick [2]; 2. 15B-Brian Birkhofer [3]; 3. 22S-Gregg Satterlee [1]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson [5]; 5. 88-Andrew Reaume [9]; 6. 11S-Ryan Sutter [8]; 7. 48L-Tim Lance [4]; 8. 93-Jay Johnson [DNS]; 9. 15H-Jon Henry [DNS]; 10. 25S-Jason Smith [DNS];
HEAT 8 – 1. 6-Dustin Neat [1]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb [2]; 3. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr [5]; 4. 116-Randy Weaver [4]; 5. 57J-Bub Mccool [6]; 6. 29-Darrell Lanigan [8]; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr [3]; 8. 11H-Austin Hubbard [9]; 9. 360-Michael Asberry [7]; 10. 8-Craig Smith [DNS];
B-FEATURE 1 – 1. 15-Steve Francis [4]; 2. 28P-Jeff Provinzino [5]; 3. 46-Tim Rivers [2]; 4. 32-Chris Simpson [1]; 5. 72-John Mason [9]; 6. 89-Mike Spatola [6]; 7. 91E-Tyler Erb [3]; 8. 18D-Danny Mitchell [7]; 9. 19-Chad Smith [11]; 10. 33-Don Gordon [8]; 11. 23-John Blankenship [DNS]; 12. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr [DNS]; 13. 44-Earl Pearson, Jr [DNS];
B-FEATURE 2 – 1. 20H-Jacob Hawkins [2]; 2. 2-Justin Chance [4]; 3. 6S-Steve Shaver [3]; 4. M14-Brandon Thirlby [6]; 5. 75P-Terry Phillips [8]; 6. 99M-Devin Moran [1]; 7. 17-Shannon Thornsberry [10]; 8. 555-Justin Coulter [12]; 9. 21M-Jason Montgomery [5]; 10. 4C-Ernie Cordier [7]; 11. 71C-R J Conley [DNF]; 12. 41-Brad Neat [DNS]; 13. 79U-Shane Unger [DNS];
B-FEATURE 3 – 1. 5-Jared Landers [1]; 2. 28M-Jimmy Mars [3]; 3. 88-Andrew Reaume [2]; 4. 75M-Dusty Moore [5]; 5. 48L-Tim Lance [6]; 6. 11S-Ryan Sutter [4]; 7. 15H-Jon Henry [DNF]; 8. 32S-Chad Stapleton [DNS]; 9. 93-Jay Johnson [DNS]; 10. 11R-James Rice [DNS]; 11. 25S-Jason Smith [DNS];
B-FEATURE 4 – 1. 57J-Bub Mccool [2]; 2. 29-Darrell Lanigan [4]; 3. 32P-Bobby Pierce [1]; 4. 15J-Greg Johnson [5]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr [6]; 6. 360-Michael Asberry [10]; 7. 1J-Jeff Babcock [11]; 8. 11H-Austin Hubbard [8]; 9. 31-Nick Latham [7]; 10. 14M-Morgan Bagley [9]; 11. 3N-Ross Nicastri [3]; 12. 8-Craig Smith [DNS];
A FEATURE 1 – 1. 3-Matt Miller [3]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens [7]; 3. C9-Steve Casebolt [2]; 4. 1-Josh Richards [1]; 5. 15B-Brian Birkhofer [8]; 6. 1G-Scott James [6]; 7. 55-Jeep Vanwormer [15]; 8. 49D-Jonathan Davenport [5]; 9. 39-Tim Mccreadie [10]; 10. 28M-Jimmy Mars [20]; 11. 88-Andrew Reaume [22]; 12. 15-Steve Francis [17]; 13. 3S-Brian Shirley [14]; 14. 20C-Duane Chamberlain [9]; 15. 22S-Gregg Satterlee [12]; 16. 46-Tim Rivers [21]; 17. 75M-Dusty Moore [24]; 18. 1WC-Wayne Chinn [DNF]; 19. 28P-Jeff Provinzino [DNF]; 20. 11-Tyler Reddick [DNF]; 21. 0-Scott Bloomquist [DNF]; 22. 32-Chris Simpson [DNF]; 23. 25-Chad Simpson [DNF]; 24. 5-Jared Landers [DNF];
A FEATURE 2 – 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr [7]; 2. 44M-Chris Madden [6]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer [1]; 4. 71-Don Oneal [5]; 5. 63-Doug Drown [3]; 6. 20H-Jacob Hawkins [17]; 7. 17M-Dale Mcdowell [9]; 8. 116-Randy Weaver [16]; 9. B5-Brandon Sheppard [13]; 10. 99-Donnie Moran [10]; 11. 18-Shannon Babb [8]; 12. 57J-Bub Mccool [18]; 13. 25C-Shane Clanton [14]; 14. 6S-Steve Shaver [21]; 15. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr [12]; 16. 15J-Greg Johnson [24]; 17. 20R-Jeremy Payne [15]; 18. M14-Brandon Thirlby [23]; 19. 6-Dustin Neat [DNF]; 20. 32P-Bobby Pierce [DNF]; 21. 2-Justin Chance [DNF]; 22. 25Z-Mason Zeigler [DNF]; 23. 19F-Tim Fuller [DNF]; 24. 29-Darrell Lanigan [DNF];