The Trucks hit Eldora’s historic half-mile, clay oval on Wednesday for practice. They return Thursday for the 150-lap feature (9 p.m.; FS1).
One of the Dirt Derby’s unique characteristics is its tribute to dirt racing. Heat races will be used to determine the Derby lineup.
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The 32 trucks entered will compete in five heat races (10 laps). The top five trucks in each heat automatically transfer into the Dirt Derby. The remaining trucks will run the Last Chance consolation race (15 laps), with two trucks earning starting spots No. 26 and 27. The final five spots (No. 28-32) will be set by NASCAR’S provisional rules.
Here are five story lines to watch at the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Dirt Derby:
• The track that Earl built: Thanks to Earl Baltes’ vision, Eldora Speedway rose out of those Darke County cornfields back in 1954. He likely has no idea how big “Big E” would become.
Readers from USA Today voted Eldora the best track among those that host Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series races. Eldora edged New York’s Watkins Glen International for the readers’ choice award.
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Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway in California rounded out the top five.
• Chastain takes detour: Ross Chastain, the Truck Series leader in wins with three, gets his first Eldora experience this week.
The Florida native had no intention of running Eldora to start this season. But then came a victory at Kansas Speedway in May. Another followed at Gateway in Illinois in June. Those wins – plus a third he added at Pocono Raceway last weekend – convinced Chastain to run for the Truck Series championship.
Chastain has attended the Dirt Derby in person. But getting covered by the dirt cloud kicked up during racing is as close to the track as he’s come. To prepare he sought advice from NASCAR drivers Kyle Larson and Ty Dillon.
“It’s going to be way harder than I can imagine, I know that,” said Chastain, driver of the No. 45 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports. “I know I’m going to make mistakes and probably get into the wall at some point trying to run the top. Just trying to figure out where I’m most comfortable and where I can find the speed. I’m looking forward to the challenge of it. I don’t know how competitive we’ll be. Just go and try not to tear up too much stuff.”
• Digging for the Golden Shovel: It’s a unique trophy for a unique race. The Golden Shovel – awarded to the winner of the Dirt Derby – has become a coveted item among Truck Series competitors.
Grant Enfinger knows how special it is. He came within 0.38 seconds of winning the shovel in 2018. Enfinger lost by a bumper to ThorSport Racing teammate Chase Briscoe in last season’s paint-trading battle to the finish.
“Yeah, I definitely think about that finish a lot. I just came up a little short,” said Enfinger, the driver of the No. 98 Ford F-150. “I gotta make sure that doesn’t happen again. Overall we had good speed at both of the Eldora races we’ve run. Hopefully, we can be there at the end again and be one spot better.”
Enfinger’s racing roots started in asphalt, but he does have limited dirt experience running with the ARCA Series. Coming so close to that dirt win has Enfinger digging even harder this time.
“A win would be huge for a lot of reasons,” Enfinger said. “The points involved in the playoffs and the automatic berth into the playoffs. But on top of that, from how close we came last year, from a personal pride stand point … we put a ton of effort into every race but this one is a little different. I feel like there’s a little more at stake, as far as your pride goes, to lift one of those Golden Shovels.”
• Demolition Derby: Teams don’t always bring their best trucks to Eldora. And for good reason. The race is a mix of dirt veterans, dirt novices and dirt rookies all battling it out on a small piece of real estate. That often doesn’t end well for the trucks.
“The only thing I’m not looking forward to (at Eldora) is destroying a truck. It seems like everything we take there … you’re not going to use it the rest of the year. It takes you that long to fix it back,” said Enfinger, driver of the No. 98 Ford for ThorSport Racing.
“We take whatever truck we want to put a body on. If we’re not happy with an aero standpoint or not happy with the truck for whatever reason, a lot of times we’ll take those trucks there. It’s more what we want to fix back a different way.”
• Repeat winner? Six different winners have won the first six races, starting with Austin Dillon in 2013. Darrell Wallace Jr., Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Matt Crafton and Chase Briscoe picked up the next five victories.
Briscoe hasn’t competed in the Truck Series since last year’s Dirt Derby win. But the Xfinity Series driver – he’s currently seventh in the standings with one victory – wasn’t going to sit this one out.
“I can’t wait to get back to Eldora,” Briscoe said. “It’s a special race to me because for guys growing up on dirt it’s our version of Daytona. No one has ever won that race twice let alone back-to-back and hopefully we can do it.”
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