Davenport also joined Donnie Moran (1996, 1998) and Billy Moyer (2010) as drivers to sweep both the Dirt Late Model Dream and World 100 in the same season, netting a prize of $148,000.
“It’s not really sank in yet,” Davenport said shortly after his victory stage celebration. “I’ve always loved this place ever since the first time I came here. This is my kind of high speed, up next to the wall, elbows up, get it on place. I wish we raced here three or four times a year. This is just awesome.”
Davenport started 18th. He was 12th after four laps. He finally caught up to race-leader Landers with about 40 laps to go. The two traded at least four slide jobs for the lead until Davenport made his stick for good going into Turns 3-4 and led the final 34 laps.
He quickly established a four-second lead and beat runner-up Bobby Pierce of Illinois by half a straight away in the 45th running of the World 100.
“We didn’t really know if we was good enough. … That’s the thing about Eldora,” Davenport said. “You gotta have a lot of luck on your side. Brandon Sheppard (who won two preliminary features) was one of the best cars here and he didn’t even make the field. Once we got going I could circle around the bottom, I could go in the middle and as soon as I saw the top clean up that’s where I went.”
Pole-sitter Bloomquist, Landers (who led the first 61 laps) and Steve Francis rounded out the top five.
Davenport had not won a crown jewel event in dirt late model racing entering this season. He’s since won the Dream, the Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Missouri, the North/South 100 at Florence Speedway in Kentucky and the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin.
His Dream win in June came when Bloomquist was disqualified after coming up light on the scales in the post-race inspection.
“There’s always that what if?” Davenport said of wondering if he’d be good enough to win a major. “I’ve said it many times Scott done his job better than I did at the Dream. This time I done my job better. That’s an unbelievable feeling.
“You dream of doing this in your career. It’s been an unbelievable year. … I could call it a season after the Dream. But the way we won it I definitely wanted to come back and win it myself the right way.”
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