Dennis Erb Jr. was on the move on Thursday night
Here are a few notes from Thursday night’s 27th annual Dirt Late Model Dream at the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio:
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Riggs-Moyer Incident: A mishap on the second lap of the first B-main race of the night proved disastrous for the chances of some. Contact between Billy Moyer Sr. and Jason Riggs as the two raced through turn one sent Riggs for a spin. His prone car was then collected by the oncoming machines of John Blankenship, Chris Madden, Ryan Gustin, and Robby Hensley.
Riggs car suffered heavy damage and he was unable to continue as was Madden, Blankenship, and Gustin.
“I went in on the top and he(Moyer) knew he was not going to catch me or slide me and he hit me then all hell broke loose from there,” a frustrated Riggs told FloRacing.com. “We only brought one car here so we’re done.”
For his part, Moyer failed to secure a transfer spot in the B-main but was able to make the main event by winning the B-main Scramble. He ultimately finished in the 24th position.
Bailes Fails Tech: The incident started by Riggs and Moyer was not the only bit of drama to come out of that first B-main. When the checkered flag waved, it appeared as if Nick Hoffman, Hudson O’Neal, and Ross Bailes had earned the three available transfer positions. However, that would not be the case. Hoffman and O’Neal rolled across the scales without incident and had their names written into the starting lineup.
Bailes, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. His car proved to be too light. Even after he was allowed to pull forward then back onto the scales, there was no green light to indicate that his car was of sufficient weight. The No. 79 was subsequently disqualified and Dennis Erb Jr., after passing his own tech inspection, was gifted with a third-place result and a spot on the starting grid for the Dream.
Erb’s Ascension: Erb making the feature through the B-main was remarkable in another way apart from him receiving the spot following the Bailes disqualification. The former Dirt Late Model Dream winner had started that 20-lap race all the way back in the 21st position and worked his way to fourth by the time of the checkered flag, allowing him to take advantage of Bailes’ misfortune.
But Erb wasn’t done there. The Illinois driver started the 100-lap Dream from the 25th position and drove all the way up to sixth-place by the time the checkered flag waved.
Feger Flips: Easily the wildest ride of the night was that of Jason Feger during the second B-main scramble of the evening. Kyle Strickler, who was running ahead of Feger on lap 2 of the 5-lap dash, banged off of the turn one wall and then spun down the track. The No. 25 Feger machine was left with nowhere to go and slammed Strickler’s prone car with the right rear quarter panel.
The high-speed contact sent Feger’s car flipping wildly through the air eventually landing in an upright position. Both Feger and Strickler were able to walk away from the incident although both cars were heavily damaged as a result. Feger typically runs all or much of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals tour, which is set to begin next week, and it remains to be seen if the damage done to his car will have any impact on that.
Strickler Strickened: Kyle Strickler’s troubles went beyond his Scramble race mishap. The driver who recently parted ways with PCC Motorsports had linked up with Scott Bloomquist Racing for a run at a few races, including the Dirt Late Model Dream. All appeared to be working in the former Modified standout’s favor early on as he was slated to start his Wednesday heat race from the pole position. However, he was late arriving to the staging area and was never able to work his way into the Group B feature race either by heat race or B-main.
With the Eldora Speedway using a points system to set the heat race lineups prior to the Thursday night main event, Strickler found himself buried deep in the field and thus had to run a B-main then subsequently the Scramble after failing to make the feature otherwise.
He did not earn a position in the Dream after the crash mentioned earlier.
Bloomquist Misses the Show: On the subject of Scott Bloomquist Racing, the lead driver for that organization was late arriving to the Eldora Speedway grounds on Wednesday and missed the drivers meeting as a result. The penalty for that infraction is to be removed from the qualifying order and start the assigned heat race from the tail.
Bloomquist ultimately earned no points on Wednesday and, like Strickler, was buried deep in his Thursday night heat race. The legendary driver switched cars from Wednesday to Thursday but to no avail. After failing to reach one of the transfer positions in his heat race, Bloomquist pulled off track early in the second B-main with what was reported to be rear end issues.
Bloomquist’s business partner, Cody Sommer, reported that the car being used on Thursday was the same as that driven by the eight-time Dream winner one week earlier at West Virginia Motor Speedway in the Historic 100 and might have been damaged there.
Kyle Larson is Human After All: Kyle Larson seemingly has some sort of super hero type powers when it comes to driving a race car. The Hendrick Motorsports racer has already amassed three NASCAR Cup Series victories in 2021, including his last two starts. Earlier this year, he won the Chili Bowl Nationals, he recently won a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series feature, and he has two Super Late Model wins this year.
After winning his heat race on Thursday night, the Elk Grove, CA native started the Dream from the sixth spot. Throughout the first half of the race the No. 6 machine held station around the 8th position in the running order. But just after halfway, it appeared as if Larson decided it was time to go.
However, things then went in the wrong direction, literally. While trying to pass Dale McDowell for fourth on lap 63, it looked as if Larson’s car might slide across the track and make contact with the Hall of Fame driver. Instead, he made an evasive move and spun. After restarting from the tail of the field, the red hot driver was only able to manage a 13th place result in the final rundown.
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