Jonathan Davenport(#6) and Scott Bloomquist each won $100,000 races in 2015
Rightfully so, Jonathan Davenport has been the talk of the Dirt Late Model racing world for the past several months. The Blairsville, GA driver has won just about everything there is to win in the sport, including his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series title. At the same time, however, it must also be considered just how close Scott Bloomquist came to making history of his own in 2015.
The Mooresburg, Tenn. driver scored a dominating victory in Saturday night’s $100,000-to-win Dirt Track World Championship in Portsmouth, Ohio. The triumph was Bloomquist’s eighth win of the season on the LOLMDS tour. And when it is considered that four of those victories on that tour paid $20,000 or more, the leader of Team Zero made some impressive deposits in his bank account throughout the season.
The National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member also won two World of Outlaws Late Models feature races along the way.
But all that said, Bloomquist’s accomplishments are still overshadowed by those of Davenport. Trophies and checks from the Show-me 100, the North/South 100, the Prairie Dirt Classic and the USA Nationals were among those that left their respective tracks in the back of the K&L Rumley team hauler. And that’s not to mention a myriad of $10,000 victories as well.
Consider, however, where Davenport’s noteworthy season got its biggest boost on the way to an historic run through Dirt Late Model racing’s top events. Early in the summer of 2015, the No. 6 car was declared the winner of the Dirt Late Model Dream at the Eldora Speedway. But that $100,000 triumph only came after the first place finishing run of Bloomquist was disallowed when the No. 0 car was found to be too light on the track’s scales.
In other words, Bloomquist came within about 30 pounds of earning $200,000 in just two races. While Davenport’s run of success would have still been very impressive even without his Dream win, at least some room would have been dedicated to Bloomquist’s achievement when the final history of the 2015 season was written.
Granted, ‘what ifs’ don’t count for anything and the simple fact of the matter is that Bloomquist’s car was found to be light on the Eldora scales, and thus, Davenport was the winner of the Dream as a result. Still, when it is considered that Bloomquist was the first to cross the finish line in the only two races that paid $100,000-to-win, the conjecture of what might have been is worthwhile.
There can be no doubt that Jonathan Davenport was the driver of the year for the 2015 Dirt Late Model season. But a mere 25-30 pounds was all that kept there from at least being a conversation about the issue and all that kept there from being a rather remarkable piece of history made.
