ROSSBURG, Ohio — This was going to be the night. This was going to be the year.

As Chris Madden chugged forward from the ninth starting spot to the precipice of the lead in Saturday night’s 100-lap Dirt Late Model Dream XXIX finale, the sense that the Gray Court, S.C., star’s crown jewel hex at Eldora Speedway was coming to a merciful end was unmistakable.

“When the green flag dropped and we got up to fifth within the first eight, 10 laps, then the next thing you know we’re in third … you can tell, OK, we’re good,” said Stephen Eldridge, a Chris Madden Racing crew member since 2020. “You start getting that feeling, ‘OK, it might be the one.’”

The fever even swept over Madden, the 48-year-old driver who has been chasing a victory in one of Eldora’s major events for two decades.

“We knew we had a pretty good race car in both (25-lap preliminary) features even though we didn’t have great finishes,” said Madden, who started the weekend with runs of sixth (Thursday) and 10th (Friday). “We knew we had a pretty good piece, but it needed some work.

“So today, I put my head together with the guys, and we come up with a package that we wanted to try in the heat race. It was really good (for a second-place finish), and then they dropped the green flag (in the 100-lapper) and I was just cruising around there. I was just picking ‘em off.”

Madden paused, and then asserted, “If the racetrack stays like it was through that period of the race (early in the race), I think we drive away” to a coveted triumph at the half-mile oval worth a resounding $129,000.

Unfortunately for Madden, the racing surface didn’t stay the same. About a third of the way through the century grind — not long after he had reached third place and was looking for more — a line of rubber developed around the high-banked layout and made passing an infrequent, if not almost impossible, task over the remaining distance.

Madden managed to pick up one more spot with a lap-62 restart move past Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., for second, but he couldn’t grab that one additional position to reach the winner’s stage. He dogged Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., down the stretch but simply couldn’t make a serious bid for the lead, forcing him to settle for a $25,000 runner-up finish .0.391 of a second behind the 39-year-old Davenport, who claimed his second career Dream victory and eighth overall crown jewel victory at Eldora.

“There’s nothing you can do, absolutely nothing,” Madden said, mourning the single-lane of rubber that took hold and thwarted his hopes for a breakthrough triumph. “All you can do is sit there and ride.”

The suddenness that the track surface latched up — approximately around lap 40 — took Madden by surprise.

“It done it just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers while standing alongside his Rocket Chassis mount in the postrace inspection. “It wasn’t like it kept easing up a little bit. You could feel the rubber start coming (and) when you see something shining like a mirror, and it’s that color there (black), you better hit it.”

VIDEO: Chris Madden discussed his love for Eldora during "One Lap, One Beer" with Derek Kessinger. 

Noting that he “didn’t expect it that early,” the rubber doomed the race’s competitiveness just as Madden was preparing to pounce. He was a step behind Davenport, who started sixth and grabbed the lead for good from race-long pacesetter Pierce on lap 30, while working his way to the front but nearly snuck by both Pierce and Davenport in one swoop on lap 37.

Madden’s crew chief, Ricky Arnold, recalled the one moment that could have put his boss at the race’s point.

“I really thought we had the best car in the field,” said Arnold, a 28-year-old native of Columbus, Ga., who has worked for Madden since 2019. “We were moving forward I think quicker than anybody else. I actually saw it (from his vantage point in turn three) starting to lay down a little bit of rubber around there so I was hoping he had the urgency.

“And then Bobby and J.D. actually slipped up one time (in turn four on lap 37) and I thought he was gonna get ‘em (with an inside sweep). That was our chance, (because) I guess two or three laps after that buckled down and that was all she wrote.”

Perhaps Madden should have turned up the wick as soon as he drew close to Davenport and Pierce, but that’s 20-20 hindsight. Madden did what he could in those fleeting moments before the rubber laid down.

“I knew I needed to get to J.D., so I got myself to him and I didn’t feel like he was as maneuverable as what I could be,” Madden said. “When there was a wide racetrack, I kind of felt like I could go through the holes and hug the holes and carry a lot of speed. 

“I’m sure he probably watches that (video) board (outside the second turn) too and he seen us get there and he started running pretty hard trying to get through lapped traffic. Then the rubber came, so …”

The implication in Madden’s voice was clear.

“I never had a chance there,” he said. “I got to (Davenport) one time (with a true opportunity to pass) and then the rubber came.”

Piece managed to slip past Pierce for second place on lap 62’s single-file restart — officials dispensed with the usual double-file restart procedure because it was clear the rubber had taken hold — and soon caught Davenport. But as a native of the Southeast’s dirt-track scene where racing in the rubber has long been a common occurrence, he knew his only play was to stick as close to Davenport as possible and pray for some divine intervention.

“I just sit there and say, ‘Second again,’ ” Madden when asked what was running through his mind over the final quarter of the race. “But, I mean, I tried. I stepped out down there a few times to see what I could find and there wasn’t nothing there, there was nothing to get it done. All you do is get back in line and try to stay right on his bumper and pressure him a little bit.

“But you had to be careful, because I didn’t know how tire wear was gonna be. You can’t be too stupid and wear your stuff out. (But) I could see his tires, especially the left-rear, and I don’t think he was gonna wear it out. I was just hoping that he was gonna push off the right-rear and I was gonna be right there to get up beside him and take the spot.

“I felt like, you know, I was able to run on his bumper, so I had a really good race car,” he continued. “A lot of times it’s hard to do that in that condition, but I was able to run right there on him.”

Alas, Madden had just one description of the race’s late stages: “That’s like me and him being out there on a Sunday cruise just waiting for him to screw up. He did a great job, he didn’t do it.”

Madden’s crew members understood the reality of their driver following Davenport — another Southerner well-versed in rubber racing — through the final laps.

“I knew they both raced in the rubber a lot at Gaffney (South Carolina’s Cherokee Speedway) so I knew J.D. wasn’t gonna slip, and I knew Chris wasn’t gonna slip,” Arnold said. 

“J.D. can make laps here with his eyes closed,” Eldridge added. “This is his track, and it rubbered up … and Chris is one of the best in the rubber, and then you gotta go against J.D. You just sit there and wait for a mistake, and it’s probably not going to come.”

The Dream was the 40th crown jewel event that Madden has entered at Eldora since his big-race debut there in the 2003 Dream (he didn’t qualify). He’s started the Dream finale 16 times in 20 attempts and the World 100 headliner 15 times in 17 tries, plus he’s made the feature cut for 2022’s Eldora Million and 2020’s pair of Covid-season replacement invitationals (Dirt Late Model Stream and Intercontinental Classic).

But while Madden had captured preliminary features during crown jewel weekends (Dream in 2018 and ’22), glory in the big ones has eluded his grasp. He has a combined nine career top-five finishes in the majors with four of them coming over the pas three seasons: runner-up finishes in the second Dream in 2021, last year and on Saturday as well as last year’s Million, plus a third-place outing in last year’s World 100.

Madden’s most recent brushes with victory have come driving the same Rocket car, a machine that has proven to be extremely fast and reliable.

“This car here started in the back at the Million (one year ago) and finished second (to Davenport),” Madden said. “We led (the early laps of) the Dream (last June) and rained out (to September), and we come back and were leading the Dream and have a (late) restart and a spark plug falls out and we run second (to Brandon Overton). We run third in the World with it (last year) and run second at the Dream this year with it.

“We’re gonna pull a win out of it next time,” he added. “This ‘ol girl here, she’s got a win in her yet.”

The strength Madden has consistently shown in his most recent Eldora trips was the bright side to his fate. In fact, he was surprisingly upbeat after the race, taking his latest brush with destiny in stride.

“Maybe if I’d have been further up in the heat race and won a heat instead of finishing second, it might’ve made a difference,” said Madden, the current points leader on the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series. “Very small things make a big difference here.

“I honestly think I was better than (Davenport in the feature), but circumstances … even he told me up there (on the winner’s stage) tonight, I said, ‘I think we’re pretty close,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve just been lucky all week.’

“When it’s rolling (for a driver like Davenport), there’s nothing else you can do,” he added. “You can try your best, but sometimes your best ain’t good enough.”

Eldridge wasn’t expecting Madden to spend the aftermath of the Dream sulking.

“We have this day coming to Eldora circled every year,” Eldridge said. “He looks forward to coming here, and, I mean, he wants to get one done here. He’s been close, and sooner or later it’s gonna happen.

“He’s probably not gonna dwell on this one. He never made a mistake. J.D. never made one to give him an opportunity. It’s just, get ready for the next one (Monday’s XR Super Series event at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway).”

Cracking a slight smile while still standing in the inspection area outside Eldora’s media center, Madden summed up his Eldora fate: “One of these days … yeah, that’s what I say every time I come here.”