Dirt Late Model racing’s indoor spectacle affectionately known as The Dome technically wasn't love at first sight for Bob Gardner, but that might as well be the narrative. Right as this week’s Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals was brought up during a conversation at last weekend’s Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Indianapolis, the 46-year-old’s eyes bulged with excitement.

“That place means something to you, doesn’t it?” a bystander asked.

“Whew … absolutely,” Gardner said. “That Dome is a race of its own. There’s nothing like it.”

Living just a few hours from downtown St. Louis and The Dome at America's Center, the Washington, Ill., veteran has the proximity of the event to very much look forward to. Whether the home-field advantage energizes Gardner that much more or not, he’s certainly come to play when competing inside the former NFL stadium.

In 2021, Gardner clawed his way from the sixth-starting spot to finish runner-up behind eventual Gateway Dirt Nationals champ, Tyler Carpenter, on Thursday’s opening preliminary night. That Saturday, he turned in a fifth-place finish — his best finish in the finale — behind only Carpenter, Tanner English, Nick Hoffman, and Brandon Sheppard.

Two additional top-10 finishes in the 2017 finale and the ’18 prelim fill out Gardner’s resume at The Dome, the fifth-mile oval that puts the Illinoian in a competitive frame of mind each December.

"For whatever reason, we’re pretty stinkin’ competitive,” Gardner said. “Every year we go there and put just a little bit more focus for that weekend. It would mean the absolute world if we won; I don’t even care of that’s a prelim night. If we can stand in front of 20,000 people next weekend, that would mean the absolute world to me.”

This go-round at the Gateway Dirt Nationals, with more than 140 drivers enters, has a little more expectation attached to it than usual for Gardner.

With the 2024 season on the horizon, Gardner’s future as a racer is in limbo. Beyond this week’s Gateway Dirt Nationals, he’s — without hyperbole — unsure of what lies ahead because his lone crewman, Mike Tillie, is finishing out his tenure as the cornerstone of Gardner’s team.

Over the past six seasons, Gardner’s raced all across the Midwest without much constraint, a freedom that couldn’t happen without Tillie shouldering much of the maintenance and car work load. But Tillie, for reasons that Gardner fully understands, has already started a job with SRI Performance in Indianapolis and therefore can no longer be the right-hand man the Illinoisan desires.

“I’m hopeful and thankful for him,” Gardner said of Tillie. “But, again, after the Dome, I have no plans. And that’s a very, very scary territory for me. I’ve never been in this position before.

“This is very unchartered. A little overwhelming. A little scary,” Gardner added. “Usually at this time, we have a car built and ready to go racing the following year, with plans with what we’re going to do. We’re chomping at the bit right now. Sitting back on my heels, keeping my eyes open to see what’s out there. The scary part is I have no plan.”

While Tillie said his new position “is hard to turn down,” he admits it “sucks leaving Bob.” Because Indiana is next door to Illinois, there’s a “chance” Tillie can lend a hand whenever there’s time between his new role at SRI Performance.

“Bob’s been a great friend; six, seven years I’ve known him now?” Tillie said. “He’s been like a dad. It’s been a good year. I feel the two of us, midseason, we did pretty good I feel chasing Feger and all them. I think they have six guys. We have two … driving up and down the road, working the T-shirt trailer. It’s a lot. We lack on some things, but we do the minimum to get to the racetrack just to compete. It’s pretty good, I’d say.”

Gardner didn’t have a stellar 2023 by any means — he was third in DIRTcar Summer Nationals and MARS points but winless on both circuits — but it was a respectable season nonetheless. Besides, Gardner’s season isn’t past tense quite yet. A win Thursday or especially Saturday would supersede any sort of unmet expectations to date.

Each year, the commonality of every Dome winner is someone with a backbone, someone who doesn’t shy away from physicality. The mentality that it takes to win at the Dome is crucial, but not as crucial as finding the tailor-made setup for the fifth-mile oval, Gardner suggests.

“Maybe some people will disagree with me, but I definitely think you have to have your car right for a unique place like that,” Gardner said. “Without a doubt, with the excellent communication I have with Rocket, they’re going to have me dialed in. Another thing, that Dome is a lot like tracks we run around here. It’s elbows-up, don’t leave a hole because somebody is going to take it. You do what you have to do to get through the holes. It just fits what we’re used to.”

A year after his Dome-best fifth-place finish in 2021, Gardner turned around last season and failed to qualify on both preliminary night and Saturday’s finale. Fortunately for Gardner, those aren’t the memories he’s harboring across the Mississippi River. And fortunately he has time — and another monumental opportunity — to find he crew help he needs to keep his race program going strong.

“It’s just very expensive. No shame to my help I’ve had in the past, but it’s not getting any cheaper,” Gardner said. “I’ve been doing it predominately out of my own pocket forever. It’s just gotten to the point where I know what it takes to be competitive. And I just can’t do it out of my own wallet. These crew guys aren’t cheap. They work a lot of hours. And there’s not a whole lot of them out there. The money aspect and not having crew, I really don’t know what I’m doing after the Dome to be quite frank."

By the sound of it, Gardner’s resources aren’t lacking. Among the arsenal of machinery include two Rocket Chassis, three Clements Racing Engines, and “everything I need to go racing.” The ideal scenario would be that he performs well enough this week at the Dome to pique the interest of a prospective crew member somewhere in the industry, get that somebody to commit sooner rather than later, and return to MARS action in 2024.

“They put together an excellent schedule again,” Gardner said. “Matt (Curl) and Jonathan (Clayton) are amazing people; great promoters who are creating a great series. I would love nothing more than to do that. I would love to do that again if we have a team that could do it.

“It’s the little parts that make parts a team,” he added. “Now I need to build a team that can go win.”