ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 6) — At first, Chris Madden waved off the opportunity to address the incident that knocked him out of Friday’s opening 25-lap World 100 semifeature at Eldora Speedway. FloRacing pit reporter Ben Shelton asked for an on-camera interview, but Madden was too angry to oblige.

Then the 49-year-old driver from Gray Court, S.C., quickly reconsidered. Seconds later, he turned around, yelled out to Shelton that he actually did want to talk, and proceeded to let loose with a unvarnished take on how contact with Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., had sent him spinning nose-first into the turn-one wall on lap 10.

“Just had a great race car man,” Madden began, his face looking mad enough to breathe fire. “Just rolling up through there and, you know, this guy, he’s an idiot. He’s all over the place all the time. He’s up in the fence in the top of the racetrack, off the wall, down to the bottom … can’t drive, can’t hold his line, so he takes out a good race car tonight.”

Then Madden briefly paused, looked straight into the camera, and said before walking away, “So good job, Wil Herrington.”

Herrington, 28, would later express dismay over the harshly critical comments Madden directed toward him, describing the tangle as a product of circumstance. But Madden cooled off little by the race's end, instead remaining adamant that Herrington, who finished seventh, was entirely responsible for leaving his G.R. Smith-owned Longhorn Chassis with a thoroughly mangled nosepiece.

Madden, who started 18th, was working his way forward when he reached the 12th-running Herrington. The scoring loop actually had Madden ahead of Herrington for 12th place by a mere 0.017 of a second at lap 10 before the two drivers’ cars came together just before reaching turn one.

With Madden on the inside, the contact to his front end caused him to spin up the track and pound the outside wall head-on before coming to rest for the semifeature’s first caution flag. Madden fired up his car and managed to drive it down the backstretch with enough speed to pull alongside Herrington in turn three and express his displeasure before retiring to his team’s trailer parked at the turn-one end of the pit area.

Following the checkered flag, Madden was changed into street clothes and still seething as he watched his crew members dig into assessing the damage to his car’s front end.

“You get a guy who runs from wall-to-wall, all over the place,” Madden said, continuing to direct his ire toward Herrington. “Then a guy’s out there, racing, doing his thing … I don’t hardly ever touch nobody around here, and you got a racetrack that’s 75 feet wide and he’s gotta use the whole racetrack down the straightaway.

“I mean, he come off the (frontstretch) wall, all the way down to the bottom, and hits me in the right-front. He just don’t pay no attention to what he’s doing .. spun me around, a lot of work for nothing.”

While Madden didn’t think there was any frame damage to the new car that he’s driving for Smith on a one-off Eldora deal, he was especially unhappy to have what he felt was a promising run derailed.

“The car was really good,” said Madden, who was credited with a 26th-place finish and is scheduled to start fourth in Saturday’s fourth of six 15-lap heats. “Better than last night (when he finished seventh). It was good, good, good.”

Herrington, who was pitted in Eldora’s upper pit area outside turn three, acknowledged there was contact between him and Madden but he didn’t appreciate the cutting public admonishment from Madden.

“I never seen him. I didn’t know he was there,” Herrington said. “I kind of did feel (a bump), but I didn’t even know he was there. The guy in front of me swapped lanes and I felt like I was better than that guy, so I was gonna throw a slider on him (entering turn one) and I didn’t know (Madden) was there.

“I’m not here to wreck anybody. I don’t have the equipment to tear my s--- up. I gotta keep racing the rest of the year so I don’t wanna take that chance.”

Herrington said he made an attempt to discuss the incident with Madden when he passed by Madden’s pit stall after the race. 

“I tried to talk to him but he acted like a crybaby like he normally does,” Herrington said, tossing out his own stern words. “I tried to be an adult and have a conversation. I drove by and he started running at the car so I stopped.

“I feel terrible because his tire guy, Stephen (Eldridge), and me, I felt we were pretty close. He’s been helping me on some stuff tire-wise, and I talked to him … he was the first person I talked to when I come down pit road. He was understanding but Chris was not.

“What I (wanted) to explain to him … I wasn’t here to wreck anybody, especially him,” he continued. “I’ve always respected him as a bad-ass racer. He’s done it all, you know, and I don’t want people thinking I’m out here wrecking folks. It’s just one of them things that I wished we could’ve just talked about it and had an adult conversation, but he didn’t want that.”

The happy-go-lucky Herrington wasn’t going to let the run-in with a veteran still seeking his first crown jewel victory at Eldora dampen what is shaping up as his best trip to the famed half-mile oval. After beginning the week by qualifying for Wednesday night’s 50-lap Castrol FloRacing Night in America feature against an 82-car field (he finished 24th), Herrington placed fourth in Thursday’s first 25-lap semifeature — his career-best preliminary feature run in his six crown jewel attempts at the track — before going from 11th-to-seventh in Friday’s semi.

Herrington has never started a major at Eldora — he failed to qualify for the World 100 and Dream in 2022 and ’23 and the Eldora Million in ’22 — but he’s positioned well to make a run at Saturday’s World 100 finale. He’s scheduled to start fourth in the sixth heat.

“I’m here because I want to make the World 100,” said Herrington, who is running his family-owned car at Eldora for the first time (his previous appearances came with JCM Motorsports). “That’s my goal from when I started with (chassis builder) Barry (Wright) the first of the year (racing with ASD Motorsports before moving back to his family team in May). We’ve had a damn good weekend and we’ve got speed, and maybe it’ll all work out tomorrow and we’ll get in.

“I beat the bushes to get here. Our Rocket car, that thing’s 4 years old, and our Clements motor, it’s not up to date, it’s just a standard motor. So I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job this weekend. We’ve already exceeded our expectations.”