ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 7) — It was 1 a.m. Sunday at Eldora Speedway, nearly two hours after the World 100 checkered flag, and Dale McDowell remained firesuit, carrying one conversation after the next with seemingly whomever approached him.

While the sold-out grandstands emptied out and the once-packed pit area only had a few trucks and trailers left to depart, the 58-year-old Hall of Famer fresh off a riveting runner-up finish had no concept of time.

“Taking it in,” said a reflective McDowell, who had too many people to converse with and too much to process from Saturday for him to immediately call it a night. “Just taking it in.”

Part of what occupied McDowell’s headspace was the very thought that virtually every World 100 onlooker had when he took the lead from eventual winner Bobby Pierce with eight laps left: How sweet, and perhaps healing, would it have been to put the No. 17m Team Zero Race Car on the Big E’s victory stage?

From speaking at Bloomquist’s celebration of life service earlier that morning to giving the sensational Pierce all he could handle in the closing circuits laps of the World 100, the Chickamauga, Ga., veteran had quite the Saturday indeed at Eldora.

• Press Conference: 2024 World 100 At Eldora Speedway
• Highlights | 2024 World 100 at Eldora Speedway
• 2024 World 100 Results At Eldora Speedway

Of course, it didn’t end in storybook fashion for McDowell and his supporters, plus the countless Bloomquist fans that pulled for him because of his connection with the late Mooresburg, Tenn., legend. But what topped off the day so sweetly were all the wholesome interactions McDowell had in the minutes to hours after the checkered flag.

Among those interactions had been Bloomquist’s 18-year-old daughter, Ariel, who joined McDowell for a brief moment during his postrace interview on the FloRacing broadcast.

“When you go through what we went through, with what the Bloomquist family has gone through, it just puts it into perspective,” McDowell later said. “This stuff is important, but what we went through for them was very important for the family.

“There was a lot of stuff going on. Shane and Landon (Hayes) had some stuff going on getting cars ready for his celebration of life. It’s just been an emotional weekend. If we could’ve won, it would’ve been huge. But I’m happy with a second. You have to be. When you’re racing with that crowd, you have to be happy with top-fives. We were there and had a shot at it. Just weren’t able to capitalize on it quite yet.”

Eldora owner Tony Stewart consoled McDowell in the postrace tech area before the Georgian ventured to the media center for more postrace interviews, too.

“I told Tony Stewart when he came over tonight ‘dang it!’ He said, ‘There isn’t anything to hang your head about. You did good,’ ” McDowell recounted. “I said, ‘I know it, but I’m running out of damn years to do this.’ But it was good. It was all good … but dang it. It was fun to race with those guys.”

The one interaction that didn’t go quite as noticed had been when McDowell embraced the 27-year-old Pierce once he arrived to the media center for World 100’s annual press conference with its podium finishers. 

“He’s just a good kid. He’s one of the best in the business, if not the best around the top,” McDowell said. “He’s been able to harness that up. I told him that last year when he was parked besides us at Florence (Motor Speedway in Kentucky) at the North-South. He’d come by me and I watched him maneuver, and he’s just learned to race. He’s matured so much. His dad was such a good racer. Bobby has watched guys and has learned.”

As McDowell’s postrace encounters suggest, how he lost the World 100, or how the crown jewel slipped through his grasp in the final laps, didn’t dominate those interactions. McDowell was held up behind the slower car of Tanner English while Pierce ripped around McDowell’s outside through turns one and two with five laps remaining. Pierce’s lead unreachable in the following corner when McDowell couldn’t get around the slower cars also running the middle of the racetrack.

But McDowell didn’t feel slighted in the slightest, saying that the slower cars are simply “running their own race” and that they “don’t know where you’re at.” Besides, Pierce’s prowess around the top of the racetrack is what lifted him to victory above all.

“Bobby picked a lane around the top. I tried that lane up there. Our cars, when you get up there, they’re a little tight,” McDowell said. “Look at Scott, he’s run around the middle for years and years. That’s kind of where they’re happy. I moved up and pushed really, really bad. I knew I had to get back down. But it wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was a matter of circumstances. It is what it is.”

As Pierce created his separation around the top, McDowell was married to the middle lane. 

“I had to run the middle. I couldn’t run the top. Kind of the same thing with these cars, or me, I don’t know what happens, but we come around late in the race,” McDowell said. “I got to where I can run the middle and just maintain, and take care of my tires. And then it started to get tight — everyone started to get tight — and that was it.

“If I could’ve gone to the top — I knew Bobby was up there — but I gone to the top and was tighter than they were, and almost hit the wall up there. And my wheel went straight to the left and I couldn’t make the corner. I had to run the middle. I thought that was enough traction down there, but the he sailed it back by me.

“Then I came to him right there late again and it was going to be a race through traffic. It just wasn’t meant to be. I’m happy for our team and our sponsors. Just a good weekend for us.”

On lap 49 when McDowell was running third behind the leading Jonathan Davenport and the second-running Pierce, he’d been nearly five seconds off the leader’s pace. But McDowell wasn’t all that worried. Saturday marked his 11th straight top-10 at the World 100, a stretch that’s included him coming from 14th-starting spot or worse. 

In other words, McDowell knew he’d only grow stronger as the race progressed. What had been different this year for McDowell than especially in recent years (five starts of 19th or worse the last seven years) was he and brother Shane honed in on their qualifying and heat race approaches.

That paid off with flying colors for McDowell, who earned quick-time honors Thursday and Friday and rolled to Saturday’s sixth heat victory that landed him the World 100 pole for the first time since 2016. The McDowells had been leery of toying too much with their proven Eldora packages because “a lot of times you’ll fix one area, you know, and it’ll hurt another area.” But that wasn’t the case Saturday.

“We were able to be more aggressive. I haven’t been able to be more aggressive during this qualifying attempts before and in heat races,” McDowell said. “He’s actually just worked on the car.

“We’ve had so much success here in long runs that we didn’t want to hurt our late-race run, you know?” McDowell added. “So we just took a gamble at it. He’s been working hard as he always does. This is his passion. He eats, breathes and sleeps it. Landon is right there to support it. I couldn’t be more happier or pleased. Just enjoying it and having a good time.”

What also pleases McDowell is that he found himself, at least on Saturday, sandwiched between two of the sport’s all-time greats in the making. For Davenport, he’d been on the cusp of Billy Moyer’s record-tying sixth World 100. For Pierce, his 32-victory season, off the heels of his 34-victory campaign in 2023, continues to solidify a legacy of his own.

McDowell’s legacy within the sport is safely secured no matter what he accomplishes, or lack thereof, here forward.

“As long as I can be mixed in there with those guys, it’s so cool, and we’ll have a chance,” McDowell said. “I’m getting older, and I don’t want to keep harping on that, but I’m running out of years. I want to win one of these things. But it wasn’t meant to be tonight. We’ll come back in June (next year) and come back in September, hopefully, and try again.”

The key word there for McDowell is hopefully. When asked if him already looking forward to next year at Eldora also means that he’ll be back competing at some capacity in Dirt Late Model racing, McDowell said, “I think,” but “there are obviously some I’s that have to be dotted and T’s that have to be crossed” when it comes to financials and logistics within his No. 17m team.

"There’s some opportunity out there for us. But there’s a lot of change that Shane and Sara need to make as team owners,” McDowell said. “They’ll put the pieces of the puzzle together, and they’ll let me know what they’re doing. I’m up front with them. I don’t want to inconvenience them or take any financial chances on being able to run with them two.

“We have a good group of partners. And we’re losing one, which they’ve been with us forever with E-Z-Go and the Parkhurst family, E-Z-Go vehicles. They’ve been awesome. We’ll see what we can get put back together and should know something at the end of the year.”

FloRacing Is The Streaming Home For Many Of Racing’s Top Events Each Year

Don’t miss any of the exciting action, which can be enjoyed year-round at FloRacing. Check out the FloRacing schedule for more events.

FloRacing Archived Footage

Video footage from the event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloRacing subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscription.

Join The Conversation On Social

• Follow us on Twitter @FloRacing
• Follow us on Instagram @floracing
• Like us on Facebook