If just one of the father-and-son duo of Freddie Carpenter and Tyler Carpenter had to rely on fan voting to gain access to June 4-6’s Dirt Late Model Dream Invitational at Eldora Speedway, there’s a good chance either would have won in a landslide.

But when the two drivers from Parkersburg, W.Va., both needed the fan vote in order to compete in the $50,000-to-win invitation-only event at Tony Stewart’s famed half-mile oval in Rossburg, Ohio, it perhaps made it difficult for their fans to choose. No worries. Carpenter Nation responded.

Watch the Eldora Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational June 4-6 on FloRacing

While Tanner English of Benton, Ky., the top vote-getter in the online competition, receiving 2,258 votes among 22,460 cast to punch a ticket to Eldora for Riggs Motorsports, the Carpenters weren’t far behind. The father and son team that designs, sells and utilizes its own family-built chassis — Kryptonite Race Cars — rode a groundswell of support to earn enough votes to qualify for the invitational event. Freddie Carpenter garnered 2,185 votes, while Tyler Carpenter picked up 2,180 as they finished second and third, respectively, in the voting. Rick Eckert (2,097) of York, Pa., was the fourth and final driver voted in by fans.

“It’s a pretty cool deal,” said Tyler Carpenter. “With all the drivers that could possibly be in there and only 48 invited and we got voted in. That was probably tough for the fans to vote between … you know, I guess the good thing is they could vote four times, so I’d say between all our fans they voted probably two apiece for each of us. That’s one of them deals where, I mean, you have to have your fans, regardless."

“This is a perfect example. Without our fans, there’s no way me or dad would have been in this. As drivers, it’s up to us to create fans and basically cause enough hype and excitement to keep ’em coming our way. I really respect the fanbase that we’ve accumulated and really look forward to trying to do something for ’em.”

Fueled by Tyler’s high energy, say-anything interviews and aided by the pair’s personable nature, the Carpenters have one of the most ardent fan bases in all of Dirt Late Model racing. Tyler’s explanation? They’re just so darned relatable.

“I think, honestly, and this is just my opinion … I think it’s just because we’re more down-to-earth and we don’t try to act like somebody we’re not,” Tyler said. “As far as the racing standpoint of it, we’re just dirt track racers playing in the dirt. I know as racers you’ve got to take it as serious as all get out and treat it as a business, but in the same sense, them guys (fans) are just going to a dirt track to watch some guys turn some laps. You got to be able to let them know that you ain’t a bit better than them. You need to acknowledge them and shake their hand and thank ’em for coming. You need to make the fans a part of it and we try to do that all we can.”

Getting back to Eldora means just as much for the Carpenters as it does for the fans who voted to send them there. While Freddie finished second to Ricky Weiss in last year’s $5,000 Sunoco American Late Model Series-sanctioned Baltes Classic — a race that drew 38 entries — other efforts at the Big E have been lukewarm at best.

Freddie attempted to qualify for last year’s Dream, but after falling just short of advancing into the preliminary features each night — he missed it by two cars on Thursday and four on Friday — he was buried deep in the second heat on Saturday and never recovered.

The elder Carpenter hoped his runner-up finish in the Baltes Classic would carry over to the World 100 six days later. But instead his results mirrored his Dream outing rather than the stellar run a week earlier. Tyler hardly fared better as he struggled on both prelim nights and was never in contention to crack the World 100 lineup. Getting another shot at it is paramount to the further success of the Kryptonite brand.

“It’s really important,” Tyler said. “Dad was really looking forward all year long to hitting every race that Eldora had to offer just to try and help our program on a bigger track and help our guys perform a little better on these bigger tracks. We’re going to do all we can to perform to our best (ability) and I feel like we’ll be better this time than we was last time for sure.

“I had issues the last time I was there, carburetor problems, this and that, just one thing after another. Without having the average racer’s excuses, regardless, without the problems, we was just off. It’s just more about having the car balanced. You gotta have a car that turns into the corner really good and our stuff is just always too stuck, so we gotta make sure we get it freed up enough to get through the corner.”

Tyler said that it’s important for both to continue getting laps on big, high-speed tracks, something that hasn’t really been his or his father’s forte. 

“We got to get these big tracks down pat,” Tyler said. “It’s one of them deals where these little tracks, we’ve pretty well mastered the little tracks, but now we’ve got to get the cars balanced and more stable for these big tracks. Air is a huge thing. There’s just a lot more involved to go around a half-mile than there is a quarter-mile track. We’ve just got to have our ducks in a row and everything as perfect as we can get it and go through all our shocks, check our shock program, just get everything where it needs to be.

“All we’ve ever ran is quarter (mile) to 3/8-(mile tracks) and we’ve got to where we’re pretty good on that. We’ve kinda gotten behind on technology on how everything ought to lay out to be perfectly stable on them big tracks. I’m not saying we’re gonna go win the race and I’m not saying we’re not, but you’re not gonna find out by not trying. If you give up you never will get it. We’re just going in there to try our best and give it all we got and see what we’re able to do. We ain’t got perfect notes for the place yet, so we may struggle a little bit, but we’re just hoping that we’re gonna struggle less than we did.”

Either way, subscribers of FloRacing who tune into the live stream will likely see what Carpenter fans have grown accustomed to — a dogged effort and a never-say-die attitude. Now that they’ve been given an opportunity to compete on the sport’s biggest stage, nothing less is expected. 

“It’s just awesome. Eldora, just the word Eldora means a lot,” Tyler said. “To anybody in the racing world, whether you win a race there or not, just to get to go around Eldora, man, it’s awesome. You’re around a bunch a great people and the best in the business will be there.”