Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., enters the Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational as undoubtedly one of the hottest Dirt Late Model drivers in the nation. He’s clicking so well with his David Wells-owned Longhorn cars — he’s scored five of his seven overall victories this season since racing returned last month from its coronavirus-related shutdown, including back-to-back Lucas Oil Series wins on May 26-27 at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. — that in a typical campaign he’d be licking his chops at chasing a six-figure Dream winner’s prize this weekend and a string of other big-money purses for the remainder of the summer.

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

But this is no typical year, of course. While this weekend’s Stream Invitational is paying a hefty $50,000 and boasts $10,000-to-win preliminary programs, it’s a far cry from the $126,000 payoff earmarked for the Dream that it is replacing because Covid-19 concerns do not allow Eldora to host spectators. It’s also a sign of what full-time racers like Overton might face for the remainder of the season: an uncertain schedule and crown jewel events that won’t be as lucrative as usual due to the economic realities of the coronavirus crisis.

So Overton, 29, knows he must take advantage of every opportunity he gets to race, whether it be for $5,000 or, especially, this weekend’s 50-grand check.

“It kind of just makes it that much tougher,” Overton said of the prospect that not every crown jewel event will be run in its expected form (or even at all). “That means every time that thing (his car) hits the track, it needs to be right. You can’t be out there practicing or testing because you think you got next week, because there might not be a next week, or the next week might be a little race, a 35-hundred (to win show) somewhere that you gotta go to because there’s nothing else.

“It just adds a little bit of pressure back to it, where every time that thing goes off the trailer it needs to be ready to go — have the best engine in it, have the best set of shocks on it, have everything tuned up the best that we can have it, because these are the ones we gotta make count if we don’t get to race all year or we don’t get to race for what we should be racing for (because of the coronavirus situation).”

Rough start for Dohm

Zack Dohm is hoping that the remainder of his weekend at Eldora goes better than its start.

First, Dohm realized once it was too late into his team’s trip to the half-mile oval that he had left the bag he packed with his clothes at his home in Cross Lanes, W.Va. Then, upon arrival on the grounds, the toilet in his team’s toterhome broke. And to top it off, while unloading his Swartz car he suffered a cut on the back of his left forearm that drew some blood.

“Things can only get better for us,” Dohm said with a laugh.

Dohm and Co. were able to rectify their restroom problem by calling a nearby RV store and arranging for them to bring a new toilet out to them at the track. His clothing situation, however, will be something he has to deal with however he can for the next three days.

“Dad (his team owner and fellow racer Tim Dohm) keeps a good bit of clothes in the (truck),” said Dohm, who did bring along his fireproof racing uniform, helmet and other safety equipment. “So worst comes to worst, I’ll have to wear dad New Balance shoes, jean shorts and Dohm’s Cycles business shirts from the ‘90s when he started the business.

“And Jeremy Berwanger is driving here separate (to help as a crewman) so I told him to stop somewhere and pick me up some boxers.”

Selecting the field

Roger Slack and his Eldora staff didn’t have time to relax once their detailed proposal of protocols to present the Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational was finally accepted by state and local government and health officials last Thursday. They still had a big item on their agenda: figuring out the select group of drivers who would compete in it.

“After you start thinking that this is possible,” said Slack, Eldora’s promoter and general manager, “then it’s, ‘Well, who are they (the invitees), and what are the parameters (for the selections)?’ ”

Slack and Co. had given cursory thought to how they would form an invitation list as they worked through the tedious approval process for the event, but they couldn’t truly dig in on the project until they had a firm idea about how many teams could participate.

“This is a first-of-its-kind event, but we didn’t know the true limitations (until Thursday),” Slack commented. “We didn’t know if we could pit side-by-side, or what happens to haulers, or how much of the pit area we could use.”

Once the three-day show was announced, Slack began marathon back-and-forth discussions with Eldora staffers and other industry types to come up with the 44 invitees plus a list of 25 additional drivers who would be eligible for the event’s final four spots through fan voting.

“You start with, ‘OK, let’s look at the last three years,’” Slack said. “Who’s been here (running Eldora events) the last three years? Who’s run well the last three years? Who’s been good ambassadors of the sport? And who’s been good characters of the sport? Who’s a promoter (of the sport)?

“You gotta remember too, this event is socially-driven, so that definitely had an impact. There’s 15,000 people that had planned on coming here this weekend (for the originally scheduled 26th running of the Dream that has been pushed to June 2021). There’s some of them that are gonna go to a racetrack, hopefully, and support short tracks that can have fans, but there are others that we know their passion for Eldora and they’re gonna be tuned in (to the live broadcast on FloRacing). And with all the stuff that Flo’s been working on, it’s an opportunity to introduce some new stars.

“It definitely was not easy,” he continued. “There’s a lot of stuff that went into that (invitation list). There’s a lot of people that had some input.”

According to Slack, the initial field of 44 invitees was determined using a dataset from the past three years that includes strength of performance, results, attendance, ambassadorship and active past winners of the World 100 and Dirt Late Model Dream. Not surprisingly, there were uninvited drivers who had legitimate arguments to make the cut, but there simply weren’t enough slots for everyone deserving of one.

“Listen, there’s some racers that are disappointed that they’re not able to be here,” Slack said. “But there’s 15,000 race fans that are disappointed that they’re not gonna be here.

“We’re all making the cake with the ingredients that we have. We’re all just doing our best,” he added. “We all wish everybody who wanted to race could race, but at least we’re not sleeping in and watching press conferences all day.”

English tops fan voting

Tanner English was not surprised when his name was omitted from the original 44 drivers invited to Eldora’s Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational. Nor was the Benton, Ky., native surprised when he was tops among 25 drivers in an online fan voting contest that sent four additional drivers — English, along with Freddie Carpenter, Tyler Carpenter and Rick Eckert — to the unique $50,000-to-win at the Tony Stewart-owned oval in Rossburg, Ohio.

English has been solid since joining Illinois-based Riggs Motorsports in the offseason. He’s currently 11th in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points after recording five top-10 finishes in six events during the series Reopening Tour in Georgia and Florida. But despite his solid footing on the national tour, English didn’t expect to be among the 44 initial invitees.

“I wasn’t surprised,” he told DirtonDirt.com’s Michael Rigsby on Monday. “It’s no question that I don’t have a good resume at Eldora. I mean, I’ve only been there three times. I haven’t made a show. I blew up once, you know, just had bad luck there. So it didn’t surprise me at all.”

Then came the fan vote. With a big following in his native Kentucky, along with his Illinois connections — he married the daughter of four-time DIRTcar champ Rodney Melvin of Benton, Ill. — English won the contest to gain entry. He said he thought his social media prowess may have helped.

“I think I’ve got a little unfair advantage on that deal, ’cause I’m young and I know how to work social media,” said English, who turned 27 on May 26. “Plus I’ve got two sides, both sides of my family, you know, my wife’s side and my side know all about racing and just know how big that deal is and get it going. I gotta thank them first of all. They did a real good job of promoting it and getting it out there.”

“I’ve got to thank my mom first of all and my mother-in-law and all of their family on the Melvin side. They really promoted it and did a good job. Just everybody that’s social media savvy. They did a good job of getting it out there and promoting.”

English makes his fourth trip to Eldora as a driver — his father Terry made five World 100 starts with a best finish of 10th in 2001 — with realistic expectations, along with the understanding that, thanks to the fan vote, he may get a little more attention.

“It puts kind of a microscope on me, which I’m fine with that,” he said. “It puts a little bit of pressure on me to do good. I know it’s put the strain on me here at the shop. We just got back from Florida and didn’t hardly know … you know, we had an idea that we might be able to go when we got out on the vote thing. It’s put a lot of work on us. We’re thrashing right now (Monday) to get ready and hopeful we can be prepared and compete.

“Realistically, I just want to make the shows. But I want to do better than that. I’d like a top 10 there. I feel like if we can just get in the show, we can race as good as anybody. It’s tough. That qualifying lap means a lot. Which, it’s different from the times I’ve been there in the past. When I first went there, you got one lap and it made it real tough. But now it’s kinda different. You’ve got to make every lap count and go for it when you need to.” — Robert Holman

Odds and ends

Kyle Strickler of Troutman, N.C., laughed when he received a phone call from Eldora promoter and general manager Roger Slack on Monday afternoon asking if he wanted to compete in this weekend’s Stream Invitational as a replacement for one of the four drivers who declined invitations. “I thought he was messing with me,” Strickler said. “Once he said he was serious, I said, ‘Sure, we want to race.’ This place is pretty important to me so I wasn’t gonna turn down a chance to race.” Strickler and his crew had to thrash to ready tires and other items because they were planning to run this weekend in Tennessee. … Donald McIntosh of Dawsonville, Ga., also was a last-minute addition to the field, joining Strickler in accepting one of the slots that opened on Monday. He will drive his own Buick-powered 007 Chassis rather his usual Blount Motorsports ride. … Brandon Overton’s car owner, David Wells, is in the Eldora pit area, accompanying his team to the racetrack for the first time this season outside of races held in Florida, where he’s been spending most of his time at a farm he owns outside Sarasota. He flew up to Lexington, Ky., earlier this week to visit his family before heading to the track. … Regulations for the weekend’s events require all attendees to wear masks while in the pit area. … The draw to determine the qualifying order for the Thursday and Friday preliminary programs was conducted electronically in the infield media center and broadcast live on Facebook. … Eldora’s online 50-50 raffle is available at eldora5050.com (limited only to people in Ohio at time of purchase).