Strangely enough, Jonathan Davenport’s million-dollar payday may not go down as the most unusual occurrence of Eldora Speedway’s 2022 season.

Never before has a Dirt Late Model crown jewel comparable in magnitude to the Dream needed to be completed many weeks after the initial green flag, but that’s the case for this year’s 28th running of the $128,000-to-win spectacle.

Since 7:44 p.m. on a rainy June 11 night, the sport’s second-richest event has been frozen on lap 14, ultimately awaiting Wednesday’s 86-lap completion that now, in a way, serves as an appetizer for the 52nd World 100.

“It’s definitely unique,” said Davenport, the Blairsville, Ga., driver who will restart 20th in Wednesday’s Dream halted a few days after his Eldora Million victory. “I don’t remember anything happening like that.”

Virtually an entire summer stands between the Dream's initial start and deciding finish, with  storylines and nuances of the middle of the season bound to change the race’s complexion — or at the very least, how observers perceive Wednesday’s Dream resumption.

Davenport has since continued overwhelming the Late Model world, ballooning his victory total to 18 from seven. His crown jewel total since the Eldora Million win has swelled to five with trophies from the Silver Dollar Nationals, USA Nationals, North-South 100 and Topless 100.

Chris Madden, the Dream’s current leader, hasn’t made headlines of late, but it’s not because of ineptitude. The Gray Court, S.C., driver and his crew took a three-week break off leading into Eldora, the same approach the No. 44 camp took in advance of June’s Eldora Million. The first time around, Madden was idle from May 15-June 8 while this time he hasn’t competed since Aug. 13, when he failed to a complete a lap at the Sunoco North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky.

Aside from those drivers who have towered over the competition most of the season, sorting the second wave contenders isn’t all that straightforward. Last year’s two-time Dream winner Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., restarts second, clearly capable of a third Dream crown in two years.

The recently announced next driver of the Rocket Chassis house car beginning in 2023, Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., restarts third with young counterpart Carson Ferguson of Lincolnton, N.C., in fourth. A handful of perennial Eldora frontrunners — Tim McCreadie, Kyle Strickler, Zack Dohm, Chris Ferguson, Kyle Bronson and Gregg Satterlee — round out the top 10.

VIDEO: Take a look back at the first 14% of the 2022 Dirt Late Model Dream.

Many drivers are rather pleased that the Dream never finished in June.

“I was almost happy that it got rained out,” Strickler said. “Now I feel like we can go back there with a better shot than what we had. It’s an unusual, one-off situation for sure, to have a crown jewel race like that resume 14 laps in.”

Said Chris Ferguson: “I am happy that it rained out. … I know where I need to be in those races and I still don’t think I had a car where I could win with (in June). Now, it’s a whole new life. You look at your notes at what didn’t work. I know that’s not exactly going to work, so we’re going to fine tune it and try to come back and be even more prepared. I feel like I can win with where I’m at. So, to have a shot at winning now … like I basically wrote myself off in that race. I didn’t feel I had a car that was going to win.”

Satterlee added: “It’ll be like you’re starting out in an 80-lap race … 85 or 86 laps, whatever it is. I’m sure it’ll be a little different. I mean we raced the first 15 laps of that race in the spring in the rain — the whole time. It’s not supposed to be raining this time, hopefully.

“We have a really good car right now. We’re doing a lot of things that seem to be working. Hopefully when we go back there, we’re as good as we left. We’ll give her hell out there.

Ferguson and Strickler are prime examples of drivers afforded an opportunity to regroup and perhaps bring a new or supposedly improved car to the table come Wednesday. Both rolled out new machines in June with the belief that the freshest equipment will equate to the best shot to reach Eldora glory. On the contrary, both packed up from Rossburg, Ohio, wishing they’d gone a different direction.

Strickler encountered too many quirks with his new race car to overcome him from failing to qualify for the Eldora Million. He learned quickly, though, and only two days later put himself in a position to restart sixth in the Dream.

“Now everything is so close, you have to get some races on these cars it seems like to learn how they’re a little different from each other,” Strickler said. “So, I feel better about it. I feel we learned something and got our car better, and got better as a race team from the first time we were there. I feel our cars better prepared now, too.

“I think everybody is so close now when you have the same car, from the same manufacturer. Each car does like to have a little something different. You have a good starting point, but they all seem to like something a little different. It seems like you get a couple races on it and maybe that third or fourth race is where you want to break it out for the big crown jewel events.”

Although Strickler has yet to win this year, that doesn’t hamper the belief in his ability to win at Eldora, his all-time favorite racetrack. Strickler’s steadfast on the goal that one day he’ll join the sport’s trailblazers to win a major Eldora event.

That could have been the $50,000 Intercontinental Classic at the Big E — an invite-only event that replaced the World 100 in 2020 because of Covid-19 restrictions — if it wasn’t for the last-lap flat tire that knocked him out of the lead.

“I’m ready for something else big to happen there so everybody doesn’t remember me as that guy that gets a flat tire on the last lap in a big race (at Eldora),” Strickler said. “I think the only thing to make that go away is to go out there and win a crown jewel. That’s my goal every time I go to Eldora: to go out there and win. We aren’t going to stop until we achieve that.”

Ferguson, on the other hand, will again bring out his silver No. 22 machine as opposed to the black race car that’s won him a good amount of money this year, namely the Bristol Dirt Nationals and Show-Me 100.

Ferguson knows that Davenport has won the past two crown jewels at Eldora — the 50th World 100 and second Eldora Million — with one car specifically built for the Big E. So the Eldora Million preliminary feature winner in June will try to follow that blueprint in building toward something remotely similar.

“Any other time in my racing career, I’m happy with seventh. But not this year,” Ferguson said. “I feel like in every big race — besides Lernerville when I ran 10th — I’ve been in contention to have a shot at winning.

“I feel like going back into it, we’re still where we need to be to win one. We just need to put together the whole race and just hit it right. There’s many guys that haven’t been able to outrun Madden or J.D. Chris (Madden) is going to be good. We’ll see.”

Though Davenport’s wreaked havoc at Eldora in recent goings with one car, he holds onto the philosophy of purpose-built cars loosely.

“I don’t think I have a bad car,” said Davenport, who doesn’t seem bothered with restarting 20th, nor happier he now gets to restart the event even in the midst of a memorable run.

“It’s 100 laps at Eldora. You can’t win it in the first 10,” Davenport added. “I was just hanging out, doing my thing and trying to stay out of trouble. That’s what I’ll continue to do when I go back. I’ll just have 14 or how ever many less laps to get it done.”