ROSSBURG, Ohio — No one’s perfect, the saying goes. But Jonathan Davenport says he’s merely one adjustment away.

The 38-year-old Blairsville, Ga., driver rolled past early leader Jimmy Owens on the sixth lap Thursday at Eldora Speedway and cruised to a $12,000 preliminary victory heading toward Saturday’s 52nd annual World 100. Full Results

In winning the caution-free 25-lapper, the third-starting Davenport — already a four-time World 100 winner and among the clear-cut weekend favorites — took the checkers a whopping 5.410 seconds ahead of Owens in a no-doubter finish.

“This is the place you want to be good at,” Davenport said in victory lane while waxing poetic about the track where he loves to win most. “We got a pretty good race car for here.”

Newport, Tenn.’s Owens, a two-time World 100 winner who led the first six laps from outside the front row but watched Davenport easily drive by on the low side, settled for second while Wednesday’s $128,000 Dream winner Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., rounded out the podium. Dream runner-up Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., was fourth in a top-five of heavy-hitters while pole-starting Johnny Scott of Las Cruces, N.M., rounded out the top five.

Davenport, who improved 16 positions after 84 laps in the previous night’s Dream to finish fourth, found the track surface more to his liking on the first of two preliminary nights for the World 100. ("Man, I wish the racetrack was like that last night,” Davenport said in victory lane.)

And if his car seemed perfect while pulling far ahead of the competition, Davenport cautioned that it wasn’t quite so.

“I think we're one adjustment away from about being perfect right there,” he said. “We changed quite a few things today We just couldn't get a good balance on it.”

The Double L Motorsports driver thanked crew chief Jason Durham along with crew members Vinny Guliani and Tyler Bragg for giving him a winning car.

"Just a phenomenal job by my guys, Jason and Vinny and Tyler and we all put our heads together and just constantly change on this thing,” Davenport said. “We changed some things on the car, and it messed the balance up a little bit. I think we got it back there pretty good.”

Owens, who hasn’t led a lap in Eldora’s major events since his second World 100 victory in 2011, drove a car that wasn’t as stable in the corners as he’d have liked.

“I felt like we were good, but you know, the 49 car, they've been phenomenal this year. Another great year for those guys, hats off to ‘em,” Owens said. “You know, we've got some work to do and maybe we make some improvements for the big race.”

All 24 starters were running the conclusion of the 25-lapper, 16 of them on the lead lap.

Notes: Davenport scored his 19th victory of the season. … He said the team has been racing with “heavy hearts” following recent deaths, including the daughter of longtime Longhorn Chassis employee Matt Langston and young Longhorn employee Ethan Mastro who died in separate accidents. … Davenport also mentioned Chris Davis of Midwest Sheet Metal, whose father died recently.