The Shane McDowell Racing team voiced its frustrations with multiple aspects of the World 100 at Eldora Speedway after Dale McDowell was involved in a wreck with Dalton Cook in a heat race ending his chances at competing for his second win in the event.
On a restart in Heat 4 with 2 laps left, Cook, who had a left front tire flat, backed up his entry into the corner and got clobbered in the left rear by McDowell, who attempted to avoid him. The two got connected as they spun sideways and McDowell’s rear hit hard into the outside wall. He then got clipped in the left front by Justin Haley.
💥 A Heat Race #4 crash may have just ended Dale McDowell’s World 100 streak!#World100 🌍 | September 12 | Live on FloRacing 📺 pic.twitter.com/QOQoIDuxDO
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) September 13, 2026
McDowell shared his perspective on the wreck with FloRacing’s Mike Norris, “It all starts early. The inverts, it gets the guys that inverted real antsy so the starts are wild because the way the race track is, there’s not as much time difference between the inversions now. So the car’s starting up front are really, really close. So everybody just goes hard.”
“Got in the wall up there earlier, and then we restarted there and he had a left front flat. That may be something we have to look at as a safety feature or safety precaution because you can do that and sometimes we see people do it on a short track, but at a place like this it was just dangerous.”
“Thankfully, the Good Lord was with us, nobody got hurt in that thing. All’s good. Car’s bent up a little bit. It’s a sad day, but I’m a race fan and, man, I’m going to watch this thing and take it all in,” he said.
🎙️ Hear from @DaleMcDowell17m as his streak of consecutive World 100 A-main starts comes to an end at 18.#World100 🌍 | September 12 | Live on FloRacing 📺 pic.twitter.com/CTzAbVcJUP
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) September 13, 2026
On Sunday afternoon, the Shane McDowell Racing team expressed its frustrations with multiple aspects of the World 100. However, before voicing them, the team acknowledged, “Well that sucked…we had a fast car, but luck was not on our side…as they say “that’s racing”. We all know the rewards and we all know the risks…we take the good with the bad and move onto the next one…we’ve been in this sport A LONG TIME and have seen a lot…but there are still a few things that we just have to shake our heads at…”
As for those frustrations or things they are shaking their heads at, the first was allowing Cook to compete with the left front flat tire, “Eldora prides themselves on Safety! However, knowingly letting the 44D restart with a LF flat was dangerous…obviously! Just listen to Randy Weaver and the announcer’s comments before and after the restart. We are thankful Dale and the other drivers involved are ok…#MakeItMakeSense“
During the FloRacing broadcast, National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Randy Weaver said, “Dalton Cook has a left front flat now. I hope he ain’t going to try and finish this heat race at Eldora. You might could do that at Crossville, Tennessee, but on a big race track like this where the weight will get back to the left front it’ll be rough.”
After the wreck happened, Weaver added, “And that’s why you don’t try at Eldora with a left front flat.”
The second point the team took issue with was the Every Lap Matters points system that Eldora uses for the event. That points system awards drivers based on their qualifying laps, their finishes in the preliminary night Shootouts, and finally for how they perform in the A-Features. Top qualifiers are awarded 200 points and it decreases by three points for every position. Feature winners are awarded 300 points and each position afterward decreases by 3 points. Those not advancing to the feature are granted points based on their finishing positions in the Shootouts. Those finishing 9th receive 222 points and it decreases by three points for each following position.
“Eldora’s motto ‘Every Lap Matters’ well apparently not, because Thorton didn’t make 1 lap in a preliminary feature Thursday and still started on the pole for Saturday’s heat race (not picking on Thorton just stating a fact) #MakeItMakeSense,” the team wrote.
Next, it shared frustrations with track conditions after a brief rain shower hit the track on Saturday night, “We are here multiple days, race into the wee hours on Thursday, come Saturday the heats are inverted to make a better show for the fans…but after a brief rain shower suddenly we are in a hurry to get started on time with track conditions that treat the sold out crowd to 15 laps of basically a high speed hot lap session that allows little to no passing #MakeItMakeSense.“
To that point FloRacing’s Kyle McFadden reported that 11 of the top 18 drivers started in the top three positions of their heat races — directly benefitting from the invert.”
Those not advancing from the top three starting positions were Hudson O’Neal (Started 5th in Heat 1), Carson Ferguson (Started 5th in Heat 2), Nick Hoffman (Started 6th in Heat 3), Kyle Bronson (Started 4th in Heat 4), Tyler Erb (Started 6th in Heat 5), Tim McCreadie (Started 6th in Heat 6).
Eleven of the top-18 #World100 starters started in the top three of their heat — directly benefitting from the invert.
Gustin – Davenport
Stricker – T.Carpenter
Joiner – Sorensen
Heckenast – Ca.Ferguson*
Hoffman* – Bronson*
Thornton – Frame
O’Neal* – Troutman
Winger* – Mitchell…— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) September 13, 2026
The last final frustration that the team voiced was with Dalton Cook. They wrote, “The 44D complained that Tazewell Speedway aka ‘The bad fast Taz’ is too dangerous, but suddenly driving into turn 1 wfo at Eldora Speedway with a LF flat isn’t! #MakeItMakeSense“
Finally, the team concluded, “Moving on…Congratulations to Nick Hoffman and Tye Twarog on a well deserved win…safe travels home everyone!”
Cook explained to StockCarReport.com following the incident that he felt he was backed into a corner by the format on whether he should pit and change the tire or stay out and risk it in order to get a prime starting spot in a B-Main, “The way the circumstances is, I actually got to hear Dale, and he’s really right. The problem is this format don’t let you just automatically go to a B-Main and just try, do what you can. It’s like you got to finish, I think, 11th in order to get to the B-Main.”
“And I’m like weighing it out,” he continued. “I’m like, ‘Well, you know, I got two laps left. I’ll probably get passed. I might struggle.’ So I’m just weighing, ‘Like, dude, I got to try to give myself a shot. I’m pretty good. Car is pretty good. We’re still in the game.’ It’s $5 grand to make the show. I know I’m not going to be out there fighting to win the race. I know where I’m at on the pecking order, but it’s like we had a legitimate shot to make the show. And it cost a lot of money to get up here and do this. And I’m like I can’t just not give it all I got to maybe try to get it.”
“If I had pitted and came in and got a tire, there really wasn’t much of an opportunity that I would even have got that B-Main shot,” Cook elaborated. “So it’s like I’m sitting fourth. I can give up tons of spots and ride around like a three-legged dog. I thought I could make that happen. It just didn’t happen.”
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