Jonathan Davenport was definitely one of the favorites heading into the World 100 at Eldora Speedway and even more so given he started on the front row. However, it went south late in the race with a right rear flat tire that forced him to pit and go to the tail end of the field.

Davenport led the first 41 laps of the race before Ricky Thornton Jr. took advantage of a restart and was able to slide him through 3 and 4 and take control of the lead. He then maintained his second place position through the middle portion of the race, but eventually lost the spot to Dale McDowell with 11 to go following a restart. He would also get passed by Ryan Gustin as well albeit that pass wouldn’t count given a caution would come out for Chris Madden. During this caution, Davenport hit the hot pit after suffering a right rear flat tire. He would get it changed as well as his right front and return to the field at the end of the lead lap around 16th.

In the final laps he would rally to finish in 7th.

Davenport spoke with FloRacing following the race and broke down what exactly happened with the flat. He shared, “It had a slow leak in it because I got really oddly tight getting in and started chattering the right front. And then I couldn’t use the gas pedal down the straightaway at all. So it just got worse and worse and worse as we went there. But obviously we were still going and I could see on the tire where it had not really blistered, but like I could tell where it had been run low for awhile.”

“And then I could tell when that caution come out I thought it was a little soft when I was down there weaving my tires trying to clean them up because I picked the left front off the ground. They were pretty high one time,” he continued. “And then we took off. I couldn’t go down the front straightaway at all. So I knew the right rear was really low at that time. So I was just hanging on and hope [that it wouldn’t] blow out and tear the deck up and things like that.”

Davenport then shared that after he came back on the track he was running lap times a second faster than Thornton, McDowell, and Hoffman and imagined “if it had happened with 20 to go maybe we could have got back and had a shot.”

“I wished it would have just went ahead and went down or if we had a caution earlier maybe it would have went down then,” he reiterated. “All kinds of what ifs, but luckily I think I’ve got a few years left in me so get a couple more shots at it.”

Davenport’s next race on his schedule is a date at Volunteer Speedway with the FloRacing Night in America series on September 11th. He’ll then return to Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action on September 18-20th at Knoxville Raceway.

NEXT: Dale McDowell Explains Why He Struggled To Reel In Ricky Thornton Jr. During Final Laps Of World 100