Chris Madden put the blame on Clay Stuckey as for why he lost the night 1 feature of the World 100 to Jonathan Davenport.
With 17 laps to go in the 25-lap feature, Chris Madden diamonded turns 1 and 2 and got a huge run down the back stretch and drove past Jonathan Davenport. He then gapped him by about 3 to 4 car lengths coming out of turn 4. Madden would keep Davenport behind him for a handful of laps until he closed in on Stuckey. Working his way through turns 3 and 4, Madden attempted to dive under Stuckey who was running through the middle. However, as they were coming out of 4, Madden ran out of room and had to let off the gas or he was going to to T-bone Stuckey in the door.
That allowed Davenport to dive underneath Madden going into turn 1 and then eventually pull past him and complete the pass going down the back stretch. Davenport never relinquished the lead after that and went on to win the race.
Following the race, Madden told FloRacing, “We caught lap traffic there in the 15 car. You know, [he] went in the middle of three and four. I dove to the bottom and he come back left there pretty hard and got me pinched in the wall down there on the inside and JD was able to get another big run back at us and go back by us. So second again. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, Saturday. But we got a really good piece right now. We’re very close. I could have been a tick better right there so I think we’ll be just fine for the weekend.”
Speaking to DirtonDirt.com following the race, Madden reiterated, “(Clayton Stuckey), you know, we’re lapping him and he wants to race with us. We got up under him and down here going into three and four and he kept coming left and about knocked me into the wall down here. We didn’t touch, but if I didn’t, you know, stop, we were going to.”
While Madden put the blame on Stuckey for allowing Davenport to get by him, he was optimistic about the rest of the weekend and felt like he could improve the car especially for tonight’s World 100. “We’re fine. We got a good race car. It’s just, clean air is everything here. I needed to stay off in front and not let him back by me.”
“That 100 laps, we’ve raced on (the track) when it’s been just like that tonight. They did a great job to give us a good racetrack. We’ll tweak on it a little bit and see if we can get a little better. The good part, I’m not 100 percent and getting beat. I feel like we can pick up a little bit. I feel confident that Saturday we’ll have something to race with.”
Madden had an up and down night on Friday. He qualified second in Group B behind Cory Hedgecock, but in his heat race he finished seventh after starting in sixth. That put him in a 20th starting position, but he was able to rally 10 positions and finish in 10th.
He will start in fifth in the fourth heat following the six-car invert for tonight’s World 100 heats. He will be up against Garrett Smith, Tyler Erb, Michael Chilton, Jason Jameson, Cory Hedgecock, Kyle Strickler, Dalton Cook, Wil Herrington, Todd Morrow, Dustin Nobbe, Steven Roberts, Brenden Smith, Kaede Loudy, Evan Koehler, Donnie Jeschke, and Michael Page.
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