Jonathan Davenport made no bones about it declaring that his tough weekend at Brownstown at the end of September “basically killed our whole year.”
On Friday night during the CJ Rayburn Memorial, Davenport suffered a right rear flat tire while he was leading that he sent him to the back of the field. He then ended up spinning after a tangle on an ensuing restart that kept him mired in the field. He eventually finished in 14th.
On Saturday night during the Jackson 100, while racing hard with Devin Moran for second the two made contact and Davenport spun out and had to go to the rear. He was able to rally back for a sixth place finish, but by the end of the weekend he was 160 points behind leader Ricky Thornton Jr.
Speaking to DirtonDirt.com, Davenport was honest about how the weekend affected him, “I was frustrated all week, really, so it was good to get back here, get back in the car.” Speaking of his crew, “These guys probably wouldn’t have liked me if they’d have had to been around me all week.”
He elaborated, “I try not to be in too bad a mood at home. I try not to bring that home because I ain’t there much, so I try to stay positive and definitely in a good mood around my family. But, you know, it does get you down. This is what we do for a living and I’ve been doing it a long time You just try to take the bad with the good, but it ain’t easy.”
Additionally, he stated, “Brownstown basically killed our whole (Lucas Oil) year. But I try not to get too excited, and then I try not to get too down. Because I mean, I’ve been doing this s**t long enough. I know it’s going to be up and down, and it’s like, I knew we could come here and I knew we had a good notebook for here and I like this place and we had a really good race car, so I knew we could definitely turn it around here.”
Davenport was able to slightly turn it around. He finished fifth on Friday night in the opening night of the 37th annual Pittsburgher and then dominated on Saturday night. However, Devin Moran won on Friday night and Ricky Thornton Jr. finished in 9th. On Saturday night, Moran was just two spots behind in third and Thornton finished in 4th. Following the weekend, Davenport only shaved off 45 points. He still sits 115 points behind Devin Moran, who is the current leader heading into the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora.
If my math is correct, Davenport can acquire a maximum of 210 points. He can get 200 points for winning and then another 10 points for setting fast time in his Qualifying Group. If he acquires the maximum points that gives him a total of 9,060 points. Given Moran currently has 8965 points he would only need to finish better than 17th and that’s without acquiring any bonus points for fast time. If Moran finishes worse than 17th and is not the top qualifier, Davenport also needs Ricky Thornton Jr. to have a mediocre race at well. Thornton would need to finish worse than 14th.
However, Davenport isn’t giving up, “You could be one race away from going the other way, too. You just never know what’s going to happen this world, so we’re just grateful to be able to do this.”
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