Inside Dirt Late Model Racing
Column: Speedy McDowell can see clearer now
A Dirt Late Model driver — really, any racer — striving to remain competitive behind the wheel at the age of 60 faces a laundry list of physical limitations. Nothing else matters, though, if their eyes fail them.
A racer who can’t see the nuances of a dirt track’s surface or the slightest of holes that open up in traffic is a doomed racer. They’re racing with a serious handicap, one that makes their reflexes, strength and stamina essentially moot.
Dale McDowell, the standout veteran driver from Chickamauga, Ga., who celebrated his 60th birthday May 18, experienced such a predicament earlier this year. He competed in January’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Sunshine Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., but realized he wasn’t operating at 100 percent capacity. His right eye wouldn’t let him.
Roughly a year-and-a-half after McDowell had undergone cataract surgery on his left eye, it became clear — or, to the point of his problem, fuzzy — that he needed the same procedure done to his other eye. As he sped around Volusia’s lightning-quick half-mile, D-shaped track after the sun went down, he struggled to focus with his right eye.
“I found myself at Volusia, those first few races, closing my right eye down the straightaway when the lights would come in,” McDowell said, describing how he attempted to compensate for diminished vision in the eye. “And you can’t keep going like that.”
Indeed, that’s a losing proposition, which is why McDowell opted to bypass the remainder of Georgia-Florida Speedweeks — he had planned to run Volusia’s DIRTcar Nationals in mid-February — and have cataract surgery on his right eye. He had the surgery done on Feb. 26 and was back in the cockpit of his younger brother Shane’s Team Zero No. 17m a mere two weeks later.
In the midst of McDowell’s sterling Dream XXXII Week June 3-6 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio — a fourth-place finish in the 50-lap FloRacing Night in America event and a third in the 50-lap Dream preliminary feature and 100-lap finale — he looked back on the results of his eye surgery with a measure of amazement.
“When I had it done, it was like, ‘Holy smokes!’ ” McDowell said, acknowledging the dramatic improvement. “You don’t really realize how far bad it's gotten until you get everything fixed.”
A universally common part of aging, cataracts are irregularities in the lens of an eye that cause blurry vision. Proteins in the eye’s natural lens typically begin to break down and subtly clump together after the age of 40, though symptoms rarely impair vision until a person is in their late 50s.
McDowell said his long-distance vision has always been fine; he never needed glasses. But in 2024, when he went for an eye exam as part of updating his CDL license, he was diagnosed with worsening cataracts in his left eye.
The declining vision “just gradually gets in there, so you don’t know what's going on really,” McDowell said.
“The way the doctor explained it to me was kind of … he knew what we did, you know, for a living,” he continued. “He said, ‘You know those plastic windows on a Jeep? You know how after you’ve been out in the sun a lot and it’s like the plastic starts getting yellow? When it gets yellow, it kind of gets blurry. That’s what’s happening in your eye.
“So I got my left eye fixed, and I said, ‘How long will it be before I need the other one done?’ I had a touch of cataracts in my right eye, but it was only bad in my left eye at the time. He told me it would probably be about a year until I needed (surgery) in my right eye.”
McDowell was supposed to visit his eye doctor for a checkup last November, but he put off making an appointment. He didn’t think much of it until January when he spent three nights racing at Volusia to kick off his 2026 season. While McDowell didn’t have a terrible weekend — he recorded finishes of 11th and eighth before failing to qualify for Saturday’s finale — it wasn’t up to his usual standards.
More than ever, McDowell’s vision was off. His right eye wasn’t matching up well with his surgically-repaired left eye, and as a result he wasn’t getting around the track at full song.
“During the day, I could actually manage. It was manageable,” McDowell said of his vision. “But at night, with the lights coming in, it would be blurry or you’d see, like, three lights where there was only one.
“And the depth perception … it really messes with us, like where the wall is, and where exactly you are in relation to the other cars. So that’s the biggest part, you know? And the sharpness. If it's a little blurry, as fast as we’re running at some of these places … like I wasn’t comfortable going back to Volusia (for the DIRTcar Nationals) and running because it’s so fast. The lighting was fine down there, but I wasn’t comfortable going down there until I got my eye fixed.”
McDowell headed to his eye doctor following the Sunshine Nationals and scheduled Feb. 26 surgery with an ophthalmologist. It was a relatively short, simple outpatient procedure in which the lens with cataracts is removed and replaced with an artificial corrective lens.
“I went in about 7 a.m. for the surgery,” McDowell said. “I was home by like 9:30 (a.m.). And then by the end of the day, my vision was fully clear. A lot of people that have it done, they have like a halo effect (around lights). That’s always a concern. I did for about two or three hours, and then after that cleared up, everything was good. Everything went well.”
McDowell was told “no straining for about four or five days” and to avoid getting water in his eyes and “stay out of dirty environments, which is pretty hard for us,” he said with a laugh. He returned to racing for March 13-14’s WoO doubleheader at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., where he appeared to be right back to his steady, solid self with finishes of fifth and fourth.
The comeback from the procedure wasn’t as spectacular as what McDowell accomplished in January 2022 when, in his first start after undergoing prostate cancer surgery the previous September, he was triumphant in a WoO Sunshine Nationals feature at Volusia. But he was in victory lane again in his sixth start after the cataract surgery, earning a $5,053 win in April 2’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals stop at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn.
McDowell hasn’t raced extensively over the past three-and-a-half months — wet weather contributed to him sitting idle for over a month between April 17 and May 29 — but he’s been typically consistent. His 18 starts since the eye surgery show nine top-five and 12 top-10 finishes, highlighted by his three top-five runs during Eldora’s recent Dream Week.
Has the enhanced vision in his bright blue eyes made him a better driver?
“I don’t know,” McDowell said with a smile. “My results probably haven’t showed it, but I haven’t knocked off any fenders off.”
McDowell acknowledged, however, that seeing better undoubtedly allows him to decipher the subtleties of a racetrack. Those black spots where it’s slick? Those brown spots where there’s traction? He can pick them out.
“Yes, it’s more identifiable,” McDowell said. “When you’re looking at the line, where guys have been (running), where their tracks are, it all kind of ran together and the dirt all kind of ran together. I can see that now.”
McDowell’s satisfaction with the surgery has made a proponent of it. He’s fielded calls from several veteran racers around his age who are facing issues with cataracts and he hasn’t hesitated to give them his opinion.
“I highly recommend it,” McDowell said. “There’s been a couple who’ve asked me about it over the period of time since I got it done. I tell them it’s definitely worth doing it.”
One longtime racing friend whom McDowell advised recently was Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards, who underwent cataract surgery in late April and has raved about the renewed sharpness of his vision.
“Mark’s usually one of those guys that can procrastinate on that stuff. I’ve known him for a long time, you know?” said McDowell, whose next action is planned for this weekend’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Mountain Moonshine Classic at Smoky Mountain. “So when he called me and asked me all kinds of questions about it, I told him, I was like, “Just go get it done.’ I didn’t talk to him after he had it done until a couple weeks ago, and I said, ‘How’s your vision?’ He’s like, ‘Holy smokes, it’s way better.’ ”
McDowell understands. Already a Hall of Fame inductee with a resume that includes 58 national touring series victories, a 1999 Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series title and six crown jewel triumphs (two Topless 100, two USA Nationals, one World 100, one Dream), McDowell can’t deny that the surgery has given him a jolt to continue battling today’s hard-charging drivers that could be his sons, or even grandsons.
“It doesn’t make you feel younger in the seat,” McDowell said, “but it makes you feel younger in your mind.”
