Eldora Speedway
Florida teen's best Eldora run provides lessons
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Trey Mills heads for heat victory at Eldora. (joshjamesartwork.com)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (June 3) — On one hand, Trey Mills packed up from Wednesday’s FloRacing Night in America program at Eldora Speedway more encouraged than ever.
“I definitely feel like the car was good enough to win,” said Mills, who started fifth and finished sixth in the 50-lapper, easily the 18-year-old’s best finish at the legendary half-mile. | Complete Dream coverage
On the other hand, the St. Augustine, Fla., youngster got a sobering reminder of the high bar he’s still chasing. As Nick Hoffman, Devin Moran, Dale McDowell, Chris Ferguson and Brandon Sheppard finished ahead of him Wednesday, they highlighted the gap between a promising prospect like Mills and the sport’s established drivers.
“I just feel like I’m not there yet,” Mills said. “You know, these guys are just so good, and this track is so hard to figure out. This is just my fourth time here, and now I'm just getting better here every time we come back. It’s a very technical track and that's why them guys like Hoffman and J.D. (Jonathan Davenport) and McDowell, and all them, are so good here, just because they have it figured out.”
First things first for the ever-improving Mills is continuing to make the raw speed and confidence he displayed pay dividends earlier in the night — particularly in qualifying and heat race action — because that's often half the battle at Eldora. He did exactly that Wednesday, qualifying third in Group A before going on to a heat race victory from the pole.
From there, starting fifth in the 50-lap main event, his goal was to stay inside the top-five, which stayed a reality for him until lap 36 when 21st-starting Brandon Sheppard made his way forward in his eventual fourth-place run.
Hovering around the top-five wasn’t guaranteed for Mills simply because he started near the front. Polesitter Max Blair faded to seventh, while early leader Kyle Bronson backslid to 11th after pacing the first 16 laps.
Mills, meanwhile, held his own up front, spending nearly half the race in the top five before settling for sixth. He wasn't looking for a caution either to bunch up the field again.
“I was content with just riding it out,” Mills said when asked if he would’ve liked a caution. “I feel like cautions, they can help you, but they can also hurt you, especially when you have a lot of experienced guys behind you, like Hudson (O’Neal) and J.D. and Terbo (Tyler Erb), and all that stuff. I’m glad it went green, but maybe if we would have had a caution, some guys would have got scuffled up in front of me and I would have been able to maybe get a couple more spots and get up on that podium.
“But like I said, just can't hang our head about it — P6, at Eldora, and I’m super pumped about it.”
In fact, Wednesday's sixth-place finish was his third top-10 finish in his last four national tour starts, following a seventh-place run Saturday at Mansfield (Ohio) Speedway and a ninth-place effort the previous Thursday at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio. So it's not as though the World of Outlaws Late Model Series rookie came out of nowhere.
But as Mills acknowledged, the more time he spends racing near the front, the more clearly he sees how the sport’s elite separate themselves.
“I learn all the time, just watching them guys and how smooth they are,” Mills said. “I feel like whenever I hit my mark right, I can make the same amount of speed as they do, but the difference is they hit it for 50 straight laps and I mess up sometimes. You just gotta keep working at it and just keep getting better. But we’re just super pumped to be able to even be up front and in contention with them guys. Like I said, we'll just take this momentum and move it towards Friday.”
He wholeheartedly expects to qualify for Saturday’s 100-lap, $100,000-to-win Dream XXXII finale. After all, he came close last September at the World 100, charging from 14th to seventh in his B-main before falling just four spots shy of a transfer position. It was a similar scenario at the Dream last year as he came three spots short of a transfer, a 17th-to-sixth B-main charge halted after 15 laps.
“I feel like every time I've come here, I make forward progress, just keep getting better and better,” Mills said. “And like tonight was by far the best I've ever been here. Like, I've never even been in contention of running the top-five and winning a heat race, or nothing like that. So starting off the weekend really, really strong.”
But Eldora’s crown jewels are rarely that simple, especially for a driver still trying to establish himself against the sport’s most proven names. Speed matters, of course. So does execution. But so much during Dream and World 100 weeks also hinge on the circumstances often outside a driver’s control.
For a young driver like Mills, those variables can make the difference between being positioned to capitalize or be spending the rest of the night trying to recover.
“That's the hardest part about this deal. You have to be, obviously, good, but also a lot of luck plays into it. Like, the invert, and then the pill draw and all that — going out at a certain spot and qualifying. It all just really has to fall together, and you just gotta hit it dead-perfect. Even the difference between, like, me and some of them other guys is they can come from the back and, you know, muscle their way out there, and make the show. Where I kind of need to make sure I qualify good so I can start up there and give myself the best shot possible.
“That'll just come with experience and time, but we're getting better and better every single time we come here, and we're looking forward to Friday.”
That perspective has also influenced how Mills approaches Eldora’s split-field format. With drivers able to choose their preliminary night — Thursday or Friday — Mills has found value in waiting until Friday.
Having Thursday off after Wednesday’s opener allows him time to recover, reflect and study. Rather than immediately jumping back into the grind, he can watch another full night of racing unfold and pick up on details he might otherwise miss. By the time Friday’s prelim arrives, he hopes to have a clearer picture of what the track demands and where he can still improve.
“That's why I always pick Friday,” Mills said. “Just because you race on Wednesday night, you see what you did wrong, and then Thursday you can kind of watch and see what them guys are doing differently. I can put it all together and put it towards Friday.”
