Eldora Speedway
Big E inversion darling enjoys best 100-lapper
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Joseph Joiner won Eldora's second heat race. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 12) — What are the odds a driver hits the invert just right and lands on the pole of a World 100 heat race three years in a row? Better yet, the same heat race all three times?
Joseph Joiner did just that, drawing the pole of Saturday’s second heat for the third consecutive year after the six-car invert moved him from 35th in points to the front row. He wanted to avoid squandering the opportunity — and missing Eldora Speedway’s 100-lap feature — for the third straight year.
“Gosh, we race our butts off, and then it comes down to Saturday and it just all falls apart,” Joiner said Friday. “We’re good enough to get in this thing and make some noise. It’s just making it all happen when it needs to happen.”
This time, Joiner made it happen. The Hunt the Front driver acknowledged that a brief shower before the heats worked in his favor, but it didn’t wash away his recent history of disappointment.
Joiner led all 15 laps to secure his second World 100 starting berth and first since finishing 21st in one of two 2021 events (2020’s Covid cancellation meant there were two World 100s the following year). The Milton, Fla., driver started fifth Saturday and held the position through lap 27 before his car struggled with the changing conditions.
He nevertheless held on to finish 12th, completing all 100 laps and producing what he considered his best overall showing at Eldora.
“I think it went OK,” Joiner said. “Obviously, winning the heat race and starting fifth in that feature is something we’ve never done, so we’ll certainly take that. I wish we could’ve hung in there a little bit better. To be completely honest, I wasn’t 100 percent prepared for a 100-lap deal.”
Last year, Joiner led the opening eight laps of his heat before a restart shuffled him to fourth, one spot shy of transferring. He then faded from second to eighth in a consolation race.
His 2024 attempt followed a similar script. Joiner lost the initial jump to Devin Moran and slipped to fourth, then faded from second in a consolation before spinning and finishing 17th.
Those shortcomings added to Joiner’s frustration with Eldora, where speed during one part of a weekend doesn't always carry to the next time on the track. This time, despite another uneven preliminary stretch, Joiner delivered when it mattered most.
The weekend somewhat mirrored Joiner’s season. Although he has two Super Late Model victories, three fewer than last season, Joiner believes Hunt the Front’s program has improved. His average finish supports that assessment, dropping from 9.37 last season to 7.33 this year.
Oddly enough, both victories came far outside Joiner’s familiar Southern territory — and both in Indiana with the Northern Allstars Late Model Series. He collected consecutive $10,000 victories May 29-30 at Bloomington and Brownstown.
“We’ve been running really well,” Joiner said. “It’s been kind of up and down, though. We’ve had some bad nights that got away from us, but as a whole, I think our good nights have been really good. We’re trending in a good direction. I think our team has stepped up a little bit this year from where it has been.”
Once Joiner launched from the pole of Saturday’s heat, he resisted the temptation to check Eldora’s giant video board and concentrated solely on running smooth laps.
“Man, you just have to go as fast as you can go. You can’t ease up at all,” Joiner said. “I thought about looking at the video board, but I thought, ‘Sure as I do that, I’m going to miss turn one.’ I decided I was just going to keep my foot on the floorboard and make sure I hit my marks.”
Joiner carried that speed into the feature, holding fifth through lap 27 while conserving his equipment.
“During the first 15 or 20 laps, I wasn’t pushing very hard, and we were right there,” Joiner said. “Then, all of a sudden, I got to where I couldn’t steer, and the front tires started chattering across the racetrack.”
Joiner hoped a lap-27 caution would allow his tires to cool, but the problem persisted.
“I had to bend the car a little bit on entry, and it just wasn’t very good to drive at that point,” Joiner said. “It was hard to maneuver.”
He fell to 12th by lap 55 and briefly lost a lap before altering his corner entry and finding a better groove through turns three and four. Joiner eventually received the lucky dog and returned to the lead lap.
“I was worried I was about to fall to the rear of the field because there were a couple of laps when I couldn’t get the car around the corner,” Joiner said. “But I found a rhythm that worked well enough to keep making laps.
“We made it the whole way,” Joiner added through a smile. “We got our lap back with the lucky-dog deal, so we ran 12th and completed all 100 laps in pretty good company. We’ll certainly take this. It’s our best showing here, so it’s all good, and we’re proud of it.”
Joiner acknowledged that his team lacked the notebook to anticipate how its car would evolve over 100 laps. Such races are rare on his schedule. In fact, he believes Saturday marked his first completed 100-lapper since he qualified for the World in 2021.
“I think that’s the best my race car has been all throughout a race night here, from start to finish,” said Joiner, who drove a Capital Race Car in 2021 but now campaigns a Longhorn Chassis. “We have to work on our 100-lap deal. We don’t have any notes for this, and we don’t run many 100-lappers anyway.
“Nonetheless, we gained a lot of knowledge tonight, and there are a lot of good things to take from this. We’re certainly proud of that. We’re going to take it and be ready when we come back here for the Dream.”
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