Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Friends share World 100 roller coaster
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In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: As Ryan Gustin was leading Saturday’s World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and eventual winner Nick Hoffman was charging forward through the field, their car owners — Todd Cooney for Gustin, Tye Twarog for Hoffman — were sitting side by side in a VIP suite in the tower outside turns three and four. Twarog obtained the suite for the weekend from Pennsylvania’s Mason Zeigler, who opted to skip competing in the event, and invited Cooney to join him inside for a panoramic view of the action. “We hung out all week up there,” Cooney said. “Tye’s a good buddy of mine. We’ve become pretty good friends over the last couple years.” Cooney was no longer in the booth when Gustin’s car broke on the fateful lap-88 restart and Hoffman moved into the lead. The Iowa resident had left “with about 40 laps to go because he’s like, ‘Man, I can’t do this,’ like his stomach got sick and he was all nervous up there,” Twarog said. But Cooney had calmed Twarog’s anxiety earlier in the race, and seeing his pal win took a slight bit of sting out of his own loss. “He was all panicky early,” Cooney said of Twarog’s outlook as Hoffman fell outside the top 10 during the race’s first half. “But I kept telling him, I said, ‘Dude, remember last year? He rode 15th, 18th with 20 to go, and man, he went up there and almost won the damn thing.’ He did ‘er this year. I’m extremely happy for (Twarog) — if we can’t win, we want to see him win, and I think it’s vice versa.”
No. 2: Twarog called it “pretty cool” to watch the World 100 alongside Cooney, though he noted it would have been one heck of a memorable situation if Cooney had remained in the suite until the end and Gustin’s driveshaft had stayed in his car, allowing him to battle Hoffman for the victory. Twarog did make Cooney a promise while they were together in the booth. “I told him if I win the World 100, I’ll buy him four bottles of Crown (Royal whisky) and four tires for his race car, so I’m definitely going to have to do that,” Twarog said with a smile.
No. 3: Twarog’s World 100 triumph as a car owner certainly brought a smile to the face of event co-announcer Dustin Jarrett as he called the race with James Essex in Eldora’s tower. Jarrett noted that he grew up with Twarog, who lived 10 miles from Jarrett and was one year behind him at Union Local High School. The pair were both aides to the school’s football coach and worked together in his athletic office. They were also close friends who “went to many races together in our late teens and early 20s,” Jarrett related before adding: “I don’t have a lot of sentimental moments behind the mic … but (Saturday’s World 100) was one of them.”
No. 4: When I walked across Eldora’s backstretch at the crossover gate to head from the infield to the upper pit area some time after Saturday’s World 100 checkered flag, I passed a group of about a half-dozen guys who were having some postrace fun. The fans were standing toward the inside of the track at the exit from the infield, drinking some beers and giving every hauler leaving the pit area the well-known little-kid arm signal to blow the truck’s horn. Just about every race team that drove by offered a hearty honk. “That was the best one yet!” I heard one guy exclaim after a particularly long horn blast.
No. 5: Speaking of the postrace scene at the World 100, it always strikes me that you know Eldora Speedway is an iconic track by the number of fans you see milling around the racetrack itself after races. Yes, the fans swarm the pit area afterward to visit the drivers, but many of them — more than you’ll see at any other track — take walks around the track as well. It’s pretty neat seeing people climbing the high-banked turns, sitting on the cushion against the wall and posing for pictures. There’s no doubt Eldora is an unmatched dirt-track destination when you witness the fans’ reverence for the place.
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