ROSSBURG, Ohio — Michael Page’s Dream Week has been pretty rough so far. In Wednesday’s FloRacing Night in America action, vision problems prevented him from making an all-out effort. In Thursday’s Dream XXXI prelim, the night started with promise when he was the fastest car in his qualifying group, but it quickly went awry when mechanical problems forced him to scratch for the rest of the night.

Through it all, the 41-year-old Douglasville, Ga., driver was able to smile as he cradled his young daughter in his arms in Eldora’s upper pit area.

“It’s OK,” he grinned. “I’m still having fun.”

He’ll be sidelined for the conclusion of Friday’s preliminaries at Eldora, which will include a makeup of Thursday’s 50-lap prelim feature, but credit Page with looking on the bright side after two rough outings.

His difficulties started Wednesday when he was driving the team’s hauler to the track. He began having vision problems in his left eye.

"I was just going down the road and I started feeling something in my eye,” Page said. “Before I know it, I couldn't open my eye.”

Arriving at Eldora on Wednesday afternoon, he sought treatment.

"I had metal in my eye and I stayed in the infield care center all night before (hot laps) and then jumped in the car and tried to race,” Page said.

The description of Page’s treatment wasn’t for the squeamish. First, his eye was dilated, then the tiny piece of metal was removed.

"They drilled it out with like a little Dremel tool. They flipped my eye inside out and did it,” Page said. "It ain't fun when you're looking at a drill drilling into your eyeball.”

He was released from the infield care center just before hot laps, so he rushed to his pit area to climb into his car.

"I missed the drivers’ meeting,” Page said. “I come running up here and I just got in the car and hot-lapped.”

Before time trials, he mistakenly chose a hard tire for the right-rear because his vision was obscured, giving it to his nephew to put on the car. He also realized he couldn’t see well behind the wheel. Because his eye had been dilated, all lights had a halo-effect.

“That screwed me last night, but I really couldn't see enough to drive. I just kind of laid back and I didn’t want to wreck,” said Page, who finished 10th in his heat race and 11th in his consolation race.

“Every light had a huge ring around it. I couldn’t see nothing,” he said. “I had my hand in my helmet holding my eye closed.”

Things took a turn for the better in Thursday’s rain-delayed program when Page blazed to a 15.239-second lap to top Group A qualifying. He shut off his car for his victory lane interview and couldn’t get it refired. When he got back to his pit area, he added fuel to the carburetor, got the car to fire and thought all was well. But when it was time to head to the track for his heat race, the car wouldn’t fire. By the time the team figured out it was a broken fuel pump driver, it was too late to fix before his consolation race.

"That's way it goes,” Page said, who said the team simply didn’t have time to make the diagnosis and repair of what he said were all new components. "You don't have no time. By the time you jack it up, they're calling for you.”