2025 Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway

Rollovers Ruin Prelims For Front Row Starters At Eldora Speedway

Rollovers Ruin Prelims For Front Row Starters At Eldora Speedway

Front row starters Carson Ferguson and Wil Herrington both flipped out of Friday's second Dream XXXI prelim at Eldora Speedway.

Jun 7, 2025 by Todd Turner
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The twentysomething front-row starters in Eldora Speedway’s second Dream XXXI preliminary feature on Friday evening had such high hopes.

But instead of a $30,000 payday and the glory of winning at the legendary half-mile oval, polesitter Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., and Carson Ferguson of Lincolnton, N.C., saw their races end in separate rollover wrecks in turns one and two that drew red flags.

The first Late Model rollovers for either driver sent Ferguson out of the race before completing a lap while Herrington, who led the first nine laps, retired on lap 41.

Neither were injured, but the wrecks caused damage to their cars in the race captured by Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., who collected a career-richest payday. The wrecks also put a damper on their hopes in Saturday’s action, which concludes four days of action with a $100,000-to-win Dream finale.

“We’ll see where we stack up in points (to set heat race lineups) and go from there,” Ferguson said.

Herrington’s Bruce Kane Racing team removed much of the car’s sheetmetal in evaluating repairs on the Rocket Chassis at the pit area inside turn three.

"I don't think it's bad. It looks like mostly cosmetic,” Herrington said. “Bruce is going to get (Rocket co-founder) Mark (Richards) to look at just to kind of look at it, make sure everything's OK.”

Ferguson’s first-lap wreck in turn two was the scariest of the two, in part because he was in front of the onrushing field and collected Chris Simpson, whose car slid into the roof of Ferguson’s No. 93 Longhorn Chassis. Ferguson said he just got into a bad position and lost control.

“Just the way the air is here, clean air is just really important, so me and Wil, we were just trying to beat each other to the cushion,” Ferguson said. "He had turned down when he needed to clear me and I just, the way the air was, I didn't position myself good enough to counter him beating me to the cushion. I kind of gave myself no way out.

“The cushion was so big and treacherous, that was really the speed we were carrying into there and the angle that we were both hitting it. There was no escape route. So it just yanked the car around and flipped me over.”

Tyler Erb narrowly missed Ferguson, the right-rear side of Bobby Pierce’s car made contact, and then Simpson’s car smashed into Ferguson’s machine.

“I mean, I was just sitting there, I thought the wreck was over, but I mean everything was still moving obviously. Then he hit me on that right side A-post deal,” Ferguson said. “But, I mean Longhorn Chassis builds a safe car, Victory Seats kept me safe, Bell helmets. I definitely will be making sure I have Bell helmets and Victory Seats in anything I drive.”

Ferguson, who also credited his Hooker Harness belts, found himself hanging upside down until the car could be righted.

"I was definitely afraid of it igniting. They were to me pretty fast. I felt like I shut everything off. I mean, it was all shut off anyway, but I made sure all my switches were off,” he said. "I was just listening to the safety officials and they were just walking me through it, just telling me to be patient until they flipped me over. It felt like about 15-20 minutes.”

Ferguson’s only previous rollover came in a gokart, a wreck he’s too young to remember. Fortunately he was OK.

“I’m winded, but like I said, mainly just hurt feelings,” he said. “We had a really fast car, but luckily we have more fast cars and we can make them go fast.”

Simpson’s car also suffered significant right-side damage, and he complained of pain to his left knee after his smashed into his car’s dashboard.

“It was dusty from the get-go. I just went into (turn) one to try and miss the hole because, I mean, we've all seen it all night,” Simpson said. “I guess Carson just went in there and hit it and started flipping. I'd seen (Nick) Hoffman cut (his steering wheel) at the last second. I was already committed just to hit the cushion on exit. I just ran right into him. Nothing I could do.

“I was in enough pain that I was hoping he was fine, but I smoked my knee, it was a hard hit,” Simpson added as his team assessed the damage before loading up. “That’s part of it. That's probably why I never come here. So it’ll probably be our last trip to Eldora, because when you crash, you crash big.”

Herrington’s crash was less dramatic. He collected Jimmy Owens, but because his car landed on its wheels, he ended up driving it back to his pit stall.

“Just kind of a rookie mistake on that restart there,” Herrington said. “I was just gonna follow (second-running) Bobby (Pierce). I thought he's gonna get a good start on the cushion and just, I don't know, I got going a little bit better than he did, I think, and just left the bottom lane open, got air off the nose getting in and just got around. And that was all she wrote. There wasn’t really no way to save it there.

"I never flipped over before. That’s the first time I ever flipped anything. So when it went up in the air, I just closed my eyes and held on to something — I don't even know what I grabbed, something in there — when it landed, I just kind of looked around, made sure everything was OK, and I was alive and I just like, ‘Well, hell, I guess I'll just drive back to the trailer. There ain’t no need in anybody getting a wrecker. They had rain coming.”

Herrington, a heat race winner the previous night, hopes the team can patch the car back together.

"The guys are working hard,” he said. “We gotta get a little better just missing a little bit, but the driver's got to do a better job.”