Chris Madden still can’t imagine the crown jewel of Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, without him as a driver, and that’s why the 49-year-old is preparing for another shot at an elusive Eldora crown jewel at the World 100 on Sept. 5-7.
In fact, the Gray Court, South Carolina veteran plans to compete in his 43rd major Eldora event – all since his debut in a major race there in 2003, the Dream – at the World 100 on September 5-7 in a GR Smith Longhorn chassis with support from Koehler Motorsports.
2024 World 100 at Eldora Speedway
“At first I thought, ‘This is no big deal.’ But the closer it got, the more I thought about it. It’s just … I’d hate to miss it,” Madden told DirtonDirt.com Saturday at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway after his third weekend as Ricky Thornton Jr.’s crew chief in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
“I have an idea of what we need to do there, so we’re not going there blindly thinking about what to do,” Madden said. “We’ll be prepared when we get there. I think he’ll enjoy it and I’ll enjoy it. He’ll do really well and so will I.”
Madden originally planned to drive one of Thornton’s backup cars in the World 100 next week, but the Mount Airy, North Carolina-based company owned by Bobby Koehler is running out of resources. In a phone interview Wednesday night with DirtonDirt.com, Koehler said, “When we put Ricky in the race, we ran out of engines, so we let him drive one of GR Smith’s cars.”
Smith will transport the No. 44 Longhorn chassis and prepare it with help from Tommy Grecco and Scott Parker, while Koehler will provide the race crew for Madden’s expected return. Smith added that the deal “all came together in the last 72 hours” and that Madden’s Eldora race car is a brand new Longhorn chassis with a new Cornett engine under the hood.
“We’re really excited to go to Eldora and have been working hard all week to get this car ready,” Smith said in a phone interview with DirtonDirt.com Wednesday night. “This is all up to me. Bobby put the two of us in touch. He knew Madden wanted to race and he knew I had cars. I really enjoy going to Eldora. Chris and I have been talking and he’s a joy to talk to and get along with.”
Madden also originally planned to work as a crew chief for Thornton while driving at the World 100, but according to Koehler, the team will assign Ricky Arnold to oversee Thornton’s No. 20rt operations at Eldora so Madden can focus on driving. Stephen Eldridge, meanwhile, will be part of Madden’s crew on race day at the World 100.
Madden’s participation in the World 100 comes as no surprise, but it was never a sure thing, given the ups and downs of his career over the past few months. Madden announced in June that 2024 would be his final year as a full-time racer, then a bout of diverticulitis forced him out of the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series a few weeks later. Late last month, he was named Thornton’s crew chief for the remainder of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season.
The return to Eldora does not signal any changes to his plans behind the wheel, he said.
“I have no intention of going back to work full time,” Madden said Saturday at Port Royal Speedway.
Madden’s “main priority here is Ricky and we want to make sure we can do the best for him and for Koehler Motorsports,” and he agreed not to race until the DTWC on October 19, if that should happen.
But now Thornton is on a roll – with two wins, four total podiums and no lower than eighth place in eight races so far – and Madden believes he can compete in the World 100 without hindering the No. 20rt team’s progress.
“I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it. But Eldora is my favorite place, you know?” Madden said. “It was hard for me to pass on that. We just talked about it a little bit. I asked Ricky how he felt about it. Ultimately, when I said I was doing this with them, my number one priority with Koehler Motorsports and Ricky was to make sure I could do the best job I could for him. We talked about it and everyone agreed it would be OK to do it.
“We have two Lucas races before Eldora, so that’s obviously our focus,” Madden added. “And then we have to get Ricky ready for Eldora as well. That’s our main focus.”
As a part-time racer, Madden hopes to compete in select major events, including the World Finals Nov. 6-9 at the Dirt Track in Charlotte, another of Madden’s favorite tracks.
“Like I said, my plan is obviously that I’m not going to work full-time anymore,” Madden said. “But one of my main priorities for the next year is to make sure I have something together to be in Eldora and a few other places. But that’s it. I’d like to go to Eldora as often as I can until I can’t anymore.”
Madden has competed in six races since the Dream XXX on June 8 in Eldora. His last race was on July 16 at I-75 Speedway in Sweetwater, Tennessee, at the Schaeffer Southern Nationals track, where he finished 13th. He said he is “doing OK right now” regarding the diverticulitis as he continues to take good care of his body.
“Everything seems to be going well,” Madden said. “I’m just making sure I’m eating right and taking my medications,” adding that he’s avoiding anything “that the body can’t digest easily,” like “corn, nuts, things like that.”
This part was the most annoying for Madden.
“Anything your body can’t digest easily, you don’t eat because it makes you sick,” Madden said. “And hot peppers, and I love hot peppers. I had some a couple weeks ago when my wife and I went out for pizza, and I had jalapeño pizza. And that night, at 2 a.m., I thought someone had a knife and stabbed it right in the stomach.”
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m really at the end of my rope,'” Madden continued, laughing at his painful story. “Yeah, you just have to be careful and watch what you eat.”
The pressure for Madden to win a major Eldora event isn’t on him as much this time around as it has in recent years. Although he’s been tantalizingly close with three consecutive Dream runner-up finishes from 2021-23, another runner-up finish at the 2022 Eldora Million and a third-place finish at the 2022 World 100, Madden always looks forward to competing at Eldora.
“Absolutely. At the end of the day, our main goal is for Ricky to race well,” Madden said. “With us having two cars there, we’re trying to fill our notebooks. We have a notebook that has zero pages (at Eldora). … That’s another reason why I think it’s better to have two cars at the world championship so we can fill our notebook and get ready to race” at the Dirt Track World Championship on Oct. 18-19 at Eldora, which concludes the Lucas Oil season.
“We’re trying to get this thing together and just keep racing, day in and day out, at different race tracks here and there,” Madden added. “We’re just getting to know each other. So far, it’s going really well. I think we’ve had a fast car pretty much every time we’ve come out of the stable since we’ve been together. Hopefully we can keep it up and hopefully one of us can get a World Championship win.”
When asked if he had thought about the year 2025, the often terse Madden replied: “Nothing at all.”
Then Madden looked at Thornton’s racing machine, ready to be recharged after a hard-fought second place finish at Port Royal on Saturday, and said with a smile: “I’m enjoying this.”
Madden, on the other hand, is convinced that he can still be extremely competitive at Eldora even on a part-time basis.
“It’s like riding a bike,” he said.
