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Thornton, Jr. aces All-Tech, as Speedweeks kicks off in the Sunshine State

From DirtOnDirt.com Staff Reports

ELLISVILLE, FL (Feb. 2) - Repelling challenges from Joseph Joiner and later Devin Moran, pole-starting Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, AZ, led all 50 laps to win Friday's Winter Nationals opener at All-Tech Raceway. Thornton avoided any critical mistakes en route to earning $12,000 for his third Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory of the young season, before overdriving turn three on the cool-down lap and spinning, nearly hitting the wall and causing runner-up Devin Moran to spin to avoid contact.

The fourth-starting Moran, of Dresden, Ohio, pulled to within a tenth of a second of Thornton on lap 27 but wasn't able to offer another similar challenge before finishing 1.178 seconds back at the checkers.

“Boy, I about destroyed this thing after the checkered (flag) there,” Thornton said in victory lane. “It looked like (the track) took rubber down there (in turns three and four), so I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna try it after the checkers,’ and I’m telling you, it was all I could do not to destroy the fence.”

Hudson O'Neal climbed as high as second on a lap-35 restart but slipped to fourth on lap 48 before recovering to finish third. Coming from the 17th starting spot, Tyler Bruening grabbed fourth on the final lap. Second-starting Jimmy Owens faded as low as ninth on lap 25 before rebounding to complete the top five. Fifth-starter Joiner challenged Thornton heavily on laps 16-17 — coming within 0.09 of a second of leading his first career circuit on the Lucas Oil Series — but slipped to a sixth-place finish. Kyle Bronson and Daulton Wilson each improved 11 positions, finishing seventh and eighth.

Of the cautions during the race, Max Blair slammed the turn-two wall and slowed to draw the race’s first caution on lap 13. He was towed off. The second — and most impactful — slowdown came on lap 34 when Chris Madden slid into turns three and four and made contact with Devin Moran as the pair battled for second. Madden spun and restarted at the rear; he finished 13th. The third yellow came out on lap 41 when Tony Jackson Jr. spun as Mike Marlar was limping into the infield; neither driver continued. Ninth-starter Garrett Alberson appeared primed to bid for his first-ever Lucas Oil victory when he reached second on lap 39, but he slapped the turn-two wall with his right-rear on the lap-41 restart to draw a caution and end his night. The fifth and final yellow was displayed on lap 47 when ninth-running Cody Overton slowed with a flat right-rear.

After a lengthy track-prep delay before Friday's feature, the race lasted 32 minutes with 17 competitors completing 50 laps and 19 running at the finish.

Drivers with WISSOTA-region ties included Renner, South Dakota’s Blair Nothdurft, who finished sixth in his heat race, and sixth in his B feature, outside of qualifying position for the feature.

SUMMARY

Lucas Oil Late Models:

A-Main (50 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[4]; 3. 1-Hudson O'Neal[6]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[17]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 6. 10-Joseph Joiner[5]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[18]; 8. 18D-Daulton Wilson[19]; 9. B5-Brandon Sheppard[11]; 10. 19M-Spencer Hughes[3]; 11. 1T-Tyler Erb[20]; 12. 3S-Brian Shirley[12]; 13. 44-Chris Madden[7]; 14. 39-Tim McCreadie[14]; 15. 49-Jonathan Davenport[23]; 16. 174-Ethan Dotson[21]; 17. 7-Ross Robinson[13]; 18. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[24]; 19. 96V-Tanner English[22]; 20. 97-Cody Overton[8]; 21. 58-Garrett Alberson[9]; 22. 25-Tony Jackson Jr[15]; 23. 157-Mike Marlar[26]; 24. 99B-Boom Briggs[25]; 25. 6-Clay Harris[16]; 26. 17SS-Brenden Smith[27]; 27. 111-Max Blair[10]; 28. 4G-Bob Gardner[28]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[3]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 5. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 6. 93-Cory Lawler[9]; 7. 18-Chase Junghans[8]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs[6]; 9. 75-Daniel Adam[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 19M-Spencer Hughes[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 3. 25-Tony Jackson Jr[6]; 4. 388-Jackson Hise[4]; 5. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 6. 79B-Kyle Bryant[7]; 7. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 8. (DNS) 128-Kylan Garner

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Joseph Joiner[1]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 4. 174-Ethan Dotson[7]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[6]; 6. USA1-Chris Hawkins[8]; 7. 79-Donald McIntosh[4]; 8. 51-Chad Tuten[3]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 97-Cody Overton[4]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 5. 7T-Drake Troutman[3]; 6. 96V-Tanner English[6]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[7]; 8. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[8]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[4]; 3. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 5. 23-Cory Hedgecock[5]; 6. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 7. 4G-Bob Gardner[7]; 8. 4S-Danny Snyder[8]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal[1]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 4. B2-Brian Booze[7]; 5. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[6]; 6. 11-Austin Smith[5]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 8. 14JR-Trey Mills[8]

B-Main 1 (10 Laps): 1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 2. 174-Ethan Dotson[3]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 4. 388-Jackson Hise[2]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[6]; 6. 18-Chase Junghans[10]; 7. 99B-Boom Briggs[13]; 8. 17SS-Brenden Smith[11]; 9. USA1-Chris Hawkins[9]; 10. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 11. 51-Chad Tuten[14]; 12. 79-Donald McIntosh[12]; 13. 75-Daniel Adam[15]; 14. 93-Cory Lawler[7]; 15. 79B-Kyle Bryant[8]; 16. (DNS) 128-Kylan Garner

B-Main 2 (10 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 96V-Tanner English[7]; 3. 23-Cory Hedgecock[5]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 5. 7T-Drake Troutman[4]; 6. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[8]; 7. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[6]; 8. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[10]; 9. 11-Austin Smith[9]; 10. B2-Brian Booze[3]; 11. 4G-Bob Gardner[11]; 12. 4S-Danny Snyder[14]; 13. 14JR-Trey Mills[15]; 14. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[13]; 15. (DNS) 19R-Ryan Gustin