The final summary of Friday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at All-Tech Raceway will show that Ricky Thornton Jr. led all 50 laps. However, it ended up being a hard-earned $12,000 victory as the Martinsville, Indiana resident fought off several challengers for his third series win of 2024.
At least five different drivers held the second spot during the race, but Thornton who got the win at All- Tech a year ago during the Winter Nationals held them all off for the win. Devin Moran finished in second followed by Hudson O’Neal, Tyler Bruening, and Jimmy Owens. Bruening captured the Todd Steel Buildings Hard Charger of the Race after gaining 13 positions.
Thornton and Owens started from the front row as those two ran first and second for the first four laps of the race until O’Neal, who started sixth, got by Owens to take second. The first caution of the race flew with 13 laps scored for last year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Year, Max Blair who slowed coming off of turn two.
When the race went green again Joseph Joiner started to make moves as the Florida native, who started fifth moved into the second spot to challenge Thornton for the race lead, twice Thornton and Joiner crossed the loop almost dead even as Thornton was hanging onto the top spot.
By lap 20 O’Neal had moved back into second moving Joiner to third. Moran, who started fourth then got going climbing to second on lap 27. Moran and O’Neal then dueled it out for second and third, but the car on the move was Garrett Alberson. The former Rookie of the Year vaulted from fourth to second in the span of a lap. Alberson then started to close on Thornton as the race for the lead was starting to heat up again, but Alberson’s night ended as he got into the turn two concrete with 41 laps complete.
The final caution appeared with 47 laps complete with Thornton leading Moran, O’Neal, and Owens. On the restart Thornton pulled away from Moran to take the win by 1.178 seconds.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 31st time in his career, Thornton breathed a sigh of relief that the race was over. “Man, I didn’t know if I needed to go around the top or the bottom. You could look on the scoreboard and you could see guys moving and then going back. So, I figured the line had to be moving around quite a bit. I had restarted every other time around the bottom, and I didn’t want to take off and hit the fence. It worked out for us. I think at one point down the backstraightaway he [Joiner] cleared me. He got down there, and I felt like I was running as hard, but still trying to save my right rear tire. I actually found a pretty good line around one and two. I split two lapped cars and I felt like I got a really good run, so I kept that in the back of my mind to do that again because it was a line nobody else was running.”
Moran, who was runner-up in last year’s championship standings came home in second after getting close to Thornton on a few occasions. “They figured out a way to give a good track to run on for the feature. I know it’s a little later, but it ended up being a really good race. I love racing in Florida and everybody knows that. Thanks to all of the fans for coming out tonight.”
O’Neal, the defending series champion rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third. “I just got lost a little bit on the racetrack there about three-quarters of the way through and let Devin get back by me and Alberson as well. I had a couple fall out which helped me get back to the podium. We were able to get to second early on. This place just changes so fast, you are up, down, up, down I swear I changed my line 15 times throughout the race.”
The winner’s Todd and Vickie Burns-owned, SSI Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Hoker Trucking, Coltman Farms, Dyno One Inc., West Side Tractor Sales, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, ad EMD Wraps.
Completing the top ten were Joseph Joiner, Kyle Bronson, Daulton Wilson, Brandon Sheppard, and Spencer Hughes.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Winter Nationals | Night 1
Friday, February 2, 2024
All-Tech Raceway – Lake City, FL
Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | 18.537 seconds
Fast Time Group B: Jimmy Owens | 18.169 seconds (overall)
Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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]
Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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
Earnhardt Technologies Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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]
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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]
Lucas Oil Heat Race #5 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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]
Lucas Oil Heat Race #6 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 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]
Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 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
UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 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
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series PR
