MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. — Ricky Thornton Jr. went from third to first on the 20th lap of the 30-lap main event on Friday night at West Virginia Motor Speedway, earning his sixth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season.
Thornton drove by Jimmy Owens and race leader Daulton Wilson before pulling away for the win on the opening night of the Jan Dils Attorneys at Law Historic 100 presented by Arizona Sport Shirts.
Tim McCreadie advanced to the second spot at the finish followed by Wilson, Hudson O’Neal, and Owens.
Wilson jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot as Owens went to second and Thornton, the polesitter, dropped to third. Wilson set a quick pace as the North Carolina driver was looking for this first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win.
Wilson and Owens ran first and second for the first 19 laps to the race, until Thornton made his daring third-to-first move on lap 20.
The only caution of the race came out with eight laps remaining. On the restart, Thornton pulled away from McCreadie, who had moved to second on the restart. Thornton went on to win by over two seconds against the two-time and reigning champion.
It was Thornton’s 11th career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win as he continues to lead the championship standings heading into Saturday night’s $50,000 to win finale.
“I felt bad for Daulton there, he really didn’t know where to go to get by Ross [Robinson]. Daulton turned to the bottom and Jimmy turned to the bottom and I figured I would kind of Hail-Mary it and hope it stuck and it did,” Thornton said. “I slid Daulton down there; it wasn’t the cleanest slider. I am sure Daulton will owe me one. I got the job done and we really had a good car all night long.”
McCreadie climbed back to the front and after a lap-22 restart tried to stay within striking distance of Thornton but could not muster a challenge in the closing laps.
“It was a good night for us tonight,” McCreadie said. “The guys at Longhorn work hard. We have a lot of help with us thankfully because if I have to start working on this car we are in trouble. There are so many people that show up that don’t get paid, and they are good as anybody that does get paid.”
Wilson, who came close to his first series win at Fairbury last month, finished third.
“I guess you have to lose them before you can win them. We’ve had a couple of them this year. We had the best car and got out front in the first 20 laps, but you know it was a 30-lap race. Hats off to Ricky and Timmy they did what they had to do. They had good cars. We will work on ours a little bit and come back tomorrow to see if we can put a whole night together.”
The finish:
Ricky Thornton Jr., Tim McCreadie, Daulton Wilson, Hudson O’Neal, Jimmy Owens, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Gregg Satterlee, Devin Moran, Spencer Hughes, Max Blair, Tyler Evans, Eddie Carrier Jr., Tyler Bruening, Tyler Erb, Earl Pearson Jr., Ross Robinson, Rod Conley, Garrett Alberson, Boom Briggs, Freddie Carpenter, K.C. Burdette, Matt Cosner, Brandon Francis, Edward Shuman.