Ricky Thornton Jr. earned his second FloRacing win of 2023
After losing out because of a post-race tech issue last weekend in the Show-me 100, Ricky Thornton Jr. found redemption by taking the Castrol FloRacing Night in America feature on Wednesday night. It was the No. 20RT driver’s second victory at Florence Speedway after having already taken the Ralph Latham Memorial earlier in the season.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $23,023 from the track located in Walton, Kentucky and shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 32 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Mike Marlar(15.613), 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Spencer Hughes, 5. Devin Moran, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Brandon Sheppard, 8. Josh Rice
Group B Results- 1. Bobby Pierce(15.848), 2. Dennis Erb Jr., 4. Tim Lance, 5. Daulton Wilson, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Kody Evans, 8. Hudson O’Neal
Heat 1 Results: 1. Devin Moran, 2. Mike Marlar, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Garrett Alberson
Heat 2 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Spencer Hughes, 3. Josh Rice, 4. Tyler erb
Heat 3 Results: 1. Bobby Pierce, 2. Stormy Scott, 3. Kody Evans, 4. Daulton Wilson
Heat 4 Results: 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Dennis Erb Jr., 3. Tim Lance, 4. Hudson O’Neal
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Zack Dohm, 3. Ricky Weiss
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Dustin Nobbe, 2. Darrell Lanigan
Feature Re-cap: Pierce took the lead at the start of the 50-lap feature with Thornton, Moran, Davenport and Erb trailing, The action was fast and furious in the early going as Davenport passed Moran for third and the second circuit. Erb then got around Moran for fourth on lap 3 just before Davenport took the runner-up spot from Thornton on lap 4.
A lap 7 yellow flag for Lanigan broke up the action briefly. On the restart, Davenport remained second and closed in on Pierce to challenge for the race lead. Further back, Scott moved into the top-5.
Pierce continued to lead over the next several laps with Davenport keeping pace just a few car lengths behind. But a lap 16 caution when a couple of lapped cars tangled again slowed the pace.
With Pierce and Davenport continuing to show the way, a three-way fight for the remaining positions in the top-5 between Thornton, Erb and Scott raged. Thornton broke away from the fight and pulled up on Davenport for contest second.
Local favorite Rice broke into the top-5 just before the halfway mark but almost immediately slowed to bring out a caution. At the time of caution, Pierce led Davenport, Thornton, Scott and Erb.
McCreadie moved around Erb for fifth on lap 29 as Pierce began to build an advantage over the pack. Drivers maintained the status quo during the middle stretches of the feature until a lap 33 yellow flag waved for the slowing car of Marlar.
Thornton moved to second after a three-wide battle for the lead with Pierce emerging as the front runner and Davenport dropping to third. Once to the lead, Pierce used the high line around the track to “cushion” his margin over Thornton.
Thornton, however, closed quickly when Pierce brushed the wall. Thornton took the lead on lap 48 but Pierce fought back to offer a challenge. Meanwhile, McCreadie and Davenport wrestled over third. But in the end, it was Thornton who would take the checkered flag as the winner.
“I feel like it was kind of redemption from last week so we’re excited,” Thornton told FloRacing in victory lane. I thought I was going to run third without all those yellows. I had a good shot at him, I threw a bomb and I slowed him down enough to where I could start throwing bombs at him. It worked out for us so we’re excited.”
Feature Results: 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Hudson O’Neal, 6. Stormy Scott, 7. Dennis Erb Jr., 8. Zack Dohm, 9. Ricky Weiss, 10. Tyler Erb, 11. Brandon Sheppard, 12. Garrett Alberson, 13. Dustin Nobbe, 14. Tim Lance, 15. Daulton Wilson, 16. Spencer Hughes, 17. Mike Marlar, 18. Devin Moran, 19. Devin Moran, 20. Josh Rice, 21. Kody Evans, 22. Blake Creech, 23. Darrell Lanigan
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