Devin Moran claims the Show-me 100
A feature race filled with caution flags and attrition saw Ricky Thornton Jr. seemingly win the Show-me 100 on Saturday night. However, the No. 20RT failed the droop check in post-race inspection handing the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned crown jewel race win at Lucas Oil Speedway to an unsuspecting Devin Moran. It was the biggest win of the Double Down Motorsports driver’s career.
This was the second Show-me 100 triumph in three years for Double Down as Hudson O’Neal won the race for this team in 2021.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Dresden, Ohio earned $50,000 from the Wheatland, Missouri track in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 60 cars were signed in for competition
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Daulton Wilson, 2. Justin Duty
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Daniel Hilsabeck
B-main 3 Finish: 1. Kylan Garner, 2. Payton Looney
Feature Starting Lineup: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Devin Moran, 6. Dillon McCowan, 7. Brandon Overton, 8. Spencer Hughes, 9. Chris Simpson, 10. Garrett Alberson, 11. Tyler Bruening, 12. Earl Pearson Jr., 13. Chad Simpson, 14. Max Blair, 15. Tyler Erb, 16. Chris Ferguson, 17. Mason Zeigler, 18. Ricky Weiss, 19. Daulton Wilson, 20. Hudson O’Neal, 21. Kylan Garner, 22. Justin Duty, 23. Daniel Hilsabeck, 24. Payton Looney
Feature Re-cap: The 100-lap main event went green with Davenport jumping out to the lead ahead of Thornton, McCreadie, Owens and Moran. Moran took fourth from Owens on lap 2 but Owens would soon return the favor and retake the position.
Hughes began to rise after a multi-lap battle with Overton for sixth, the No. 11 then took fifth from Moran on lap 14. At the same time, Thornton closed what had been a two-second gap on Davenport as traffic became a factor.
McCreadie and Owens engaged in a fight for third then Hughes also joined the fray before a lap 19 caution came out for the slowing car of Chris Simpson.
Just after the restart, the battle between McCreadie, Owens and Hughes continued until Briggs slowed to bring out another yellow flag on lap 21. Davenport maintained command when the green flag waved again with McCreadie, Thornton, Hughes and Owens trailing.
By lap 30, Davenport’s advantage had grown to more than three seconds. Further back, Thornton took second from McCreadie as the front runners caught the tail of the field. Hughes and Owens joined in to shuffle McCreadie back to fifth. Ross Robinson spun on lap 33 to temporarily pause the battle behind the leader.
Hughes continued to climb as he took second on the lap 33 restart as Davenport again pulled away. Erb, Wilson and Robinson spun on lap 37 to bring out a yellow flag.
Thornton went back to second on the lap 37 restart as Davenport reasserted his dominance until a lap 41 yellow flag for Chris Simpson erased that advantage.
The field maintained a status quo following the lap 41 restart until a lap 44 yellow flag for a hard crash involving Robinson and Larry Ferris again interrupted the action. During the break in the action, crew members were allowed to bring new helmets to the drivers who were running short of tear-offs.
A furious battle between McCreadie, Moran, Owens and O’Neal took place as those drivers contested the fourth position. However, Owens slowed abruptly on lap 47 after contact with O’Neal bringing out a caution.
Thornton threw a slide job pass on Davenport on lap 53 then again on lap 54 but Davenport crossed over to retake the lead each time. A bobble by Davenport allowed Thornton to grab the lead on lap 57. At that time, Hughes, Overton and Moran kept watch.
Top-10 running O’Neal slowed on lap 66 to bring out another yellow flag with Thornton leading Davenport, Hughes, Moran, Overton and McCreadie at that point.
Thornton’s advantage over Davenport and Hughes grew to almost three seconds by the time the race reached the 25-to-go mark. Davenport was able to cut into Thornton’s lead in traffic, but once cleared, Thornton built his lead back up to more than three seconds.
Behind the leaders, Moran, Hughes, Erb and McCreadie battle for positions 4-6 while Overton closed in on Davenport to wrestle for second. With seven to go, Overton would take that position.
A lap 96 caution for Chad Simpson hitting the backstretch wall and stopping on the track. On the restart, Moran challenged Overton for second forcing the No. 76 to jump the cushion and hit the outside wall ending his night.
Davenport’s car stalled on lap 98 to set up a two-lap dash to the finish.
Thornton would ultimate prove to win the survival of the fittest contest to score the win. But the race wasn’t over at that the waving of the checkered flag as Thornton would be disqualified in post-race inspection.
“What the hell?” Moran said in victory lane. “It’s the best-worst win of my life. I just won the freaking Show-me 100 and $50,000 but Ricky was the best car in the field, I drove like an idiot and wrecked the 76 and I’m probably going to get a black eye when I get back in the pits. But hell with it, we won the race. Right there before that last caution I was making a boat load of time in one and two. I could charge it really hard and get through there. I felt like I was really good but I don’t know what my lap times were compared to the 20RT before that caution. I got a really good restart and I cleared J.D. and I thought I was going to clear Brandon but I just completely ran over him. Like I said, that was a dumbass move on my part.”
Feature Results: 1. Devin Moran, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Spencer Hughes, 4. Chris Ferguson, 5. Dillon McCowan, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Garrett Alberson, 8. Daulton Wilson, 9. Ricky Weiss, 10. Jonathan Davenport, 11. Max Blair, 12. Jimmy Owens, 13. Daniel Hilsabeck, 14. Earl Pearson Jr., 15. Jeff Herzog, 16. Brandon Overton, 17. Chad Simpson, 18. Tyler Bruening, 19. Hudson O’Neal, 20. Mason Zeigler, 21. Chris Simpson, 22. Kylan Garner, 23. Trevor Gundaker, 24. Ross Robinson, 25. Larry Ferris, 26. Boom Briggs, 27. Dustin Hodges, 28. Payton Looney, 29. Justin Duty, 30. Tyler Stevens, 31. Ricky Thornton Jr.
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