Devin Moran was among those who had trouble on Thursday night at East Bay
After three consecutive nights at East Bay Raceway Park of non points paying Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series features, the tour sanctioned its first race of the week at that Gibsonton, Florida facility on Thursday evening that would count toward the championship. And along with that came disaster for those who went into the show among the leaders in the series standings.
Obviously, everyone wants to score the best results possible when points are being offered. Keep in mind that this season marks the first year in which the champion will ultimately be decided by the new ‘Chase for the Championship’ system. Eventually after a series of cuts that begin after the Show-me 100, the top-4 in the standings will race for the crown in the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in October. Of course, every driver who hopes to end the season as the champion wants to earn as many points as possible in every race.
But one saving grace for those potential contenders during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks is that the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is allowing drivers and teams to only count their best five finishes through Saturday’s finale at East Bay.
Ricky Thornton Jr. entered Thursday as the Lucas Oil points leader. His night began well as the No. 20RT SSI Motorsports car was second in its qualifying group and then went on to win the fifth heat race. But it was early in the feature when things went off the rails for the Martinsville, Indiana resident.
Thornton was looking to not only win the race and claim the $10,000 first prize but also to erase his fifth best finish in series competition, which was a 3rd. A win or a runner-up result would be the only finishes that would benefit his cause. Still, in this system being employed, every point could potentially matter.
After having moved into second on an early race restart Thornton rode behind leader Hudson O’Neal for the next several laps. A lap 9 restart led to disaster for the points leader when either a rear end or transmission issue caused his car to slow and ultimately forced the an early withdrawal from the race. The result was a 25th place finish but he still leads the standing even with that disappointment.
Brandon Overton entered Thursday’s action second in the standings after having won two of the first three of the features at the beginning of the 2023 campaign. His night proved to be a struggle from the beginning as he registered no qualifying time, failed to transfer out of a heat race then won his B-main to earn a tenth row starting position.
Before the feature even took the green flag, the Georgia driver steered the No. 76 Wells Motorsports car to the infield. He then reported to FloRacing.com that the gauges on his instrument panel began flashing and he reasoned that the problem was something electrical in nature. The result was a 30th place finish but his earlier successes still allowed him to remain second in the standings. But he would still, no doubt, have liked to have replaced an 8th with something higher.
If Overton is in fact going to run the full Lucas Oil schedule, any points that could have been captured here might be looked at as an opportunity lost later on.
Another driver who was unable to post a finish that he would have liked to replace one of his finishes was Devin Moran. Coming into the night residing in the Dresden, Ohio racer was fourth in the standings. With Thornton’s and Overton’s troubles, he could have made gains. Instead, he suffered a similar fate as his rivals.
On the same restart in which Thornton experienced his mechanical troubles, Moran was entangled in a mishap with Ross Bailes. The front-end damage done to the Double Down Motorsports No. 99 car would force its retirement. The result would be a 27th place finish which dropped Moran to fifth in the series rundown.
No one knows how this new system of deciding a champion will play out. But as is sometimes the case in the somewhat similar NASCAR Playoffs, there will be someone who looks back at opportunities lost as a cause for missing one of the cutoffs. While the three drivers mentioned in this piece seem to be on very comfortable ground right now, things can always change.
The Lucas Oil Series will conclude its Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks run with the final two races in the Wieland Winternationals on Friday and Saturday nights at East Bay Raceway Park.
Please consider also reading:
Hudson O’Neal earns first win as Rocket house car driver on Thursday at East Bay
Respond to this post on Twitter by following @RichardAllenIDR and @MichaelRMoats or by liking the InsideDirtRacing.com Facebook page.
Also, NASCAR and pavement racing fans can check out InsideCircleTrack.
