Here is what drivers had to say following Saturday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Twin 25 races at West Virginia Motor Speedway for the Dirt Track World Championship:

Ricky Thornton Jr. — Group A Winner: “I felt really good there. The start of the race I was like, man, I know we’re all on soft tires. I’m just like, ‘Let those guys go.’ And wait as long as I could before I needed to try to make the right opportunity. Benji [Hicks] took off around the top. I was like, ‘Man, he’s going to drive all the way to the lead.’ Then I don’t know if Devin’s guy move him up. Devin moved up. I’m like alright, ‘If we can get a yellow here, I think it will be my perfect opportunity.’ ‘Cause I knew Benji was going to restart on the bottom and he wasn’t going to stay down there very long. So I’m like, ‘If I can just make two or three good laps down here I’d be in good shape.’

Then I got to third and I was too busy watching Tyler [Carpenter] and Devin [Moran]. Their cars were a little better through the center than I was early so I was trying to figure out why. I freaking clipped the infield tire, knocked the nose down, and then I’m like, ‘Alright I really got to go now.’ Because the problem was once I’d lift getting in the corner, I’d bottom out and then shove. I got a good run off of 2 and I knew Tyler was kinda arcing out down the back straightaway and like kinda sliding himself leaving the bottom open. I’m like, ‘Alright if I get a good enough run and just blow by him getting into 3 and then slide him and hopefully take off after that.’ I feel like our car was pretty good to be able to do that.

 Track’s shaping up to be really good. I think the second feature it is going to be even better than what ours was. I got to thank all the fans for coming out, the boys: Seth, Tharp, KP, Bill, my wife, my kids, everyone at home, Koehler Motorsports, Cornett Racing Engines, Clements, Hoker Trucking, Certified Inspection Service, Knight’s Company, Coltman Farms.

Like I said, huge crowd. Looking forward to tomorrow.

I think there’s a lot you can learn tonight. I’ll be watching this one pretty intensely too. Obviously with JD, and Shepp, and Pierce, and everyone else in it. I feel like there’s a lot of good cars in Group A and there’s a lot of good cars in Group B. So that’s kind of the nice part, we can sit back and study it at the same time. I think track conditions tomorrow will be similar to how they are tonight. It’s been a lot drier these previous races, but it ain’t been this cold either. Figure if I can do the right things, the guys make the right calls—. We really didn’t know what I needed to do tire wise there. We flipped a quarter and the quarter didn’t let us down. 

I also got to give a big shoutout to Daryn Pittman, Dave and Tina Sharpley. I keep forgetting them these last couple of times with Ultra Shield and Sharp Advantage. We’re sitting comfy in our seats and hopefully we’re comfy here tomorrow.”

Dillon McCowan — Group A Finished 2nd: “We’ve had a tough couple weeks here. Hats off to my guys and Riley, and Jason, and everybody back there at the trailer, my mom and dad for running my merch trailer this weekend. The track , I guess, seems to suit me. It was kind of around the bottom for the most part. And then when I did have to get on the top it felt like a little bit of bullring racing. Take me back to the Summer Nationals.

The car was good. Congrats to Ricky and good job to Devin. And hopefully tomorrow we can tune on it a little bit and make it a little bit better. Huge shoutout to all my sponsors. I just want to thank them. They’ve stuck behind me all year long. We may not had the finishes that we’ve wanted, but we’ve made it to the end of the year and we’re hoping to finish it off strong.”

Devin Moran — Group A Finished 3rd: “Track’s a little bit different than when we were here for the Hillbilly. It wasn’t quite that much grip on the bottom. So just wasn’t really expecting that, but we know that we have a decent car. We just got to work on it and make the right decisions for tomorrow night.” 

Hudson O’Neal — Group B Winner: “We’ve been pretty good. We just haven’t been able to show all of our speed that we have. I felt like here over the last few months we’ve kind of gotten better and started working in the right direction. And all my guys have worked their tails off to try and give us a best shot. It really crushed all of us whenever we fell out of that championship [hunt]. Buy my dad told me that night, he said, ‘Hey, at least now there’s no pressure. Just go chase $100k and just try to win it.’ So we want to be racing for a championship, but at the same time it’s cool to come here and have speed. Everything’s meant to be, it just wasn’t meant to be for us this year, but I think we got a good race car. And if we can continue to work on it maybe we’ll be in the same situation maybe with a little bigger lead at the end of next year. 

I felt okay. And Jonathan [Davenport] was making it really tough on me. He was up, down, middle, up, down, left, right. He was just trying to find out where exactly he needed to be. And then when we got to traffic there I think he got really concerned about losing it in the bottom. So he just kinda got to chasing that bottom and sticking it in lap cars and I just had a free lane up there and let it sing.

But we were really good. I felt good around the bottom. I felt good through the middle. I felt good against the cushion. I felt like we had really good balance. 

I appreciate all my guys: Jason, Riley, Kyle, Logan, my wife Tessa, and Todd and Vicki Burns at SSI Motorsports for giving us the opportunity. Man, even though we felt out of that championship last weekend, he never wavered. Never said anything to us. Never was down in the dumps about it. And he just continued to support us and told us to go win $100k. We’re doing our best.

It wouldn’t be possible without everybody on this race car: Wheeler Metals, Merrill Bonding Company, Big River Steel, Chris at Midwest Sheet Metal, Professional Concrete Cutting & Drilling, O’Neal Salvage & Recycling, O’Neal Contracting, Seven Spurs Ranch, Indiana USSSA Fast Pitch, Sunoco Race Fuels. Like I said Sub Service Indiana, SSI Motorsports, Penske Shocks, Longhorn Chassis. Steve Arpin’s here tonight. And Kevin and everybody there, and Matt. It takes a whole army of them over there and they build some really good race cars. We’re fortunate to be able to race them. It takes a lot of people to run up and down the road so we appreciate every one of them.

Thank you fans. Man, I know it’s cold out there. I could tell whenever I got out it was kinda quiet and there’s a lot of people already clearing out and going home getting in the warmth so don’t blame them. Appreciate them sticking it out with us and having a good night of racing here.

Jonathan Davenport — Group B Finished 2nd: I just needed to finish, really. We’ve had a pretty rough month. And I wasn’t going to do anything stupid there. You know we got a good starting spot for tomorrow. 

Hudson got by us there in lap traffic. I got by the 49 (Luke Morey) and I heard somebody and thought it’d be Hudson and then I saw the 49 get back under me again. So I’m like, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t Hudson.’ But then I pulled back down and then Hudson got by us on the top. He almost spun the lap car out down here and I’m like, ‘He didn’t lead that lap.’ So I kinda shot for him. I was going to finish him off, but I didn’t get him turned enough. 

Anyway, my guys done an excellent job. We might’ve tightened up just a little too much right there for what tires we was on. Just see if we could overtighten this thing. Hell, we’ve been loose since July. So it’s really nice to be able to adjust this thing and really feel the changes in it. So just hats off to my guys. They do an excellent job for me. 

Thanks to Ace Doran. Man, I ain’t done this in awhile. Ace Doran, Nutrien Ag Solutions, ASC Warranty, Bilstein, Longhorn Chassis. I got to give a shout out to Stakt Products. We got in a little altercation with a lap car there on the back straightaway and it looks fine. Tried to blow the horn and let him know I was there. I guess he didn’t hear me hitting the chip beside of him. 

Anyway, just a really good night for us from qualifying 10 laps and setting fast time, winning our heat, and just going off this thing and just making adjustments.

Like I said this is the first time we’ve been here since they shortened it. They did an awesome job really. I’m really proud of what they have done. And I think for big things tomorrow, honestly. It raced way better than I thought it would. And we’re all going to be on a little bit different tire combinations. If they leave it a little bit wetter tomorrow so they’ll definitely be a lot of passing tomorrow. Congratulations to the track crew.

Thanks to everybody coming out, showing up this place, and, yeah, it’s definitely been fun.”

Brandon Sheppard — Group B Finished 3rd: “We want to win just like everybody else does here, but at the end of the day, obviously, the points are on our mind too. We’re just going to do the best we can. And that’s going to play out how it’s going to play out. So we’re just going to do our best to get a good balance under this thing and hopefully just try to put this thing up front tomorrow maybe get us sixth Dirt Track World Championship. That’d be really cool. 

But these guys are super tough. Hudson did a great job tonight in this feature here. I felt like I needed to roll the bottom just a little bit better. I think if we get to do that we’ll be a lot better tomorrow.

The track was phenomenal. I don’t think the track can get any better than that. I think even tomorrow with a longer race I think it’ll get even more racy than it was tonight. Hats off to the track crew and everybody here at West Virginia Motor Speedway. Thanks to the fans for sticking it out with us. Thanks to all my family supporting me, my great team, Mark, and everybody at Rocket Chassis, and Dan, Austin, Joel, and everything them guys do for me. I’m super thankful to be here in this position and we’ll see what we got tomorrow.”

NEXT: How Devin Moran Can Win The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship