Here is what drivers had to say following Sunday night’s Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway to conclude the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series:
Ricky Thornton Jr. — Winner: “[Hudson O’Neal] was definitely better. I feel like early stages I was a little better than he was and I could dictate his pace, which normally the leader gets to dictate the pace, but I was like, ‘You know what if I can just stay close enough and go to the top whenever he goes to the bottom, go to the bottom when he goes to the top, and just start getting him to run harder and harder.’ He figured out the top and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m ever going to get a shot again.’
And then we had so many yellows there that I could cool my stuff back down and get a good restart. Show my nose, show my nose, and he’d have to keep running harder and harder. I don’t know if he just got tight getting into three or what. And then I saw him kinda turn backwards at the wall, and I’m like, ‘Alright I need to at least beat him to the line that way if a yellow does come out I’ll be the leader.’ Obviously, you don’t want him to be the leader.
Overall, I thought the track was really good. Couple parts there it got a little tough to see, but once that cleaned off you could really race all over it.
I really didn’t know what to do on that last restart. I’m like I know Devin picked the bottom and Shepp just rolled him like through the middle or—. I know he wasn’t going to beat the wall down because his car’s too clean still to be beating the wall down. So I just kinda moved out off the bottom one lane. I felt like my car really took off.
So hats off to everyone at Koehler Motorsports. Bobby, Chuck, Evan, and Jordan showed today. They flew in this morning. So that was pretty good. Obviously, Tharp he’s doing a heckuva job being the new Crew Chief. I owe a lot of it to him. KP’s here. Seth’s working his butt off there on tires.
Felt overall like we had a really good car all weekend. Really, we have since we got this thing out. Just excited.
I feel like not that we were super slow to start the year, we just had a lot of bad, weird things happening to us. Like normally when we’d run a second or third place we’re running an eighth or ninth place because of it. I feel like now, finally, we’ve got a lot better luck. Obviously, our speed’s really good. We qualify really good. We heat race really well. And to go from Eldora that’s way, way different than this place and be as good as we were here. I feel like this place is kinda like Smoky Mountain as far as surface. When it gets slick, it’s pry one of the slickest places we go to. That made it fun in the car. You couldn’t just waylay around the top the whole time.
Like I said, hats off to the track crew. I was hoping I was going to swallow my words and I feel like I’m going to have to. Like I said, good job to all them.
Got to thank everyone at Hoker Trucking, Certified Inspection Service, Cornett, Coltman Farms, Knight’s Company, Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Bilstein Shocks, Longhorn, my boys. My little girl told me I got to get a new orange kitty if I won. So I guess she’s got a new kitty coming. Say hey to everyone back home: my wife, my kids. I know my mom, and dad, and everybody are watching. Ultra Shield Seats, Sharp Advantage, FK Rod Ends, Dynamic Drivelines. There’s so many great people that help us up and down the road. I know I forget a lot of them every week, but without them we wouldn’t be up here.”
Brandon Sheppard — Finished 2nd: “It sounds so sweet, honestly. Hasn’t sunk in yet, for sure. Man, I just can’t thank Mark Richards and Steve Bake enough for taking a chance on me all them years ago and really doing the same thing my dad and grandpa did, sacrificing a lot of time and money and getting me the experience I need. So thanks to my dad and my grandpa for that also. I wouldn’t be standing here without them guys. Mark and Steve have been like second family to me over the years and I appreciate them. And my few years hiatus that I took and really learned a lot of life lessons while I was gone. And for them to take me back with open arms, it shows how good of a people they are. So I appreciate them more than they know that’s for sure.
My beautiful wife and kids I appreciate their support. Without a good support system out on the road all the time like all these teams are it makes it tough, for sure. So just thankful for her and all my family back home that supports me. I know there’s a bunch of people back around the house watching right now. So shout out to all you guys, appreciate it.
A ton of great sponsors on this thing that make it all happen. Each and every one of them have pretty much—. Pretty much every one of them have been with us since 2017. A lot of them have been with us since 2012 with my first stint with Mark. Super thankful for everybody on this car: Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works, Gunter’s Honey, Stiles Marine & Maintenance, Performance Grading. Gary, appreciate him. He’s here with us this weekend. Really cool to have him here. Franklin Enterprises, Collins Brothers Towing, Petroff Towing. Petroff was one of the ones that helped get me in this ride back in the day. Appreciate him and all he does for us.
Like I said, the whole team, man. Dan, Austin, Joel. Them guys worked their tails off night in and night out. Let me go home, be with my family during the week, and they get to go back to their families at the race shop and work on stuff. They allow me to do that. They’re hard working. That effort doesn’t go unnoticed by me that’s for sure. Obviously, they’re the best team out there, in my opinion, always have been. They’re just so good. Appreciate everything they do.
Like I said, all my great people that support me back home. I appreciate them. Jeff and Lucas back at my shop. My dad and my grandpa. Love them guys so much. They got me started in racing all them years ago. There was times when I know that they were thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know why that we’re doing this.’ Hopefully, they’re sitting at home thinking it paid off. My dad’s actually racing Lincoln Speedway tonight in Illinois. Hopefully, he did good. He ran sixth last night. Hoping for a couple spots better tonight. He’s still having fun and his business is doing really well. I’m super proud of him and my grandpa and what they’ve built out there. Just thankful that they let me come play.
Consistency is key to winning a championship. We had a really fast car a lot of nights. And a lot of nights I felt like we were capable of winning races and we did win quite a few races this year. Super proud of my team and the races we did win and the consistency we showed even through Speedweeks. We came through Speedweeks 7th or 8th in points, but it didn’t show really how good we were in Speedweeks. We had two flat tires at Ocala in points races running in the top three or four either way. And then we didn’t have a great Golden Isles and we come out of Speedweeks in 7th or 8th in points.
The guys just put their heads down and we started grinded. You got to do it all year long and we really battled back from a big deficit and was able to just stay consistent and not have very many misfortunes that put us behind. There was a few nights that really could’ve costed us. We broke at Wheatland running in the top four and we ended up still being able to finish the race where we broke at. It was about another couple laps from being catastrophic, and that’s a DNF, and I lose this championship.
It’s a testament to how good my guys are and how good this team is. Mark and, like I said, Dan, Austin, and Joel and just everybody back at the Rocket shop building a great—. These Rocket XR2s are awesome. It shows Josh has been really good. Dan’s been really good. Terbo’s been really good. There’s just a lot of fast XR2s out there right now and I’m just proud of Mark and Steve and everything they’ve built and continue to do.”
Devin Moran — Finished 3rd: “I was in a really, really good mood until a debris caution with 11 to go. I really felt like I was sizing up Ricky and thought I would have had a chance to get him. I felt like I was a little bit better than him, but just caution after caution was killing me. I needed them long runs. Decent night just a real bummer to lose the BRS Championship and the national championship. Just a valiant effort by all my guys just wish I could’ve got it for them.
Definitely looking forward to Speedweeks with speed like this. I know we need a couple months off. It was a great way to finish the season with podium after podium after podium. Wish we were on that step instead of the bottom one.
Huge shoutout to Roger Sellers and Double Down Motorsports: Robbie, Casey, and Conner back at home. They do a lot for us that they don’t have to. So I can’t thank them enough. The Dear Lord above. My amazing crew, my beautiful wife.
All these great sponsors: Millwood Plumbing, C&W Trucking, CarSourceAuto.com, Big River Steel, just so many people that do so much for me. Yeah, we’ll try again next year.”
Dan Ebert — Finished 6th: “Good rebound from the last couple three weeks, four weeks. Kinda showcased our speed or at least where we are. Parts of that race I was really good. I was actually kinda of on offense and then some of the race I was defense. All-in-all really happy with how it all worked out. It was a great race. Great way to end the year. Hats off to all my sponsors and team: Ben, Hunter, Ashley, Shelby, everybody’s working hard. James for the opportunity. Mike Jordet … Just everybody. It’s pretty awesome.”
Hudson O’Neal — Finished 8th: “Absolutely gut wrenching! A mud clot cost us $100,000! I don’t really have the words All I know is our SSI Motorsports 71 machine was fast this weekend! We put ourselves in position and just didn’t get it done! To our fans, we apologize that we didn’t get that one for you guys! All we know is the sun will rise tomorrow and we will move on to the next one!
On another note, Tessa, River, and I are loaded up and headed to Charlotte to test the 6 car in preparation for the world finals! We will see everyone next week at Bullsgap!”
Josh Rice — Finished 10th: “Thanks to O’Reilly’s for putting up the $20k for Rookie of the Year. We ended up with $105k in points money so that’s pretty cool. One of my guys nailed it. They said, ‘This is the ugliest top 10 I’ve ever seen.’ I wasn’t very good. Max got by me and I knew I was in contention with him. There was one point where he was 6 or 7 cars in front, and then I got back past him, and then I was 10 behind him. I got lucky with a caution. I missed the bottom down here and six or seven got by me and luckily the caution got out and I got back behind him and got lucky. I’m glad we got it done though. That’s pretty cool. I wanted that bad. Just makes up for a little bit of just how bad a year we had at the beginning and everything else.
Can’t thank all my guys enough for sticking with it this weekend. I lost the spoiler with like four or five to go. I got it in the catch fence over there and was just lucky enough to hold on.”
Chris Ferguson — Finished 12th: “Ran around 6th-10th the whole race. Gave it my all every lap, just didn’t have enough. Slipped back at the end with not much tread left on the tires. We’re getting really close in these big races, just got to keep working on little things against the best. God be the glory, thanks to my beautiful wife, my awesome family, my hard working crew, loyal sponsors, and the best fans in the world.
My dad gives me a car that competes with the best drivers and car owners in the world. It is truly amazing that we are able to compete with these guys. Feels good to be back competing and showing people we are a great team.”
Benji Hicks — Finished 22nd: “The final night of the 46th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series DTWC at West Virginia Motor Speedway was nothing short of a roller coaster. We rolled off P3 and held onto 2nd until we had to spin to avoid contact, sending us to the back of the pack. We battled our way back to P3, but unfortunately came up just short of a transferred spot.
We started on the pole of the non-qualifier and never looked back, bringing home the 𝐖𝐈𝐍! That gave us a choice… take home $500 or start at the tail of the 100-lap, $100,000-to-win feature. Of course we chose to 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄!
Starting 28th and raced our way up to 6th against some of the best in the business! We were having one heck of a run until a left rear flat on lap 90 of 100 forced us to pit. We got the tire changed, rejoined at the tail of the field, and finished out the race in P21.
We had the speed. We had the car. We just didn’t have the luck when it mattered most. It’s hard not to think about what could have been, but going from 28th to 6th in a field like that is something to be proud of. That’s racing. Sometimes it breaks your heart, but it always keeps you coming back for more.
Thank you to everyone that keeps us going! Double Nickel Race Cars by: BHR Fabrication, Coltman Farms Racing, FK Rod Ends, XS Power Batteries, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse, Keizer Racing Wheels, Driveshaft Shop, VP Racing Fuels, Keyser Manufacturing, STAKT Products, Precision Suspension Racing P1, Eibach, Dirtwrap, Performance Bodies, Smokin Aces Performance.
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