Ricky Thornton Jr. had a solid performance during this past weekend’s 37th annual Pittsburgher races, but he performed worse than Devin Moran and allowed him to snatch the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship lead.
Thornton had an 80 point advantage going into the Pittsburgher and looked like he was going to marginally extend with it a win on Friday night, but just before halfway in the 30-lap feature, he suffered a right rear flat tire coming out of turn 2. He would draw a caution and had to go to the hot pit to replace the tire. He started from the rear of the field and was able to salvage a 9th place finish. His 80-point lead had evaporated to just 5 points heading into Saturday.
On Saturday, Thornton ran a respectable race and was second for much of the race behind a dominant Jonathan Davenport. However, a couple of late race cautions hurt Thornton and he ended up settling for fourth behind Max Blair and Devin Moran. With Moran posting top time in his qualifying group he was able to take the lead and give himself a 15-point advantage heading into The Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway two weeks from now.
Thornton spoke to DirtonDirt.com about what he was missing at the Pittsburgher that would have allowed him to compete with Davenport on Saturday night. First, Thornton broke down how he fell to fourth during the final two restarts on Saturday night, “The one with 12 to go, when I was next to Max, I knew he was going to get a good start. I let him go down the front straightaway because he was going to go back to the bottom. I didn’t want to put myself in a bad spot. I was able to stay third after that. Then Devin slid me, and I was able to get back by him, and got a way a little bit.”
On the final restart with 7 laps to go, Moran was able to get by him. He explained, “We had that last yellow, and I just didn’t do a good enough job getting myself clear and getting myself a gap. I almost ran up to Max a little bit too much in three and four, so I hung real bad. That let Devin slide me. I probably could’ve slid him back in three and four, but I was probably going to wreck him. So I did the smart thing and made sure I left him a lane. He drove back around me. I don’t know, I feel like we had a good car. Just needed to be a little better.”
As for what he needed to be better, he explained, “I almost steered too good all weekend. Last year, that’s where I really struggled here; I just couldn’t steer enough.”
He added, “It’s the fine line between being able to steer, not steer, and have traction. Like I said, last year here I couldn’t steer like I needed to, especially once it got really slick, where tonight I could steer wherever I wanted to and didn’t have the traction I needed. It’s a fine line, like I said. We’ve been battling it all weekend.”
The Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway begins on October 17th and the champion will be crowned on October 18th.
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