Ricky Thornton Jr. promised some payback against Devin Moran after the two had a run-in during the Castrol FloRacing Night in America at Brownstown last week.
During the feature race, a little over halfway through, Devin Moran had tracked down Ricky Thornton Jr. and the two began battling for the fifth position as eventual race winner Hudson O’Neal began checking out from the field.
Moran closed the gap when Thornton Jr. got caught up in the cushion exiting Turn 2 and allowed him to dive under Thornton and slide him coming out of Turn 4. Thornton responded by diving underneath and running through the middle of Turns 1 and 2. As he came out of Turn 2, Moran made contact with Thornton’s rear and sent him spinning around.
Ricky Thornton goes around off the nose of Devin Moran from pic.twitter.com/Wq6DWMfbSE
— John Trent Racing (@JFTrentRacing) September 30, 2024
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While under caution, Thornton made it clear he was not happy about the way Moran raced him and eventually spun him, blocking his path in the exit of Turn 2. He then gave Moran a little bit of a dirt and confetti shower.
👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/oyv8bW0Ztm
— 🇺🇸Racin jason 🇺🇸🏁”The_Red_Clay_Rebel”🏁🏁🇺🇸 (@ThonuesJason1) September 26, 2024
In response to a user on X claiming that he was “crying like always” and that he “thinks he gets the whole track and can throw s**t sliders and everyone bows to him,” Thornton wrote, “Didnt even slide him. Was literally in the middle of the track.”
He then declared, “It’s all fair game tho. turn before he slid me and I lifted drove under him, could have easily wrecked him, Next time that’s what’ll happen tho.”
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With the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series postponing their races at Brownstown and canceling at Atomic due to Hurricane Helene, it is likely the next race that will see Thornton Jr. face off against Moran will be the doubleheader at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway for the 36th Annual Pittsburgher that kicks off with a $10,000 to win A-Main on Friday night and a $50,000 to win feature on Saturday.
These two races have an added bonus of now being the first two races in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Big River Steel Chase for the Championship. Thornton won the regular season championship and received a $10,000 bonus while Moran finished in second and received a $2,000 bonus. The two alongside Jonathan Davenport and Tim McCreadie are chasing a $200,000 pay check to be the series 2024 Champion.
Following the Pittsburgher, there will be three races at East Bay Raceway Park with only the Grand Finale on October 12nd counting towards the Championship. The series is expected to wrap up at Eldora with a non-points preliminary night and the 44th Annual Dirt Track World Championship on October 19th.
However, the series did note that the races at Brownstown, which include the 3rd Annual CJ Rayburn Memorial and the 45th Annual Jackson 100 were not canceled, but merely postponed so those two races, if rescheduled, could also factor into the Championship chase.
What do you make of Thornton Jr.’s promise of payback against Moran?