Ricky Thornton Jr. appeared to be off to a good start at Eldora Speedway for the FloRacing Night in America event, but it ended early as he did not start his B-Main.

Thornton qualified fourth in Group B, which set him up for a second place starting position in Heat 4. However, he quickly dropped a number of spots on the start and ended up finishing in 6th.

He was set to come out and start sixth in the second B-Main, but instead chose to not start.

His team explained why in a post to Facebook, “You know when Kenny Rogers said you gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.. tonight we had to fold ‘em. Some nights this year our driver has just felt really struggled to get comfortable. It’s not a result that we want for ourselves, for our partners, or for our fans.”

“Our crew has worked tirelessly to find what we are missing. Driver spent all day today going through the car himself. There’s no blame to be placed, we just have to get better- and we will,” the team added. “See y’all tomorrow night.”

Thornton was not the only driver to not start in the B-Mains. In the first B-Main, Tim Lance, Jeff Roth, and Ethan Dotson did not start. David Watts and Dillon McCowan did not start in the second B-Main with Thornton. In the third B-Main, it was Brody Smith who did not start.

Thornton will be back in action tomorrow night for the first night of preliminary action for the 32nd Annual Dirt Late Model Dream. The format of the event sees the field split into two different qualifying nights. The track explains, “Each driver will compete in one preliminary night program – Thursday or Friday. Drivers may request a particular night, but officials cannot guarantee all requests get fulfilled. Ultimately, Thursday and Friday fields will be competitively balanced for the good of both competitors and fans.”

The qualifying order for these nights will be based on a random draw. Drivers will then take on hot laps and qualifying. The heat races are different from your typical standard program in that they will be inverted. After the heats there will be B-Features and then the 50-Lap $30,000 to-win A-Feature.

On Saturday, there will be six heat races that are seeded through the track’s Every Lap Matters points system that is based on the preliminary nights and then inverted based on the spin of the track’s Wheel of Misfortune. There will then be two B-Features and finally the Dirt Late Model Dream.

The Every Lap Matters points system awards drivers points based on how they qualify, where they finish in the heat races, and how they finish in the feature. Points are also awarded to the first 10 cars that do not qualify for the feature. Here’s how the point system breaks down: 

Multi-Car Qualifying: the field will be split into two flights for Multi-Car Qualifying (Flight 1 & 2). Each flight earns points separately for their results – 1st) 100; 2nd) 98; 3rd) 96; 4th) 94; 5th) 92; 6th) 90; 7th) 88; 8th) 86; 9th) 84; 10th) 82; and balance of field decreases by 2 points per position.

Heat Races: 1st) 100; 2nd) 97; 3rd) 94; 4th) 91; 5th) 88; 6th) 85; 7th) 82; 8th) 79; 9th) 76; 10th) 73; 11th) 70; 12th) 67; 13th) 64; 14th) 61; 15th) 58; 16th) 55; 17th) 52; 18th) 49; 19th) 46; 20th) 43

Last Chance Showdowns: first 10 cars not advancing from any LCS) 222; 219; 216; 213; 210; 207; 204; 201; 198; 195 and balance of field decreases by 3 points per position.

A-Features: 1st) 300; 2nd) 297; 3rd) 294; 4th) 291; 5th) 288; 6th) 285; 7th) 282; 8th) 279; 9th) 276; 10th) 273; 11th) 270; 12th) 267; 13th) 264; 14th) 261; 15th) 258; 16th) 255; 17th) 252; 18th) 249; 19th) 246; 20th) 243; 21st) 240; 22nd) 237; 23rd) 234; 24th) 231; 25th)228; and 26th)225

There are currently 87 drivers, teams, and their cars registered to fulfill their dream this weekend at Eldora Speedway.

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