Cody Overton issued an apology to Ricky Thornton Jr. after he roughed up Ricky Thornton Jr. during the DIRTcar Nationals feature on Tuesday night.

Following a restart on lap 9 Ricky Thornton Jr. was able to get around Cody Overton through turns 1 and 2 and cleared him down the back stretch. However, Overton was able to get back underneath coming out of turn 4 on lap 10. Heading through turn 1 and coming out of turn 2 Overton moved up the track and right into Thornton. His right rear made contact with Thornton’s left front. The two then appeared to get caught together for a brief moment before they eventually got separated.

Overton was able to drive away from the contact while Thornton lost wholesale ground falling to sixth place before he was able to get his momentum back.

Overton spoke with FloRacing’s Kevin Kovac following the race. He told him, “I mean, we’re racing in the rubber — my bad.”

He added, “Man, that’s bad. I’m sorry. Just tell him I’m sorry. I don’t like no confrontation.”

As for his assessment of the incident, Overton shared, “I didn’t even know I hit him that bad. I didn’t feel like it hit that hard. I guess I’m losing feeling now.”

“Well, the rubber was right there, like right in the middle, so I was just making sure I got in it and took off. But I guess I misjudged it on my own. And then he came in there and he got to me and I’m like ‘Oh [expletive]!'”

Overton went on to finish second while Thornton finished in sixth as the entire field turned into a choo-choo train with the track rubbering up. Something that Thornton was none too pleased about telling Kovac, “Hopefully tomorrow they actually do something and we have a track to race on. Tonight it was rubber in the heat race, rubber in the feature.”

Overton’s second place finish has him atop the leader board in the Big Gator standings. He has a 15 point advantage over last night’s winner Hudson O’Neal.

Devin Moran, Brandon Overton, Ryan Gustin, Nick Hoffman, Tim McCreadie, Brandon Sheppard, Max Blair, and Bobby Pierce round out the top 10 in the standings.

NEXT: Jonathan Davenport Reveals His Plans For Speedweeks