Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport put on an exciting show at Port Royal as they dueled for the lead with about 10 laps left in the 40 lap feature.

Thornton started on the pole and quickly jumped to the lead around Brandon Sheppard. Meanwhile Davenport started a row behind him in third, but was able to work his way into second past Sheppard after 10 laps. Just five laps later and Davenport had tracked Thornton down, who got stuck behind Donald McIntosh and Matt Cochran who were running side by side. However, Thornton made an aggressive move coming out of turn 4 and split both of them and put them in between himself and Davenport. It would give Thornton a little bit of breathing room, but Davenport would mimic his move just a lap later and begin to close the gap.

With 12 to go, Davenport was back on Thornton’s spoiler. Davenport would eventually get to the inside of Thornton coming off of turn 2 and down the backstretch after Thornton slid up the track. He would complete the pass going into turn 3 and it looked like Davenport might cruise the rest of the way for the lead. But Ricky Thornton Jr. was not done. He sent it into turns 1 and 2 and ripped it around the top and got a monster run down the back straightaway. He dove to the inside down the back stretch and then slid Davenport through three and four to reclaim the lead. Thornton would then remain committed to the top of the track and never looked back taking home the win.

In his podium interview with FloRacing’s Dustin Jarrett, Davenport explained how it all went down, “[Ricky Thornton] just done a good job there. I just kept inching up on him and inching up on him there on the bottom. I tried the top a couple times in one and two, but you really had to commit all the way up there and I kept trying to go up there and get a little momentum and pull off of it, but it just wasn’t as good. So then I really just started running the bottom and trying to slow up more and more. It seemed to work for us. We run him back down there and got by him and that just made him go to searching too and he just committed to the top through 1 and 2, was really good there, got a big run down the back straightaway and slid me getting into three. He just done a good job. It’s plain and simple.”

As for Thornton, he told Jarrett, “All the lap cars in front of me were running around the bottom. I was just trying to inch out through the middle and I felt really good and then I was starting to get free off. I knew JD was going to be coming and I heard him then I heard him and then he got next to me and drove by me and slid me into three. And I’m like, ‘If I want to shot to win this I’m gonna have to pass him right back.’ So I got a good run, was able to cross him. And I don’t know how bad he had to slow down for me getting into three three. Luckily, we didn’t make contact or anything like that. After that I’, like, ‘Man, I just need to get up top and just start banging the boards and hope I can drive away and he don’t get back to me.'”

“With about 4 to go, I hit the wall right at the Sage sign in turn 2. Got the right front in the wall. I’m like, ‘Man, if I pop a right front here, it’s really going to be bad getting into 3. But overall it worked out for us. I love coming to this place. It’s so slick and so technical it makes it really fun,” he added.

With the win, Thornton has narrowed Davenport’s point lead. He is now 35 points Davenport.

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