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Ricky Thornton Jr. Addresses Naysayers And People Who Want His Crew Chief Anthony Burroughs Fired: “If I Could Slap Them Across The Face I Probably Would”

June 5, 2026  ·
  John Trent

Ricky Thornton Jr. addressed his naysayers and specifically individuals who want his crew chief Anthony Burroughs fired.

Thornton joined the FloRacing broadcast for Friday night preliminary action for the 32nd Annual Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway and ahead of the second B-Main of the night, Ben Shelton asked him, “We got all the experts tuned in, we got the naysayers, I’m just going to put you on the spot, the people that have said this year that Anthony Burroughs should not be your crew chief, I’m just going to tee it up and let you say whatever you want.”

 “If I could slap them across the face I probably would,” Thornton replied. “We’ve just been off a little bit this year. Nothing that we’re doing. Obviously, we want to win every race just like every other guy here. We got 80-something cars here and we all have the exact same goal. I feel like any time that we don’t win we’re going to hear about and if we do win we’re going to hear about it.”

Thornton went on to show how much confidence he has in Burroughs as his crew chief, “If I didn’t want to be with him-. I was the whole reason he’s here. Obviously, Bobby and Jessica Koehler do everything they can for me. I wanted him there and I wanted Tharp there. I think we haven’t been terrible we just haven’t had the luck that I’ve had the last few years. I feel like a lot of races we ran top 5 where previous years we were winning. Any time someone says something you just put it in the back of your mind and ignore it and keep going.”

Thornton also discussed how he’s had mechanical gremlins this year compared to last year and referenced last night’s issues where he had to replace a fuel cell, fuel pump, and fuel lines and that was after changing all the electrical components in the car. He said, “Weird stuff like that’s happening this year where I feel like we’ve never had that happen. Car wouldn’t run hot laps, qualifying. Qualified really bad, buried ourself. And then changed fuel cells, fuel lines all kinds of stuff and magically our car was back to 100%.”

Addressing conspiracies that he was sandbagging qualifying, Thornton said, “I feel like any time I try to sandbag it hurts me than it helps me.”

Thornton is 11th in points for the Dirt Late Model Dream after Thursday night with 450, which should set him up pretty well for the heat races depending on what the Wheel of Misfortune spin determines will be the invert for them.

He’s currently fifth in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points, 390 behind current leader Hudson O’Neal. In 21 features, he has two wins, 7 top 5s, and 14 Top 10s. His two wins came at Atomic Speedway at the end of March and at Circle City Raceway at the beginning of May. His most recent win came with the World Of Outlaws last week at Wayne County Speedway.

NEXT: Benji Hicks And His Double Nickel Team Show No Quit After Huge Wreck At Eldora Speedway

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Author: John Trent