With silly season in full swing and rumors flying about Jonathan Davenport switching to the World of Outlaws, Ricky Thornton Jr. affirmed his commitment to compete with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in 2026.
Thornton announced his commitment back in December while attending the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis. He told FloRacing’s Kyle McFadden, “We were talking to Ray and a couple of guys. I think we’re going to go Southern All Stars. No, I’m just kidding. No, we’re going to do Lucas again. We’re going to do all the Flo stuff again. Hit as much World of Outlaws shows and different shows. Outside of that, obviously, [Jeff] Hoker, he’s promoting a bunch around Iowa. So we’re going to try to hit all of those.”
What’s @RThornton20rt think of Flo taking ownership of the Lucas Oil Late Model tour?
Touches on having Anthony Burroughs back at crew chief and how he has an offer to test an off-road truck 🤔 pic.twitter.com/gwI8Mj8E1n
— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) December 12, 2025
He affirmed that commitment in a comment on Facebook earlier today when asked by Dalton Farris, “Staying Lucas?” Thornton responded, “Yeah, we will race with Lucas Oil.”
This was reiterated when Dean Shinn also asked, “Are you staying with Lucas….
” RTJ replied, “Yes.”
Additionally, Thornton addressed the rumors that Davenport will run the Outlaws instead of Lucas saying, “I understand the appeal of doing something different since he’s ran Lucas for so long.”
Thornton has been a dominant force if not the dominant force on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series the past few years with both SSI Motorsports and Koehler Motorsports. He had an absolutely dominant year with 23 wins, 41 top 5s, and 42 top 10s in 52 features. But unfortunately finished third in the championship due to the winner take all championship format the series introduced at Eldora in the final race of the season.
In 2024, Thornton found redemption winning the championship in the series’ new chase format. He had 12 wins, 31 top 5s, and 38 top 10s in 43 features. This past year Thornton finished second behind Devin Moran. He had 14 wins, 34 top 5s, and 38 top 10s.
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