Ricky Thornton Jr. and Chris Madden duked it out tonight in the Rumble by the River at Port Royal Speedway with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

Chris Madden dominated much of the race early on, but Ricky Thornton Jr. was eventually able to make his way to the front following a restart with 31 laps to go in the 50 lap feature. Thornton took advantage of starting on the low side and was able to work his way around Devin Moran through turns 1 and 2. He then set his sights on Madden and hounded him for a couple laps before he eventually worked his way around him on the outside of 1 and 2 and motored past him down the back stretch with 27 laps to go. Thornton would check out, but his lead would be erased when Wil Herrington drew a caution after suffering a right rear flat.

On the ensuing restart, Thornton was able to hold off Madden, who chose not throw a slider through turns 1 and 2. However, Thornton was not able to pull away the way he did after passing Madden earlier in the race. Nevertheless, another caution would wave, this time for Daniel Hilsabeck, with 13 laps to that would reset the field again.

While Madden did not throw the slider on the previous restart, he did this time, and Thornton, who appeared to get on the binders still ran into the rear of him because he had such a huge run wound up on the top coming out of the corner. Madden would take the lead and Thornton would fall back to third behind Devin Moran.

A caution for Chris Ferguson would rerack the field again with 9 laps left. During the caution, Thornton made it clear he was not happy with Madden as he pulled his car up alongside him and jerked his car back and forth at him. Hand motions from both drivers were made.

On the restart, Thornton banged the cushion and was eventually able to get around Moran with 7 laps to go. He got another monster run off of turn 2 and down the back straightaway and dived underneath Moran and slid him through 3 and 4. With Moran behind him, he then went after Madden. On the next lap, he made the exact same move on Madden that he did on Moran. He got a huge run on the back straightaway and threw it into 3 and 4 and cleared Madden by inches. Madden attempted a crossover, but going into 1 and 2 he allowed Thornton to take the high line and as he did most of the night, he got a huge run and never looked back eventually taking home the checkered flag.

In victory lane, Thornton explained how it all went down to FloRacing’s Dustin Jarrett, “I was hoping I got back to him, honestly. It almost sounded like he was firing a little bit before I was so he could get a little bit of a run down the hill. First time he didn’t slide me and I’m like, ‘Oh, you know what. Maybe he’s not going to slide me.’ Next start, I felt like I got a pretty good start and then he slid me. The problem was it was wreck or get wrecked there. So got him in the right rear transferred to the left rear.”

“It’s probably a good thing Devin got by me there because I don’t know if I would have checked the throttle getting into turn 3. Luckily, we had a yellow, allowed me to cool off a bit,” he continued. “I was starting to run pretty hard against the wall, just sideways, just trying to do what I could to get by Devin. Really, at that point it wasn’t the right thing, the yellow came out. I knew Devin was going to run the wall for a couple laps, but he wouldn’t really commit up there. He would kind of get right rear close to it, but you almost had to be right front in the fence and then just hold on to the floor and pray you turned. So I was able to get by Devin. Slid him there in 3. He tried to almost like drive harder down the corner and I think that hurt him instead of him just slowing down and cross me like he did the time before. That got me to second.”

“And then after that I don’t think I ever checked the throttle getting in to turn 1. I just wanted to make sure I got back to him and really whenever I knew I was going to get to him, it was just put myself in the right position to make sure he couldn’t cross and beat me down into 1 and slide me again. That time he didn’t slide me. I was ready for it. I kind of entered, made sure if he did I was able to turn and execute off the bottom. And he didn’t slide all the way across. I stayed in the throttle, rode around the wall, and once I got out front I was just going to have to run it as hard as I could and pray another yellow didn’t come out. And worked out for us,” Thornton concluded.

As for Madden, he told Jarrett, “It was $50,000, you know. We had a good run right there on the restart and you know we drove into 1 there and I had him cleared in the middle of the corner. He could have turned left or hit the brake pedal whatever. He slid me down here in 3 and 4 and I left him-. I had to get on the brake pedal. But it is what it is. We had a great race there at the end. He got the job done. Done a good job.”

With the win Ricky Thornton Jr. reclaims the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points lead. He now holds a 10 points advantage over Jonathan Davenport, who finished in fifth. Devin Moran, who finished third, reclaimed the third spot in the points from Hudson O’Neal, who finished 10th.

NEXT: Jonathan Davenport Explains How Ricky Thornton Jr. Got Around Him To Win At Port Royal