Ricky Thornton Jr. had a solid night going with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Mansfield after winning the previous night at Wayne County Speedway, but unfortunately rough track conditions and debris spoiled his chances of going back-to-back.

Thornton qualified fourth in Group B. That had him start second in Heat 4. He was able to work his way past Nick Hoffman and win the heat. He then drew the one pill in the redraw and started on the pole for the feature.

The pole ended up being a disadvantage as he started on the inside of Tyler Erb, who was in the preferred position on the outside. Terbo was able to get around Thornton on the first lap and fully clear him on the second lap on the exit of turn 2. He then found himself in the clutches of Brandon Overton who was able to work past him as they began lap four.

A few laps later and he faced a challenge from Ethan Dotson for the third position, but was able to hold him off. And Dotson would find himself the prey of Bobby Pierce. On lap 14, Thornton’s car transformed into a bucking bronco through turns 1 and 2 and he did a whale of a job at holding on to it, but lost the third position to Pierce. On the next lap, Nick Hoffman was able to work his way by him putting Thornton back to fifth. 

On lap 18 a caution came out for debris and on the ensuing restart, Thornton dropped back to 9th. A lap later and another caution came out for Tristan Chamberlain. During that caution, Thornton pulled into the pit and ended his night. It was reported by DirtVision’s Rich Vleck that Thornton ran over debris and cut his right rear tire.

On Facebook, Thornton confirmed he suffered a flat tire. He wrote, “Started on the pole & bounced (literally) back to 5th before we had a flat & just decided to call it a night.”

“Strong start to the night, gotta work on getting through the rough a little bit better tomorrow,” he concluded. “See y’all then!”

Thornton ended up finishing in 20th ahead of a number of other drivers who had already pulled off the track seemingly due to the rough conditions including Chris Ferguson, Dale McDowell, Dustin Sorensen, Dallon Murty, Kyle Moore, and Max Blair.

Terbo Tyler Erb was able to hold off a very fast Brandon Overton to get the biggest win of his career with the Niss Family donating an extra $88,000 to bump the winner’s purse to $100,000 for the night. Bobby Pierce rounded out the podium in third.

As Thornton noted he will be back in action tonight at Mansfield for the 75-lap Blaster 57 Special finale that has 57,000 to-win on the line, but will also pay $5,700 just to start the feature. 

NEXT: Tyler Erb Cashes In For $100,000 In 57 Special Opener At Mansfield