Ricky Thornton Jr. announced he would follow the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series ahead of this weekend’s races at Atomic and Brownstown and recently explained why he decided to go with Lucas Oil instead of the World of Outlaws.
Thornton and his team announced his decision on Facebook writing, “The Koehler Motorsports boys are in the truck, headed to Atomic Speedway and Brownstown Speedway for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races this weekend to try and defend our 2024 championship!”
After arriving at Atomic yesterday, Thornton spoke with FloRacing’s Kyle McFadden about why he chose to go with Lucas Oil over the Outlaws. First, he shared how tough the decision was, “We were leaning both ways and were weighing out the options. Both pay really well. Both have big races. The hard part for me is figuring out what’s going to be the best later in the year, and stuff like that. It was a decision we made this week. We were up in the air.”
As for what influenced his decision, Thornton shared it came down to an inexperienced crew and having to rely on his Lucas Oil notebook. Thornton lost his crew chief Nathan Sletto following the Georgia-Florida Speedweeks who returned to his home in Minnesota. He’s currently operating without a crew chief, but does have assistance from mechanic Zach Fields and tire specialist Skylar Cooper. This weekend he’s also receiving support from Seth Hunter, a University of Northwestern Ohio student.
Thornton explained, “A lot of it comes down to not having the guys who have been on the road enough and knows all these racetracks, and stuff like that. For me, being the driver-crew chief-setup role, this makes more sense to stay Lucas. I’ve been to a lot of these places I struggle at. But there’s also a lot of places I’m good at.”
“Figured it’d be the best route for us right now. You never know, at some point in the future we might do something different. As of now, we’re what, 15 points out of the point lead? We’re not far out at all. Heck, I was talking with someone, and any of the top four win tonight, they’re the point leader,” he added.
Thornton took home the win a very exciting 50-lap feature at Atomic where he fended off a hard-charging Josh Rice with some excellent maneuvering through lap traffic. Lady Fortune also blessed him as Jonathan Davenport, who was the point leader heading into the night, fell victim to a lap car while running second. He spun out and was sent to the back after the caution flew. He did manage to salvage a 10th place finish.
With Thornton’s win, he now holds a 30 point lead over Devin Moran, who finished third, and a 55 point lead over Davenport. Thornton and the rest of the Lucas Oil series heads to Brownstown tonight with coverage beginning at 5 PM EDT on FloRacing.