Ricky Thornton Jr.’s team shared a number of changes they made to improve the car not just from Wednesday night where they chose to not start a B-Main, but also after qualifying to get a fifth place finish in Thursday night’s Dirt Late Model Dream preliminary.

The team posted on Facebook, “What a night 😅 Qualified like crap because the motor wouldn’t run right.”

“Our guys had already changed everything electrical in this car to find a miss so they decided they needed to change the fuel cell, fuel pump, and fuel lines between qualifying & the heat- no small task,” the team added. “No way we would’ve been able to get that changed without the help of Justin Duty and his family, Ryan Gustin , and Max Blair and his crew- thank you all so much!!”

The changes worked, “That fixed the issue & we went 9th to 3rd in the heat- but points from qualifying put us starting 20th in the main. Ended up going 20th to 5th hussling around this place 🤘🏼”

Despite the struggles on Wednesday night that saw him sit out his B-Main, Thornton shared with FloRacing ahead of qualifying that he was confident his team would figure it out. First, he shared why he likes the split format and only having to race one preliminary night, ” “I actually like running just the one night. I feel like the guys that got a million guys behind them once you’ve got multiple nights then it’s easier for them to get that much further ahead come Saturday.”

He then shared why he likes racing Thursday over Friday, “We like doing the first night that way if I do do something dumb and put it in the fence gives us an extra day to work on it.”

Finally, he shared how confident he was in his team, “I mean overall I think just have a really solid night tonight and kinda wait and see what the Wheel of Misfortune does come Saturday. I feel like Dream last year, we finished 8th, but I think we were good enough to run 2nd. We had a right front shock problem with like 20 to go that really cost us a bunch of spots late, but we were good there. Like you said we’re good at the World so hopefully we make all the right moves. It looks like the track is a little wetter today than it was yesterday so I’m sure that’s going to be a little bit different. But overall I know we got a really good team behind us and just looking forward to the rest of the night.”

With Eldora Speedway’s Every Lap Matters™ point systems, Thornton is currently sitting in 11th, which should set him up for a solid heat race starting position come Saturday depending on how the Wheel of Misfortune spin turns out.

NEXT: Bobby Pierce Starts Quest For Maiden Dirt Late Model Dream Triumph With Thursday Prelim Win