Here is what drivers had to say following Friday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Eldora Speedway for night 1 of the Clash at the Wabash:
Ricky Thornton Jr. — Winner: “Really I didn’t think I was going to get to him. I knew he was running across like the middle/bottom. I was like, ‘Man, the only way if I am able to get to him I got to move up and just try to carry speed and momentum.’ And it was kinda weird there wasn’t a curb out there, but you could roll straight and it was smooth enough where you could just carry speed.
Obviously, the right side’s all beat up. I got into Madden down there in 3. He got in like he was going to slide out to the middle and then he started coming back down and I was already full committed at that point. We hit pretty good there. Definitely didn’t want that to happen.
But our car was really good all night. Just trying a few, small, little things just trying to get better and better. And I feel like we’ve gotten better here. Pry the fastest early in the night I’ve been pry the last two years. I feel like that’s a little bit better. Still think we can be a little bit better come feature time. It’s pry the most different I’ve ever been in a feature here and really I think I was pry the best I’ve ever been around the bottom early. Definitely some stuff to learn.
I got to big shout out to my boys, everyone at Koehler Motorsports working hard. Capital Waste, Elite Ready Mix, Knights Companies, Hoker Trucking, Coltman Farms, Bilstein Shocks, these things were really good all night. Hopefully, we can be good tomorrow. Got to thank VMG, Sunoco, FK Rod Ends, Dynamic Drivelines. There’s so many great people. My wife at home, I wish her and my kids were here. Hopefully Blayne is still awake to at least witness that one. He told me before the feature, ‘Dad, don’t worry about it. Garrett’s going to win this one.’ He didn’t have any faith in me apparently. At least now I can kinda stab him in the stomach a little bit.
Honestly, that’s what I love about the short races here. There is no riding around. Not that I don’t like the 100 lappers, but really you wait to the last 50 to start racing and I feel like the 40/50 lappers here are—. I guarantee tomorrow is going to be just as exciting. You got to go from lap 1. And like you said I got to watch the four cars in front of me run four-wide for I feel like for like 12-15 laps. That part was pretty cool. Obviously, when we got to traffic you had to move around.
And hats off to the whole track crew. It was as smooth as can be. And like I said you can run across the top, you can run across the middle, the bottom do whatever you needed to. If you were a little better than the guy in front of you, you could move around. So there’s definitely no excuses this week.”
Brandon Sheppard — Finished 2nd: “We were kinda running off that brown a little bit. And late in the race there it got real shiny. Them two lap cars in front of me were swinging out so wide that I didn’t think I could get a good run in on the top. Obviously, I just needed to Hail Mary it and go ’cause Ricky did that and got around me there. Good job to him. We always race really hard and clean together so that was fun.
But I definitely felt like I gave that one up in lap traffic there. We were a little bit different on tires than these other two guys in the top three. I don’t know if I got to where I couldn’t steer a little bit at the end, but I don’t think that was anything. If I would have got to the top I think it would’ve been at least a little bit harder for him anyway.
I just got to thank all of our sponsors on this thing. All the fans for coming out. Appreciate you guys. It was another great night. Hopefully, we can get one spot better tomorrow.
We’re here to win at the end of the day. The championship’s going to be what it’s going to be at the end of the day. I’m hanging my head on that one a little bit ’cause we wanted to win that one, for sure. All-in-all we had a really great race car all night long. Good balance. Mark, Dan, Austin, Joel gave me a great piece all night again tonight. So thanks to them and thanks to Rocket Chassis and all of our great sponsors that support us.”
Devin Moran — Finished 3rd: “Honestly, I really didn’t want to see the last yellow because I knew Brandon was on a little bit different tire than us. We were way back and both reeled him, me and Ricky both. All-in-all for how fast the track was, it was so hard to pass until about the last 15 to 20 laps. It wasn’t near as rough as it was for the World so they did good on that, but I’m sure with cold air and everything else it just made it a little faster than expected.
Not a horrible night for us. We’re still within reason. I think we caught a little bit on Hud, but definitely lost a little on Shepp. We’re going to keep on working on it. This Double Down Motorsports Longhorn has been really good the first two nights out so we’ll just keep going with it.
The biggest thing is just to start up front. Starting 11th is brutal in a track condition like that. We just got to find a little bit in qualifying. I haven’t been very good qualifying here the last couple years. So if we can find a little bit in qualifying and then win that heat race and start in the top six, I think that’s going to be the biggest thing.”
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is back in action for night two of the Clash at the Wabash at Eldora Speedway tomorrow night. They will race 50 laps for $50,000 to-win.
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