Here is what drivers had to say following the opening night of the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with the World of Outlaws Late Models:

Ricky Thornton Jr. — Winner: “We had a really good car. We hurt ourself yesterday qualifying, didn’t qualify where I needed to be. Didn’t win my heat today so I knew it was going to be tough to start 12th and get to the lead. … You don’t know what’s going to happen. We just got a really good restart. I was able to turn under those guys into one and they all kind of slid, and I was able to drive straight. I feel like that was really a difference maker. Felt like if I got hung there, I’d pry’d have run third to fifth range. Worked out for us. Was able to get to Brandon [Overton] there and slide him. After that I was like, ‘I try to get as far out as I can. When I get to lap cars, those guys won’t be able to be on top of me and then make a move right away.’ It worked out for us. It’s nice to know we have a good car. Looking forward to tomorrow.

I had to [split the lap cars] though. I knew my pace slowed down. They were running two-wide. They didn’t really know where they wanted to be and there’s an opening getting into one. So, I’m like, ‘Well, if I can get at least by one of them and slide Strickler, he was on the outside.’ I’m like, ‘If I can slide him then at least that gives me a lane in 3 and 4.’ I was able to get a good enough run where I was able to clear both of them. You know you got to make tight moves like that. At the end of those deals, just like I said, whenever I got to them, I did slow down a ton. So I was able to get by that and then just kind of gauged my distance behind Dennis [Erb Jr.] after that. I didn’t want to get too close and get in his dirty air. So, I tried to keep about 10 car lengths. And moved around the last couple of laps. I wasn’t really sure where Overton was running. I figured most of the night he was running around the middle to the top. Moved up with a couple to go and felt like I got a little bit better, but the risk wasn’t really there. So I moved back down the last lap.

Just had a really good start. Like I said, my car was really good. Like if he went high, I could turn low. If he went low, I could go high. We’ve been working hard trying to get our stuff better and better and finally started to pay off.

We didn’t do nothing [during the red flag]. I take that back. We put a little bit of fuel in. That was all we did. Just shows how good our stuff was.”

Brandon Overton — Finished 2nd: “It kind of stings a little bit, but what do you do? I don’t even know what to say. We just didn’t put the right tires on pretty much. Our car was plenty of capable of winning, I think. And I feel like if it don’t win, we probably win unless I do something stupid. And I was trying my damndest not to do that. Yeah, [Ricky Thornton Jr.] puts twos and a three one. We had threes and a four. And I kind of looked around the pits when we got in and I seen a lot of the cars that was up there in the front putting hard tires on. So I was like, ‘[Crap], I don’t need to do nothing stupid. If they all put hard tires on, I need to put hard tires on. He just gambled on it and it worked.

I was just opening my entry up into 1 and I knew I was doing it, but, like I said, I was trying not to do anything stupid, just take care of my tires, leave the corner straight. And it kinda messes them up when you go in there, slide across the track. So I was just doing my best. I probably shouldn’t have been leaving the door open into 1 like that.

I said I was probably more nervous—. I told Mark [Richards], I said, ‘Dude, I don’t know why, but I’m so damn nervous.’ So anyway, nerves get me. I probably wasn’t doing the best job driving. When he seen me, I was ready for it the next couple times.

And then, like I said, it rains, and we come and get a little breather and I can kind of talk to the guys about if they’re catching me or what I’m doing wrong. 

It rained a little bit, but it never really even muddied the pits, but that little bit of water kind of got that bottom where it would go. So anyway, we just missed it on the tires.

Once I got going, I was okay, but I’m still driving like cautious. You know what I mean? And then when he passed me, that’s really when all the nerves went away. So then I was like, ‘[Shoot], I just go now.’ I really ran him back down a pretty good ways because he was out there. And then I just started spinning the tires around the cushion and I kind of caught back up. But I needed them lap cars to get him bottled up. If they would have got him, who knows what would have happened. 

Like I said, hats off to them. When it’s going your way, you just got to do what he did. He gambled and it worked out for him. Just ride the wave while you got it.

Like I said, we’re happy. We’re not down at all. What I got 50 laps in this thing. I was happy with it. Our car is plenty capable of winning. I just want to thank Billy Franklin for being a good buddy pretty much. There ain’t many people you can call and say, ‘Hey, come get my car. Just come take it. Come run it.’ Appreciate him. I appreciate Scott and Jason [Riggs] for letting me do it.

We’re just searching. We haven’t had a great year, and we can’t keep going the way we’re going. We got to try things or figure out what’s wrong. It might be me. That’s why we did it. I might suck. That’s the racing year, up and down. Like I said, things change and we’re just trying to—. Cost a lot of money to do it. You want to be competitive when you’re doing it and we’re just trying to do what’s best for us.

Me and Billy talk all the time and he’s always on my ass. He’s like, ‘Man, I’m telling you, you drive a Rocket. I’m telling you. I’m telling you.’ He’s told me this for two or three years. It’s like I said, what the hell did I have to use. We had a couple bad weekends there and was just down. I was like, ‘Hell with it. Let’s Just run it.’ It’s there. He’s going to let us use it so let’s just go drive and see what we got.

Even if we don’t touch anything, I feel like it’s really good. Tomorrow we start last in the heat so we kind of got to watch out. I can’t really get crazy because if we wreck it, I don’t have anything to fix it with. So like I said, we’re just going to be cautious tomorrow and we should have a pretty good start Saturday for our heat races. See what we got.”

Bobby Pierce — Finished 3rd: “Incredible, man. Just an awesome rebound from yesterday. Definitely the spark plug issue yesterday made the motor run good today since we found that. Made it better throughout the night. So coming form what would have been fifth in our heat race to second, we actually ended up restarting fourth and then starting third from the jump start. So got a lucky break in the heat race.

This feels like a win tonight. I hate coming here. I’m never that great although I did win a race here two years ago. I was good that year, but last year I struggled. Tonight, I was just wanting a good run, man. And third place is definitely awesome.

We made a few tweaks. The car was pretty good just we didn’t have a lot of time to change a bunch of stuff. Just made some tweaks to what we had, changed the tires, and went out there.

Whatever Ricky did, I think his tire choice kind of helped him get to the lead. And he fired on that restart—. I was actually almost wishing I was in his spot on the restart ’cause you can kind of get a better run down the hill. And I kinda of spun the tires so by the time we got to turn 1, I was more protecting the guy behind me. I saw Ricky shoot in there. He thought he was going to slide the whole field or something. He was on the gas. Next thing I know, I look up, he’s in the lead. They said he was like three tenths quicker here in practice night. There you go. 

We’re just happy to come home third and had a good race.”

Nick Hoffman — Finished 4th: “I don’t know if I’d call them good battles [with Chris Ferguson], but they were battles. I was just really frustrated with him. I’d get to the inside of him, he shoved me down into the infield tires. Then I’d pass him on the outside. Finally, he runs into my left side then he slides into 1 over my nose and parked me off of 2. So I was just so pissed at that point. Kind of got to the point where I ran way too hard for a couple laps there and had to recompose myself before I really killed my tires or crashed my [stuff]. 

I felt like we had a car that would have won the race. Brandon was out front circling and making speed and then we were just inching back to him there before we got the red flag. And I felt like at that point I had a really good car, but just trying to just fend off getting by Fergie at that point. Could never get clear of him.

Then we get that red, it rains, and the race track speeds up again. So it kind of tightens the group of everybody as far as speed wise. Ricky put softer tires on which ultimately ends up being the right choice. I didn’t want to do that. Just didn’t want to gamble. I  knew what my car balance was like with what I had.

The first set of tires I had early in the race weren’t balanced very good. They shook really bad. So I had a vibration the first 17 laps or whatever and I was just fine with it. It is what it is. So I was just, ‘Let’s just put another set on.’ And those tires didn’t have a vibration. So I fixed that.

The last 18 laps just didn’t go my way. And then Ricky just basically drives by all of us right on that restart, gets the lead, and then I finally get by Fergie and then by that time I’ve already got passed by Bobby. I was really frustrated. It’s just the way it goes. Would have, could have, should have. A couple things play out different I feel like I could have won. A lot of other guys are saying the same thing.

Maybe just run into [Ferguson] at that point. We were three wide, so I seen that he was right to his inside and it had me where I had to just bend my car just a little bit more to stay off of both of them and didn’t get down the back straightaway fast enough. Going back to it, there was a couple times where I had a good enough run, I should have just bailed off in there and just cleared myself, but I didn’t. Looking back it, it probably cost me at least one or two spots. It’s just the way it goes. 

I freed up a little bit ’cause I knew the track was going to be a little bit faster knowing the characteristics of what my car was doing. Before the red, I was starting to lay on the right rear a little bit. So I needed to prop my right rear back up and get myself where I could rotate just knowing the race track’s going to be fast. Felt like I made the right changes. I don’t know if anything else I would have changed or did anything different. 

Ended up fourth. it’s tough to hang your head on fourth, but I was just super frustrated with that. You don’t get these opportunities very often to feel that good and not get the job done. 

We were already starting to blister tires on that 17 lap run, at least I was. [Jonathan Davenport] didn’t yet, but we were running pretty hard at the beginning of the race. So I was pressing my stuff. 50 laps [on Saturday] definitely changes the ball game. This place tonight, which is great, it starts to become tire conservative again, which is good racing. Guys get out front. You see Ricky, flew to the lead right there on that restart and at the end of the race he was dying. And was able to obviously win the race, but his car was dying and coming back to us and we were all going to be be able to be there again. So it panned out for him, but the same deal at the end of the race on a 50-lapper, we’re all going to be on the same tire as long as we get a similar track condition. Those guys that went too hard in the beginning are going to fade at the end. So I love those type of races. It puts a little bit more strategy in the driver’s hands, and your tire guy, and everything. 

50 laps around here is a long time. Just depending on what we got. You could see some guys blow tires and stuff like that. It’s exciting.”

Chris Ferguson — Finished 5th: “Everyone came in and put tires on during the break and we just was way, way— .Car was a little different when we fired off. Kind of laid over. I wasn’t leaving 2 to save my life. And then it took about 10 laps. Then it fired back off the last couple laps. Nick and Bobby pulled away from me and then the last five, six laps we got back to him. I just wasn’t good on the restart as I needed to be. Honestly, I drove in there pretty hard, trying to see if I could do something with Brandon because caution before that I almost slid him and I was saying, ‘Oh well, let’s see if he makes a mistake here. I’ll be it.’ But then when I slid him or when I drove in that hard, I left the bottom wide open for Ricky or whoever it was. Nick at the time. And then me and Nick got to racing pretty hard.

He got into the cushion out of 4 and kind of got sideways, broadsided and came down. So then we raced into 1 pretty hard. And I probably should have cut him a little bit of slack, but cut him slack out of 4. So this time I’m going to try my best. He slide me and we crossed it, but then we did same thing in 1 and 2. It was going to be hard racing. It’s fun racing them guys. They’re the best. And honestly, me and my team were some of the best too. 

We’re really close to getting a big one here. We just got to get a little better. Not far off.

These guys are good. You usually can race all of them and not have to worry about crazy stuff happening. That was what was fun about it. Everybody’s aggressive, but no one’s going to run over each other. It was fun. We enjoyed it. Wish I’d have been on the other end of the deal, but top 5, World Finals, it’s been a couple of years. We were mid-pack last year and we’ve unloaded and put ourselves in position to win. So it’s all I can ask for, for a part-time team. All my guys got to get up and go to work tomorrow. Everyone else is going to get up and work on the race car. 

We definitely learned a little bit about some adjustment we made. It’s hard to say because I felt like we were coming back to them there at the very end. So long race, that’d be better, but we just got to get a little better on the restarts. Get the car balanced a little bit better. We’re in the hunt. That’s all you can ask for. I think if we don’t have the rain delay, we probably run second or maybe even contend for the win. We had three starts beside Nick and we beat him on every start. I feel like we were good enough—. Even though he was rolling beside me pretty good. He was going to be tough on the first. But I feel like we were holding him off. I feel like we were getting better the longer the run went so I would have loved that. I didn’t get a chance to Brandon, but it’s part of it. We’ll take a Top 5.

Just super thankful for all my crew for busting their butts this weekend for us. My guys at Victory Seats for holding down the booth and at the shop. We’ve got a lot of great customers here and a lot of great people. My wife, she worked so hard for all this. My entire family, Tadpole, all my sponsors, my fans. We wouldn’t be here without them and I’m just a lucky, blessed guy that gets to race holding the steering wheel.”

Trey Mills — Finished 6th: “We were pretty good early on in the race and then we came in under the red flag and made some small adjustments and put a new right rear on. We went with a 4. Ricky went with 2s and a 3, which is a bold move, but it ended up working out for him. So congrats to him.

But, yeah, we put a 4 on and kind of just rode. I think I restarted 8th. Rode in 8th for awhile and then finally decided everybody was on the bottom so I just went to the top and made pretty good speed up there and managed to pass a couple cars and got to sixth. Good run for us. Started from 10th.

Knowing what we know now I feel like if I can win my heat race tomorrow, [I] start on the outside pole, I know I have a good car to run up front and battle for the win. I just got to put myself in a better position in the heat race early on in the night. Top 6, we’ll take it and we’ll just put it towards tomorrow night. 

I slide out of the bottom one time in 3 and 4 and let Shepp get by me and then I kind of just rode behind him for a couple laps and then I seen him closing on the guys in front of him so I figured I better make my move while they were all kind of bunched up and I managed to get a good run off the top and I’m pretty sure it was him and Madden I drove by and then I drove by Michael Leach with only a couple laps to go. 

Like I said, the car was really good for me to be able to pull out of line like that and go to the top and make good speed up there. We made some adjustments on it. So, we’ll write it down and work on it a little bit more for tomorrow.

Really, I feel like the car was good enough to where I was hoping if that race was a little longer I feel like we could have got more spots. I feel like I was closing on Chris and Nick in front of me. Like I said, we just got to manage my tires. This place is hard on tires. Fortunately, we came in and we had the open red. We kind of made some tires changes and worked out for us. We’ll just put everything we learned from tonight and put it towards the next two days and hopefully we can be better off. 

I was starting to pull tear offs for rain. So at that point it’s best to just call it quits. Thankfully, the rain went away and we were able to go back out there and work the track in. The track was actually a whole lot better than I thought it was going to be after that rain. I figured it was going to be real slimy and stuff, but the slime kind of blew off pretty quick. Thankful for that and we had a good run.”

Brandon Sheppard — Finished 8th: “I started 13th and was kind of just battling around there and then we had the rain delay. Come back out and we were able to get back up there a few starts. Like I said, we kind of battled around that 10th to 15th area the first 17 laps and the last 18 laps or whatever it was, whatever we had left there, when it went green we were able to battle up through there a little ways. Thought we were going to be able to get a few more, but just is what it is. We had a really fast car there especially the last half of that race. Just hopefully take some good notes and build off that for tomorrow.

Just what not to do that we did for the first half of the race that we fixed for the second half. It’s just one of them deals we—. Sometimes you do stuff thinking you know what you need to do and it was a little bit off from what we needed and we were able to adjust a little bit. Made a big difference and we were able to come back up through there. Just have to hopefully make the right adjustments tomorrow. And we start front row outside of our heat race just got to make the most out of that and hopefully get a decent starting spot in the feature and see what we got.

Certain days, yeah, I’m sure. Certain days, probably not. For us tonight, yeah definitely. It was raining, what were they going to do? Hold us up there? They had to do something. Would it probably have been better to park us up there on the hill and let us just cover stuff up and go again from there and not work on our stuff? But it benefited us tonight to be able to work on stuff. We were able to get a little bit better and be able to pass some cars. It definitely probably hurt some people and it helped some people. Fortunately, for us, in that situation, it helped us a little bit. Like I said, we’ll just build off what we learned today and hoping for the best tomorrow.”

Jadon Frame — Finished 30th: “Got a good jump off of 4 going into 1 and then Brandon left me a lane. I was able to carry the momentum, but caution come out and I knew on the second try he wasn’t going to let that happen again. Fell into second there and just rode for about fix or six laps. Just got tight off of 4, just got the cushion and ended our night, folded the flopper under the tire and it was over from there. 

We’ll wait to the morning [to repair it]. We already had it loaded when it started raining. We’ll get after it in the morning and see what we can do tomorrow. Just body damage. Just flopper damage on the nose. We’ll get that fixed and see what we can do.”

NEXT: Ricky Thornton Jr. Makes It Seven-Straight Late Model Wins In World Finals Opener