Here is what drivers had to say following Saturday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Eldora Speedway for the finale of the Clash at the Wabash:

Ricky Thornton Jr. — Winner: “Dale [McDowell] was really good off the get go and so was Nick [Hoffman]. I just kept watching the board. I knew if Josh [Rice] was going to pass a bunch of cars he was going to be around the top. I kept watching for him to get on the board and then I saw it and he was like 7th or 8th on that restart. I’m like, ‘Alright, if I can get a good enough start—.’ And the start before Dale blocked the middle and I’m like, ‘Alright, if he doesn’t get the greatest start and he goes to block the middle again, hopefully I can just drive it in far enough and slide him and get to the curb and take off. And it worked out. It don’t always work out like that.

But after that it felt really good. Then I got to lap cars. And every time you get to lap cars you slow down about five seconds. Felt like I needed to be a little better once I got to the lap cars. We’re so different setup wise in what I’m normally in here. I feel like I was really good in clean air and I just struggled a little bit in dirty air. It worked out for us.

Of course, we have a yellow with three to go. I’m like, ‘Man, I know Devin’s running around the bottom.’ I could see him on the board a couple of times. And then I’m like, ‘Well, I know he ain’t going to go to the top to pass me because I’m already out there,’ So I’m like, ‘If I can get a good enough start and get out and really get off turn 2 on the restart.’ That was kinda going to make or break the finish for me. And I felt like I did a good start, was able to get off turn 2 really well, and then I just ran the last three laps as hard as I could without just trying to make a huge mistake. I took the wall in turn 1 kind of out of the equation. I jumped the curb a couple times. Like, ‘Alright, short slide yourself and just take getting over the curb and ruining your night out of it.’ And 3 and 4, really I didn’t bonsai around the top a whole lot. I knew out in clean air my best shot for speed off of turn 4 was going to be to get out there and run as hard as I can and hopefully come home with it. And we’re fortunate enough to.

I feel like the first half of the year wasn’t that we were super slow, we just didn’t really have a whole lot of luck. I feel like there was a lot of times that we’d run top 5, or be leading and get a flat, or something dumb would happen. Finally, our luck’s turning around a little bit. 

I think I saw a deal earlier that McFadden put up. This will be our eleventh top 5 finish in a row. It shows how good our team is. Built a new car to come out this weekend and it was really good. I think they ran 1-2. I know Devin’s was new last week. Just shows how good everyone at Koehler Motorsports works. This thing was a bare frame on Monday. And it was an idea. Any time Bob gives you an idea, ‘Hey, I think we should go do this.’ I normally listen to him. I’m glad we definitely did.

Obviously it sucks next week’s our last Lucas race, but we still got a lot of other racing going on too. Still got a few more Flo Night races coming up and a couple other stuff too. Really excited to hopefully finish the year strong. 

Couldn’t do it without all our partners: Knight’s Company, Hoker Trucking, Coltman Farms, Bilstein Shocks, VMG, FK Rod Ends, Certified Inspection Service, Slicker Graphics, Clements, Cornett. There’s just so many great people that help us get up and down the road. Dirtcar Lift, SRI. Like I said so many great people. My boys, Tharp and Seth, they killed it this weekend. Jakub Boxell. He won the non-wing race last night and he came and spun wrenches for us tonight too. KP, Bryce, Evan, Jordan, Bobby, Jessica. There’s so many great people around us and I’m just the fortunate one to be behind the wheel. Looking forward to seeing my baby girl, and my boys, and my wife tomorrow.”

Devin Moran — Finished 2nd: “Ricky is obviously pretty dang good, you know. He’s one of the best for a reason. And, yeah, he’s rolling right now. He was really good the last two nights. All-in-all a great run, just we got to figure out how to start up front.

Honestly, I was driving really hard before that and then I caught [Brandon Sheppard], I probably slid him one lap too early and that got me in the fence and really that messed up my mojo there for a little while. If I would’ve waited another lap I think I would’ve gained myself 5 or 6 laps.

All-in-all just Double Down Motorsports team, Roger Sellers, Robbie, Casey, Connor, my crew guys, they’re all working hard. They’re doing a fantastic job. We got a really fast Longhorn right now.

Thank you to all my other amazing supporters: Big River Steel, C&W Trucking, Millwood Plumbing, CarSourceAuto.com, Red Oak Pub. So many people I just cannot thank enough and my great crew, and my beautiful wife, and my amazing little baby girl.”

Josh Rice — Finished 3rd: “I run over something there. I guess Bobby got it too. I actually didn’t even pull back into the pits. I figured it was too bad to even fix, but hats off to these guys for getting it fixed. It was kinda chaos there. Luckily, we had everything tight and nothing fell off of it.

I was kinda glad it was over. I pretty much got to where I was going to finish. I could tell on that restart I was not going to be able to launch. Thankfully, we held on for third. I actually thought I was catching Devin for the lead and then we both kinda ran up to Ricky there. I got it in the wall down there in 3 and 4 with 8 or 10 to go. And then I kinda picked up a vibration and I could just tell. I was like, ‘Alright I’m ready for this to be over.’

Heck of a comeback. Just never could turn early all weekend. Don’t really know what we had wrong. But we’re going to have figure it out for when we come back next year.

Just can’t thank James Rattliff, Justin Rattliff, Tim Tungate, all the guys that— Like I said, we had a mess there. Mark Richards and all his guys got us going there. Want to thank JRR Auto Sales, JRR Trucking, KAG, Chain Locker, Sunoco Race Fuels, Fox Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, I said that already, MGL Auto Sales, IMC, Cheap Chevrolet, BC Fluid Power, Jesse’s Insurance, Swift Springs, Impact Race Gear, Jeff Marks with Glenwood, Big Al’s, Keltner Contracting. Want to send a shoutout to Vic Hill, he just freshened this thing and, man, it seems really good. Want to thank Glenn Clements for a lot and everything he’s doing for us too, getting our motors back in line where they need to be. Want to thank Sammy with Precision Suspension. Takes a long list to do this. I’m probably forgetting a few of them. Berea Collision. Just everybody that makes it possible. It’s cool.

I knew pretty early ’cause there the first 10 or so I was like, ‘Man, I have got to—’ Because I didn’t want to go a lap down. I was like, ‘I have got to get around this pack.’ A few of them held me up for awhile. And once I kinda got a breath of clean air, I was like, ‘Man, this thing is really good.’ It’s kinda crazy because the front clip’s hurt pretty bad. It’s fixable. I don’t think it needs a clip or anything. Obviously, it went around there pretty good. We’ve got a long week ahead of us. And I think we took the lead in that $25k bonus. On to West Virginia and try to finish strong.”

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series heads to West Virginia Motor Speedway for the 46th Annual Dirt Track World Championship next weekend. Racing action starts on Friday, October 16th, but there will only be one points paying race on Saturday, October 17th. 

NEXT: Logan Seavey Wants To Continue His Dirt Late Model Career: “I Got A Seat Ready”