Thornton Jr Wins Monday Night at Bubba Raceway Park

Monday, February 1, 2021 at Bubba Raceway Park

Photo: Mike Ruefer

(Ocala, FL) – After starting in the tenth starting spot Ricky Thornton Jr drove to the front and picked up his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the 2021 season. The start of Ricky’s run for Lucas Oil Rookie of the Year hasn’t been what he would have liked it to be. After struggles at East Bay last week he got the ship back in the right direction with his Ocala win.

Early on it was Brian Shirley who took the lead. Kyle Bronson and Mike Marlar battled in the top three in the early stages of the 40-lap event. 12 laps in is when the race started to get interesting. Jonathan Davenport took the lead from Shirley as they raced down the back straight away. Then it was Thornton Jr who started to reel in second place Shirley. Thornton and Shirley made contact down the back straight away and Shirley spun in front of the field. Luckily no one made contact with the 3S machine.

On the restart leader Jonathan Davenport slowed in turn one and cars piled up. This included Brandon Sheppard, defending series champ Jimmy Owens and Josh Richards. Thornton Jr was able to miss the incident and he would be the new leader as they approached halfway. New players had now put themselves in the mix as Hudson O’Neal was now runner up and Bobby Pierce had broke into the top 5.

Hudson O’Neal did not make the second half of this one easy for Thornton Jr as he stalked his back bumper and keep the pressure on. Thornton would hold on to win the event but had to survive a couple late race restarts from spins by Tyler Erb and Kyle Strickler. Mike Marlar, Hudson O’Neal, Devin Moran, and Brandon Overton all came home with top 5 finishes. This was Ricky Thornton Jr’s second career Lucas Oil series win. His first came last year at the Pittsburgher 100. Ricky leads the rookie of the year points early on in 2021.

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be in action again Tuesday night in Ocala to close out their 2021 Florida Speedweeks.

Race Statistics:

Feature Finish:

Feature Lineup: (40 Laps)

B-Main Results: (Top 3 transfer)

B-Main 1: Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, Shane Clanton, Kyle Strickler, Dan Stone

B-Main 2: Rick Eckert, Tony Jackson Jr, Ross Robinson, Earl Pearson Jr, Tyler Bruening

B-Main Lineups: (Top 3 transfer)

Heat Race Results: (Top 4 Transfer)

Heat 1: Brian Shirley, Brandon Sheppard, Jimmy Owens, Dennis Erb Jr, Tyler Erb, Frank Heckenast Jr, Dan Stone, Kyle Strickler, John Baker, Doug Drown

Heat 2: Mike Marlar, Tanner English, Bobby Pierce, Mark Whitener, Tim McCreadie, Shane Clanton, Billy Moyer Jr, Spencer Hughes, Blair Nothdurft, Stewart Friesen

Heat 3: Kyle Bronson, Josh Richards, Ricky Thornton Jr, Devin Moran, Ross Robinson, Tyler Bruening, Earl Pearson Jr, Devin Dixon, Todd Brennan, Colton Flinner

Heat 4: Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O’Neal, Brandon Overton, Jeff Matthews, Rick Eckert, Tony Jackson Jr, Blake Spencer, Matt Cosner, Ryan King, Stormy Scott

Heat Race Lineups: (Top 4 Transfer)

Group A Qualifying Results:

Group B Qualifying Results:

Entries: