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EAGLE, Neb. — Ricky Thornton Jr. was not going to be denied on Saturday night, as the Arizona driver led all but one lap in winning the 75-lap Malvern Bank High Banks Heist at Eagle Raceway.
Thornton earned $50,000 for his ninth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series triumph of the season.
Jonathan Davenport was the only other driver to briefly lead a lap, holding the top spot on lap 36. However, a lap later, Thornton reclaimed the front position, leading Davenport and Devin Moran to the finish, winning by 1.8 seconds for his 51st series victory.
Tyler Bruening came home in fourth, followed by Brandon Overton, who came from 11th to round out the top five drivers.
Thornton won in front of a large crowd of spectators, as it was the biggest late model race in the 62-year history of the track.
“I was big time concerned, anytime you can look over and see the deck messed up, it’s not good,” Thornton said. “What a race track. I tried to slow down a couple of times and I just about wrecked, and I said you know what, I was going to go as hard as I can and if I wreck, I wreck and if not, it wasn’t for trying.”
“I ran as hard as I could to get by Garrett (Alberson) on that first lap and then I slowed myself way down just trying to save my left rear, and there towards the end got to (Cory) Lawler and he was better than I was around the bottom in one and two, and I was like man should I move down to the bottom or not. I really didn’t want a yellow, and of course, a yellow came out, and I was like, I didn’t know what to do now. It worked out for us.”
Davenport, who held second place for most of the race, yielded the spot to Moran on lap 48, ran third until he got back around Moran on a lap-65 restart.
“He (Thornton) did a really good job,”Davenport said. “I just wish the race track was where you could run around the bottom or middle more, but it was so cushion dominant, but that’s the way this place is. It was a lot of fun. It’s tough, that’s for sure. I thought right before that caution came out, I started to come off the cushion and was running through the middle off of four, it was pretty good. Once we got to sliding each other, that’s what I was trying to do to lead again. I probably just should have stayed around the top the last time he slid me.”
Moran, who started eighth, ran second for several laps after reaching the runner-up, tried to close in on Thornton, but a restart with 64 laps scored saw him fall to third after Davenport got by him.
“After the week we had, we were struggling, and so we threw some different stuff at it tonight, you know. I felt like we were really good there when I was in second. I felt like I could keep pace with Ricky, but we were just stuck there on that top. All in all, a good run for our race team and a good bounce back from the last couple of nights we have had.”
The finish:
Ricky Thornton Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, Tyler Bruening, Brandon Overton, Hudson O’Neal, Brandon Sheppard, Garrett Alberson, Collen Winebarger, Kyle Bronson, Clay Stuckey, Donald McIntosh, Dan Ebert, Daulton Wilson, Carson Ferguson, Daniel Hilsabeck, Cory Lawler, Tad Pospisil, Blair Nothdurft, Dylan Sillman, Jesse Sobbing, Chase Junghans, Spencer Hughes, Dylan Thornton.
