Ricky Thornton Jr. will have the orange spoiler for the first time in his career as the Lucas Oil Dirt Series point leader as he would visit victory lane at All-Tech. It wasn't an easy win as he flirted with the wall several times along with losing the lead then regaining it and never losing it after a lap 29 restart from Max Blair. It will go down in the books with Thornton leading all but just a few laps but there was passing throughout the field. Tim McCreadie would finish runner up with Brandon Sheppard taking the third spot honors as Devin Moran and Tyler Erb would be the first non Longhorn in the finishing order
Saturday's Feature Results (50 Laps $15,000 to win)
1) Thornton Jr.
2) McCreadie
3) Sheppard
4) Moran
5) T. Erb
6) O'Neal
7) Blair
8) Clanton
9) Bronson
10) Hughes
11) Wilson
12) English
13) D. Erb
14) Shirley
15) Strickler
16) Freeman
17) Bruening
18) Robinson
19) Owens
20) Pearson
21) Davenport
22) Alberson
23) Gustin
24) Herrington
25) Roberson
26) G. Smith
27) B. Smith
Photo Credit- Terry Page
The night started off with Ricky Thornton Jr. taking the fast time honors over the 44 cars that took time. Shane Clanton would win the first heat earning the pole position. Heat two would go to Kyle Strickler. Thornton would win the third heat race earning the outside pole spot and heat race 4 would go to Daulton Wilson. B Mains would go to Bruening and Brenden Smith. Brandon Overton spun out while battling for second place on the white flag lap forcing him to a B Main then he missed the transfer spot in the B Main by 1 spot missing out on the feature since he has no provisionals to fall back on since he has not declared to run the series although he leads the early season points. Another superstar who had a rough night was Jonathan Davenport. He lost a driveshaft in qualifying after contact with the outside wall then ran into issues in his heat race and then contact with Garrett Alberson in the B Main after Alberson made hard contact into the turn 2 wall while running second leaving "Superman" nowhere to go. He would fall into a provisional and would take the 25th starting spot in the 50 lap main event but failed to make a charge through the field being a rare nonfactor tonight.
The 50 lap feature would see RTJ jump out to the lead with Clanton Blair Strickler and Wilson following the blue SSI Motorsports 20. Lap 7 would see the "Georgia Bulldog" Shane Clanton put the Skyline Motorsports Capital Race Car to the lead. A lap later we would see the 12th starting reigning Lucas Oil Champion,Tim McCreadie,make an appearance into the top 5 passing Wilson.
Lap 16 Clanton would get a little too high and kiss the wall allowing Ricky to retake the lead. Lap 23 Max Blair would flex his muscle and take the runner up spot setting his sights on the race leader. At this time Blair was the class of the field and would pass the leader on lap 29 where we would see the yellow flag wave. Blair would lead Strickler Thornton TMAC and Clanton.
When the green waved Max Blair would fall quickly from the lead as RTJ would take the lead that he would never relinquish. Clanton McCreadie Sheppard and Blair would be your top 5 on lap 33 as Moran would make it onto the top 5 leaderboard as the 39 would take over second two laps later.
The yellow would make another appearance on lap 41 for "The Hurricane" Earl Season Jr. On the restart the 21st starter,Tyler Erb, would blast his way to third but would lose it two laps later to BShepp.
Lap 48 we would see the yellow break up the fun battle for the race lead as Earl Pearson would bring it out again for a LR flat and on the retry we would see the 49 bring it out. The green white checkered would see Thornton hold onto the victory as he smashed The Loud Pedal down with that Clements Racing Engine to earn the $15,000 win.
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