Photo Credit - Todd Boyd
Story and Results from Lucas Oil Speedway
WHEATLAND, MO. (May 23, 2024) - Ricky Thornton Jr. pounced after a late-race restart Thursday night to overtake Garrett Alberson, kicking off the 32nd annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 Presented by Missouri Division of Tourism weekend.
Alberson took the lead on lap eight and held it until lap 43. A lap-42 caution in what had been a caution-free event, wiped out his sizeable cushion and Thornton made the winning pass diving into turn three with one to go in the 45-lapper at Lucas Oil Speedway.
It was the 400th career win for the 33-year-old Thornton, of Martinsville, Ind. He earned $10,000 and valuable points toward a starting position in Saturday night's 100-lap feature. The opening-night headliner paid tribute to Allen "Cowboy" Chancellor, long-time owner/promoter of the Midwest Late Model Racing Association.
The Hermitage Lumber POWRi Late Models also were in action, with Justin Wells earning the feature win in that weekly class for the speedway, in wire-to-wire fashion.
A total of 63 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series/MLRA Late Models checked into the pits for opening night while 21 Hermitage Lumber POWRi Late Models were on hand.
Alberson, who set a new track record in qualifying and earned the pole with a heat-race win, roared away from the start in a race that nearly went green-white-checkers. But a race-changing caution flew on lap 42 when Chad Simpson, running third, spun in turn two.
That was all Thornton needed as he made the winning pass going into turn three with the white flag about to wave. He went on to grab his series-best seventh Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of 2024 in his SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis.
"I knew I was the only one on a soft right rear (tire) and I didn't know if we were going to get any yellows or not," Thornton said. "Really, he fired off way better than I did. I don't know, he missed the bottom on those two laps in a row and whenever he slid high down the back straightaway, I knew he was going to be in the slick.
"I just tried to get it far enough up where he knew I was gonna be down there. We touched a little bit getting into three, but it's awesome. This one is pretty special because it's my 400th win. It's been a lot of hard work and dedication."
Alberson, of Las Cruces, N.M., said he felt vulnerable on the restart and managed to smile despite coming so close to his first LOLMDS win.
"To be bummed out with a second is a really good thing," Alberson said. "I'm super proud of this Roberts Motorsports team. We've got a really good racecar. I was a little too tight to run the bottom and on that restart I was kind of a sitting duck.
"Congrats to Ricky. They did the right things right there when they needed to. But this car is really good and I think a longer race is going to fit it better. Yeah, we're right there."
For Thornton, it was a positive start in his pursuit of a Show-Me 100 title that got away from him a year ago when he was disqualified in post-race technical inspection after crossing the finish line first.
"It's huge," Thornton said of the win. "Any time you can come here and have a good run, it shows how good your team and everybody is. I feel like the slicker this (track) gets the better our car keeps getting."
Defending Show-Me 100 champ Devin Moran wound up third with Chris Simpson fourth and Spencer Hughes fifth. The Show-Me 100 is co-sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil MLRA.
Alberson took over the race lead on lap eight from pole-starting Chad Simpson after Simpson led in the early going. Thornton moved around Simpson with five laps to go, just a couple of circuits prior to Simpson's spin and ensuing caution.
One of the biggest movers of the race was Jonathan Davenport, a seven-time winner at Lucas Oil Speedway over the last two seasons. Davenport had to start at the tail of the 24-car field after going to a backup car after his heat-race race win and he was able to rally for ninth.
Alberson set a new Late Models track record with a lap of 14.443 to pace Group A qualifying. Alberson, of Las Cruces, N.M., broke his own record of 14.456 which he established on Oct. 9, 2020 at the Lucas Oil MLRA Fall Nationals. Chris Simpson of Oxford, Iowa, led Group B at 14.803.
A similar program is set for Friday night with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series/MLRA Late Models again racing a full program to earn points toward Saturday night's 100-lap finale and final qualifying races. Headlining the Friday action is the 40-lap, $10,000-to-win Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson in honor of the founders of the Show-Me 100 and long-time owners of West Plains Motor Speedway.
Pit gates open at 4 p.m. with grandstands at 5, hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05 p.m.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (May 23, 2024)
32nd annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 Presented by Missouri Division of Tourism
Lucas Oil Late Models
A Feature - 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[12]; 4. 32X-Chris Simpson[2]; 5. 19M-Spencer Hughes[5]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[19]; 7. 111-Max Blair[23]; 8. 90-Brian Rickman[14]; 9. 49-Jonathan Davenport[24]; 10. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[22]; 11. 1-Tim McCreadie[9]; 12. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[21]; 13. 25C-Chad Simpson[7]; 14. 10-Garrett Smith[3]; 15. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[4]; 16. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[17]; 17. 7T-Drake Troutman[20]; 18. 17SS-Brenden Smith[13]; 19. 12-Scott Crigler[16]; 20. 1/4J-Jaxon Ertel[15]; 21. 36-Logan Martin[8]; 22. 74X-Ethan Dotson[18]; 23. 157-Mike Marlar[11]; 24. 71-Hudson O'Neal[10]
Fast Shafts B Main 1 - 1. 74X-Ethan Dotson[2]; 2. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[3]; 3. 93F-Carson Ferguson[15]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 5. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[6]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[8]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[10]; 8. 21W-Chris Wilhite Jr[13]; 9. 15C-Clayton Stuckey[1]; 10. 11-Jeff Herzog[9]; 11. 7-Ross Robinson[11]; 12. 93-Cory Lawler[7]; 13. 14R-Jeff Roth[12]; 14. 26P-Glen Powell[14]; 15. 777-Jared Landers[4]; 16. (DNS) 96X-Dalton Imhoff
UNOH B Main 2 - 1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 2. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[4]; 3. 49W-Justin Wells[2]; 4. 25-Tony Jackson Jr[6]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]; 6. 3-Brennon Willard[8]; 7. 128-Kylan Garner[9]; 8. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 9. 15-Payton Looney[14]; 10. 82-Jace Parmley[12]; 11. 77-Jeremy Petty[3]; 12. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[11]; 13. 0X-Jason Sivils[13]; 14. 93O-Mason Oberkramer[10]; 15. (DNS) 24-Kenny Green
MyRacePass B Main 3 - 1. 7T-Drake Troutman[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[4]; 3. 7D-Dusty Leonard[3]; 4. 96-Tanner English[5]; 5. 2-Tyler Stevens[8]; 6. 10M-Jacob Magee[10]; 7. 7W-Cole Wells[14]; 8. USA1-Chris Hawkins[11]; 9. 7J-Ryan Johnson[7]; 10. 26M-Matt Menzie[12]; 11. 22H-Dustin Hodges[2]; 12. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[6]; 13. (DNS) 65-Jon Binning; 14. (DNS) 6H-Al Humphrey
Penske Shocks Heat 1 - 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[4]; 4. 15C-Clayton Stuckey[6]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[7]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[8]; 7. 93-Cory Lawler[5]; 8. 11-Jeff Herzog[9]; 9. 7-Ross Robinson[10]; 10. 21W-Chris Wilhite Jr[11]; 11. 93F-Carson Ferguson[3]
Summit Racing Heat 2 - 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 36-Logan Martin[2]; 3. 90-Brian Rickman[3]; 4. 74X-Ethan Dotson[4]; 5. 777-Jared Landers[5]; 6. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[6]; 7. 6-Clay Harris[7]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[8]; 9. 14R-Jeff Roth[9]; 10. 26P-Glen Powell[10]; 11. (DNS) 96X-Dalton Imhoff
Earnhardt Technologies Heat 3 - 1. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 3. 12-Scott Crigler[5]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 5. 77-Jeremy Petty[2]; 6. 1X-Aaron Marrant[6]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]; 8. 128-Kylan Garner[8]; 9. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[9]; 10. (DNS) 15-Payton Looney
Simpson Race Products Heat 4 - 1. 32X-Chris Simpson[1]; 2. 25C-Chad Simpson[2]; 3. 17SS-Brenden Smith[4]; 4. 49W-Justin Wells[3]; 5. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[5]; 6. 25-Tony Jackson Jr[6]; 7. 3-Brennon Willard[7]; 8. 93O-Mason Oberkramer[9]; 9. 82-Jace Parmley[10]; 10. 0X-Jason Sivils[8]; 11. (DNS) 24-Kenny Green
Lucas Oil Heat 5 - 1. 10-Garrett Smith[1]; 2. 1-Tim McCreadie[6]; 3. 1/4J-Jaxon Ertel[3]; 4. 7T-Drake Troutman[4]; 5. 7D-Dusty Leonard[2]; 6. 96-Tanner English[8]; 7. 7J-Ryan Johnson[5]; 8. 65-Jon Binning[9]; 9. USA1-Chris Hawkins[10]; 10. 6H-Al Humphrey[7]
Lucas Oil Heat 6 - 1. 19M-Spencer Hughes[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[7]; 4. 22H-Dustin Hodges[3]; 5. 111-Max Blair[8]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[6]; 7. 2-Tyler Stevens[5]; 8. 10M-Jacob Magee[4]; 9. 26M-Matt Menzie[10]; 10. (DNS) 7W-Cole Wells
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