SENOIA, Ga. — In a cinematic version of Saturday’s caution-free, 75-lap domination at Senoia Raceway, the winner might’ve said something clever like: “How ‘bout them peaches?”
But after Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., thoroughly dismantled a top-notch field in the Castrol FloRacing Night in America finale for a $53,053 victory in the Peach State Classic, there wasn’t much left to say about the story Thornton’s SSI Motorsports No. 20rt told with his dazzling victory.
In a 20-minute race where Thornton crossed the finish line 10 seconds ahead of his competition and lapped all but five drivers, Thornton got an unusual signal from a teammate as he motored around car after car from his pole starting spot.
“My crew guy’s jumping up and down telling me to slow down,” Thornton said, “so I knew I was pretty good.”
Pretty good is a $53,053 understatement as Thornton grabbed his richest victory of the season and wrapped up a $15,000 runner-up check on the second-year tour behind tour champion Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., who finished 13th in the finale.
Third-starting Hudson O’Neal vainly chased Thornton in finishing 10.224 seconds behind while Devin Moran settled for third. Ashton Winger improved six spots to finish fourth and last year’s race winner Chris Madden rounded out the top five.
The outcome was never in doubt. Thornton built a 3.4-second lead after 10 laps, and while that margin was cut to 1.1 seconds seven laps later when he hit his biggest batch of slower cars, once Thornton cleared that traffic he built an insurmountable lead that kept him out of sight of the competition most of the rest of the way.
“I was really good. My crew guy kept telling me I had a good lead, but every time I’d slow down, I’d start getting loose and then really get stuck behind a lapped car,” said Thornton, whose crew chief is veteran wrench Anthony Burroughs. “We tried (a suspension setup) that Burroughs wanted to do and it was really good for us.”
The season has now drawn to a close with Brandon Sheppard claiming the $75,000 championship. This year’s campaign saw 11 features contested with 10 different winners and 219 drivers entering at least one event.
The finish:
Feature (75 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 71X-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 3. 99M-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[10]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[6]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[8]; 7. 7W-Ricky Weiss[4]; 8. 157-Mike Marlar[9]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[14]; 10. 58-Garrett Alberson[13]; 11. 19-Ryan Gustin[15]; 12. 1T-Tyler Erb[16]; 13. B5-Brandon Sheppard[17]; 14. 14M-Morgan Bagley[2]; 15. 16-Austin Horton[20]; 16. (DNF) 19M-Wil Herrington[18]; 17. (DNF) 9Z-Mason Zeigler[7]; 18. (DNF) 93-Carson Ferguson[12]; 19. (DNF) 18X-Michael Page[22]; 20. (DNF) 3S-Brian Shirley[19]; 21. (DNF) 66K-Dylan Knowles[21]; 22. (DNF) 11-Spencer Hughes[23]; 23. (DNF) 17M-Dale McDowell[11]; 24. (DNF) 10-Joseph Joiner[24]