IMPERIAL, Pa. — For the second year in a row, Devin Moran won the Friday night portion of the Pittsburgher as he led the final 16 laps in scoring the $10,000 to win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing main event at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.
Moran now trails points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. by five points heading into the $50,000-to-win 37th Annual Pittsburgher on Saturday night. Thornton was leading when he suffered a right rear flat tire with 14 laps remaining. Thornton pitted, returned to the race and finished ninth.
Brandon Sheppard passed Garrett Alberson with two laps to go to finish second, while Max Blair also overtook Alberson on the final lap to complete the podium. Alberson and Jonathan Davenport finished in the top five.
Moran took the lead from the pole and led the field for the first five laps until Thornton surged to the front on lap six. Thornton had started fourth and fell back to fifth early in the race, but he gained momentum by using the outside groove of the half-mile track to overtake Moran.
However, Thornton then slowed exiting turn two with 14 laps to go as his right-rear tire blew out, allowing Moran to regain the lead.
Moran will try to join his Hall-of-Fame father, Donnie, as the second father-son combo to win the Pittsburgher, joining Hudson and Don O’Neal.
“We started off really strong at the beginning of the year but then struggled a bit through the middle as we tried different things and figured out what to do at this point,” Moran said. “I honestly didn’t expect the top to be that good, because it looked like there was just dust up there, but Ricky Thornton is Ricky Thornton for a reason. It was a bummer he got a flat, but we were lucky enough to take advantage of his misfortune. Once he got up there and burned that top in, and after he took the lead, I knew where to go. I felt like I was pretty good up there behind him.”
Sheppard finished 1.844 seconds behind Moran.
“We were definitely trying some things for the long-run race tomorrow night,” Sheppard explained. “I felt like I was getting better in the longer runs we had, but we didn’t get many long runs in, so we’ll be ready tomorrow. We definitely need to fine-tune this a little bit, but all in all, the longer we went, the better we did. So with a longer race, we will be really good.”
Blair got by Alberson on the final circuit to finish third after starting in seventh.
“The race track was real fast at the start and that’s just not me, so I just bided my time hoping it would slow down, and it did I wish tonight was 50 laps because I think we’re getting better and better there, but hopefully we’ve got something to work with for tomorrow and maybe we can be back here on the podium.”
The finish:
Devin Moran, Brandon Sheppard, Max Blair, Garrett Alberson, Jonathan Davenport, Carson Ferguson, Donald McIntosh, Hudson O’Neal, Ricky Thornton Jr., Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Overton, Daulton Wilson, Gary Stuhler, Alex Ferree, Ross Robinson, Mason Zeigler, Josh Richards, Dan Ebert, Logan Zarin, Dan Angelicchio, Joseph Joiner, Daniel Hilsabeck, Clay Harris, Cory Lawler.
