BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — Ricky Thornton Jr. took the lead for good on lap 76 after a spirited battle with Devin Moran that lasted for several laps, then led the rest of the way to win the 46th annual Jackson 100 presented by the Jackson County Visitors Center on Saturday night at Brownstown Speedway.
Thornton’s 14th Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing win of the year earned the Chandler, Arizona native $50,000 for his second Jackson 100 in the last three years.
Moran finished in second, followed by Bobby Pierce, Carson Ferguson and Tyler Erb.
Moran led the first 21 laps of the race from the Victory Fuel Pole, as the two-time and reigning Indiana Icebreaker winner was aiming for his first Jackson 100 victory. Moran maintained his lead until Pierce, who started on the inside of row five, took the lead on the 22nd lap.
Pierce then held the point until Moran regained the lead on lap 46. Moran then saw Thornton, who started on the outside of the front row and had dropped back to seventh at one point, climb back to second on lap 66 and then went back-and-forth with Moran for the lead before finally overtaking him for good on lap 76.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 56th time in his career, Thornton will hold the championship points lead heading into Pittsburgh next weekend.
“I felt like I needed to go way before that,” said the winner after he finally was able to clear Moran for the lead with 24 laps to go. “I felt like me and Terbo ran door-to-door for 20 to 25 laps, and it’s nice to know you can race a car super hard like that, and he gives you plenty of room. I didn’t know what happened there with Devin and JD; it looked like they both were just kind of going to the bottom and made a little contact, and JD went around. Obviously, you don’t ever want to see that with a championship competitor like that, but luckily for us, it was one really good car we didn’t have to worry about after that.”
Moran and Davenport made contact while racing for second on lap 44, giving his point of view of the incident in victory lane after finishing in second after leading the most laps in the race.
“I definitely didn’t want that to happen, and he was just laying out really hard. I filled the gap right there, and we must have hit tire to tire because neither of us had any marks on our cars or anything,” Moran said. “It’s really unfortunate; I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to race it out, but it’s a bummer. All in all, it was a good run for sure. We were sliding back and forth lap after lap, and I found a really good line during the last six or seven laps. I felt like I was inching closer to him, but it was just too late at that point. Ricky is just a really good racer, and it makes this chase for the championship just a little bit harder.”
The finish:
Ricky Thornton Jr., Devin Moran, Bobby Pierce, Carson Ferguson, Tyler Erb, Jonathan Davenport, Tanner English, Nick Hoffman, Brandon Sheppard, Garrett Alberson, Brandon Overton, Dan Ebert, Josh Rice, Jason Jameson, Daulton Wilson, Dennis Erb Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Bob Gardner, Daniel Hilsabeck, Chris Ferguson, Clay Harris, Tyler Neal, Drake Troutman, Devin Gilpin, Donald McIntosh, Camaron Marlar.
