What a difference three weeks makes.
Ricky Thornton Jr. got his 2025 season rolling with a DNQ and a 19th-place run at Volusia Speedway Park during DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals, and looked lost in the woods after winning 26 Late Model races a year ago.
But when the calendar turned to February and the Koehler Motorsports No. 20RT team returned to Barberville for Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, “RTJ” once again looked like one of the top dirt Late Model drivers in the nation. Following a runner-up to open the week on Monday, Thornton put on a masterclass in Tuesday’s DIRTcar Late Model Feature.
“I feel like we’ve been really good,” Thornton said. “We changed our program up a lot after we were here earlier this year and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better. My boys aren’t going to shy away from work, we’ve destroyed two race cars and they put them back together and we’ve been just as good.”
Thornton won Heat 1 earlier in the night to claim the pole for the main event alongside reigning DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion Tyler Erb. “Terbo” was able to rip the cushion around Turns 1 and 2 to take the early lead and force Thornton to settle into second.
While Erb worked to build a gap, Thornton came under fire from fourth-place starter Bobby Pierce, who threw a slider on Thornton to steal second before a slowing Brenden Smith brought out the caution with four laps complete.
That gave Thornton the chance to get the second spot back on the restart, and from there he set his sights on the leader. With 11 laps down in the 25-lap affair, Thornton dove to Erb’s inside entering Turn 3, raced side-by-side with the No. 1 down the frontstretch and cleared Erb in the next set of corners to take command of the race.
“Really, [Erb] lasted way longer than I thought he was going to,” Thornton said regarding Erb’s decision to opt for a softer tire for the Feature. “I started moving around, Bobby got by but the yellow came out, lucklily. I knew the top was going to get a better restart and luckily Bobby picked the bottom for me. Got a good start, got back to second, tried to keep pace with Terbo so whenever he did slow down, I was able to capitalize on it.”
From that point forward, Thornton was off like a rocket. The gap to Erb was already over a second two laps after Thornton completed the pass and grew as large as 3.5 seconds before Thornton caught thick lap traffic. The slower cars didn’t deter him though, as Thornton went unchallenged for the remainder of the race on his drive to victory.
Thornton said he still isn’t entirely comfortable racing around Volusia despite the fact that Tuesday’s win netted him his third Gator in the past four years. However, his speed so far this week has him feeling optimistic about his progress.
“I just struggle here as a driver,” Thornton said. “I feel like we finally got the package that we need. I can qualify well, and that puts you so much further ahead later in the night. Had a couple good Heat Races, winning both of them put us up front for the Feature. I just feel like our overall balance is getting better and better every time we come here.”
After falling back to third on the only restart of the night, Pierce spent most of the race riding behind Thornton and Erb until the final circuit, when he snuck by Erb to take the runner-up spot.
“I wasn’t wanting to settle for third, I was either going to jump the cushion or we were going to get second,” Pierce said. “It ended up turning good, I didn’t really lift much and I got around him. I wish I could have figured it out a little earlier, but my air kind of got spoiled a couple times. All in all, a great night for us.”
While Erb was frustrated to fall back to third in the waning moments of the race, his fourth podium of the season had him excited about the speed his Best Performance Motorsports machine has shown so far in 2025.
“Got nipped on the last lap there by Bobby,” Erb said. “Nothing to hang our heads about. Got a lot of speed, actually am enjoying racing here at Volusia. We had good runs at Sunshine Nationals and to get a third here tonight is pretty good. Excited for the rest of the week.”
Jonathan Davenport finished fourth to stay perfect in Volusia top fives on the year between Sunshine Nationals and DIRTcar Nationals, while Brandon Overton picked up his first top five at Volusia this season in fifth.
Thanks to his back-to-back top-two finishes, Thornton now leads the Late Model Big Gator standings by 20 points over Davenport with four more nights of racing to go.
RACE NOTES:
Tyler Bruening set the overall fastest lap in Hot Laps.
Ryan Gustin laid down the quickest lap of the night in Qualifying.
The six Heat Race wins went to Ricky Thornton Jr., Tyler Erb, Jonathan Davenport, Bobby Pierce, Brandon Overton and Cade Dillard.
Brandon Sheppard, Chase Junghans and Ashton Winger won the three Last Chance Showdowns.
Brian Shirley drove from 16th to sixth in the Feature to claim the Hard Charger Award.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Late Model portion of Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals wraps up on Wednesday with a trio of 20-lap Features. Get your tickets by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
