Thornton Jr. wins late model feature at Eldora

ROSSBURG - Like nearly everybody else at Eldora Speedway on Friday night, Ricky Thornton Jr. thought his two second deficit to Brandon Sheppard was going to be too much to overcome in the final 10 laps of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 40-lap main event.

Thornton Jr., of Chandler, Arizona, proved everybody wrong. He erased the two-second deficit, slipped around Sheppard in the closing laps and went on to pick up the $10,000 top prize.

"I really didn't think I could get to him," Thornton Jr. said. "He was running the bottom and middle so I just decided to see what I could do up top and there really wasn't a curb up there but it was smooth and if you hit it just right you could really make up time."

Sheppard used the bottom and middle grooves to move up from his sixth starting position and survived a thrilling mid-race battle for the lead between himself, Chris Madden and Josh Rice.

Sheppard, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series points leader, took command on lap 22 and appeared headed for the win.

"Those two lapped cars just kept arcing out real wide and would ruin the run I would get on them and they really started to hold me up," Sheppard said. "I probably should have just thrown a Hail Mary in there and dive bombed them because I really feel like I gave that one away tonight."

As Sheppard was hung up behind the lapped cars, Thornton continued to chip away at his lead and then on lap 37 with Sheppard struggling behind a pair of lapped cars, Thornton Jr. squeezed between Sheppard and the outside wall and into the lead.

Dan Ebert brought out a caution period a lap later when he slowed to stop in turn two after hitting the outside wall, setting up a three-lap dash to the finish.

Thornton Jr., the 2025 World 100 winner, held off Sheppard in the closing laps to pick up his fifth career Late Model win at Eldora

"I love these short races here," Thornton Jr. said. "There is no riding around, like the 100 lap races you just ride for 50 laps then really race for 50. These you have to be on it from the start because there is no time to wait."

Sheppard finished in the runner-up spot ahead of Devin Moran, Kyle Bronson and 21st starter Hudson O'Neal. Rice, Bobby Pierce, Garrett Alberson, Madden and 2026 World 100 champ Nick Hoffman completed the top 10.

Sheppard extended his series points lead over second-place O'Neal and third-place Moran. Despite being worth more than $250,000, extending the series championship points lead with just two races left did not make Sheppard feel any better.

"The championship will take care of itself if we win races," Sheppard said. "We should have won this one. My guys gave me a good car and I didn't do a good enough job and we didn't win. We will give it another try tomorrow night."

Lucas Oil Series heat races were won by Madden, Rice, Jonathan Davenport, Alberson, Thornton Jr. and Sheppard. Alberson turned a lap of 14.802 seconds to be the fast qualifier of the 50-car field.

Daniel Sanchez took the lead from Jordan Conover with five laps remaining and went on to his first career win at Eldora in the 15-lap Super Stock feature event.

Nick Bowers made a daring three-wide pass in turn four of the final lap to go from fourth-place to second-place at the checkered flag, and with the move tied Sanchez for the season track championship. Unofficially, Bowers wins the tiebreaker to claim the Super Stock season championship.

Conover finished in third-place ahead of Brad Eitniear and Gary Rahe Jr.

The Eldora season wraps up tonight with the finale of the Clash on the Wabash. The Lucas Oil Late Model Series 50-lap, $50,00 to-win main event headlines the program that will also feature the UMP Modifieds. With a possibility of weather later in the evening, warm-ups have been moved up to 4:45 p.m. with qualifying and heat races to follow.