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Thornton Earns First Career Jackson 100 at Brownstown

BROWNSTOWN, IN (September 23, 2023) – Ricky Thornton Jr. regained the lead from Hudson O’Neal with 18 laps remaining and pulled away to win the richest event in Brownstown Speedway history on Saturday night. Thornton’s victory in the 44th Annual Jackson 100 was worth $30,000.

It was Thornton’s first win in the annual event that has been held every year since its inception in 1980. O’Neal who led 28 laps during the mid-point of the race could not hold off Thornton who went on to win by 2.167 seconds.

Devin Moran rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third with defending Jackson 100 champion Tim McCreadie finishing fourth and Cory Hedgecock rounding out the top five.

Thornton jumped to lead at the start of the race with Mike Marlar and Devin Moran holding down the second and third positions. Marlar was running in the runnerup position and was still within striking distance of Thornton until a flat right rear tire with 54 laps scored ended his hopes of a Brownstown weekend.

On the restart, O’Neal exploded to the front on the top side and went to the lead on lap 58 by Thornton. O’Neal would lead until lap 82 when Thornton went back to the top spot. From then, Thornton cruised to his 21st Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. The Jackson 100 victory was the second for his car owners Todd and Vickie Burns who went to Victory Lane in 2019 with O’Neal.

In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 26th time in his career Thornton said: “Once he [O’Neal] got by me I thought the race was over. I moved up to his lane and he just drove off. I just kept my cool. He made one little mistake over there off two and I think it broke his concentration a little bit and then he started searching around. It’s pretty awesome to win this race. I felt like I had a pretty good car early. I didn’t know what to do on the restart whether I needed to be high or low. He got by me, and I thought I just gave this one away. It’s pretty cool for Todd and Vickie to get their second Jackson win here.”

O’Neal, who remains second to Thornton in the Big River Steel Chase to the Championship - Presented by ARP nearly pulled off his second career Jackson 100 victory. “After the weekend we’ve had, we just haven’t been where we needed to be, and we just kept working and working and my guys really worked their tails off trying to get better. We had a great race car there, just unfortunately I just didn’t quite have as good a race car as Ricky did in lapped traffic. I felt pretty good whenever I was out by myself and able to roll that top. Whenever I got behind people, I just struggled a little bit. Man, we will take second after starting 10th we were able to pass a lot of good guys.”

Moran finished third for the second night in a row. “It’s good to race with the Lucas Oil guys you know that’s tough. Man, I just wanted to get up there a little better. Our guys worked really hard. We put our minds together, we couldn’t get it just right, but it was close. I just want to win this race so bad, it’s such a great atmosphere here at Brownstown cheering and stuff. It’s really fun to race here and they gave us a great racetrack to run on.”

The winner’s Todd and Vickie Burns-owned, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Hoker Trucking, Sub-Surface of Indiana, Dyno One Inc., West Side Tractor Sales Company, D&E Outside Services, Certified Inspection Services, Midwest Sheet Metal, Excel Floor Covering, Murty Farms, Sunoco Race Fuels, and Bilstein Shocks.

Completing the top ten were Michael Chilton, Daulton Wilson, Tanner English. Nick Hoffman, and Max Blair.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
44th Annual Jackson 100
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Brownstown Speedway | Brownstown, IN

Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Daulton Wilson | 13.423 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | 13.528 seconds

Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 3. 96V-Tanner English[4]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 11R-Josh Rice[7]; 6. 18-Trevor Landrum[3]; 7. 11-Spencer Hughes[5]; 8. 12-Jason Jameson[9]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[8]; 10. 18B-Chase Burda[10]; 11. 11T-Tyler Collins[11]; 12. (DNS) 14-Quentin White

Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 23-Cory Hedgecock[2]; 2. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 4. 71R-Rod Conley[3]; 5. 10-Garrett Smith[5]; 6. 76M-Shelby Miles[6]; 7. 23K-Keegan Cox[10]; 8. 1G-Devin Gilpin[7]; 9. 32-Chad Stapleton[8]; 10. 29J-Jordan Wever[9]; 11. 11J-Jarod Fleetwood[11]; 12. 1CJ-Casey White[12]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 3. 1H-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 6. 9H-Nick Hoffman[8]; 7. 13W-David Webb[6]; 8. 68-Adam Stricker[7]; 9. 15-James Rice[9]; 10. 48J-Jug Wethington[11]; 11. 93-Zak Blackwood[10]; 12. 80-Logan Mounce[12]

AP1 Insurance Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 97-Michael Chilton[1]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs[3]; 5. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 6. 88-Greg Johnson[7]; 7. 111B-Max Blair[8]; 8. 42-Terry Casey[5]; 9. 22-Skyller Lewis[10]; 10. 19-Marty O'Neal[11]; 11. 24-Jared Bailey[9]

Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 11R-Josh Rice[1]; 2. 11-Spencer Hughes[5]; 3. 12-Jason Jameson[7]; 4. 18-Trevor Landrum[3]; 5. 32-Chad Stapleton[10]; 6. 18B-Chase Burda[11]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[9]; 8. 11T-Tyler Collins[13]; 9. 11J-Jarod Fleetwood[14]; 10. 23K-Keegan Cox[6]; 11. 10-Garrett Smith[2]; 12. 76M-Shelby Miles[4]; 13. 1CJ-Casey White[16]; 14. 1G-Devin Gilpin[8]; 15. (DNS) 29J-Jordan Wever; 16. (DNS) 14-Quentin White

UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 9H-Nick Hoffman[3]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[2]; 4. 13W-David Webb[5]; 5. 88-Greg Johnson[4]; 6. 15-James Rice[9]; 7. 68-Adam Stricker[7]; 8. 22-Skyller Lewis[10]; 9. 48J-Jug Wethington[11]; 10. 19-Marty O'Neal[12]; 11. 93-Zak Blackwood[13]; 12. 80-Logan Mounce[15]; 13. 111B-Max Blair[6]; 14. 24-Jared Bailey[14]; 15. (DNS) 42-Terry Casey

44th Annual Jackson 100 Feature Finish (100 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 47
Terminal Maintenance & Construction Pole Sitter: Devin Moran
Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 1-57); Hudson O’Neal (Laps 58-85); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 86-100)
Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/a
Margin of Victory: 2.168 seconds
Gorsuch Performance Solutions Cautions: Debris (Lap 2); Trevor Landrum (Lap 25); Mike Marlar (Lap 54)
Series Provisionals: Spencer Hughes
Fast Time Provisional:?Trevor Landrum
Series Emergency Provisionals: n/a
Track Provisionals: Jared Bailey; David Webb
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Devin Moran
Penske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Devin Moran, Tim McCreadie, Cory Hedgecock
Todd Steel Buildings Hard Charger of the Race: Max Blair (Advanced 13 Positions)
Wilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Daulton Wilson
Deatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Garrett Alberson
Earnhardt Technologies Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (72 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Max Blair
Etchberger Trucking Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 3 – 14.052 seconds)
MD3 Tough Break of the Race: Mike Marlar
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Anthony Burroughs (Ricky Thornton, Jr.)
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Race Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn Chassis
Dirt Draft?Fastest in Hot Laps: Brandon Overton (13.357 seconds)
Time of Race: 35 minutes 43 seconds

The Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:

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