DirtonDirt.com exclusive
Thornton faces logistical challenge on busy slate
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt.com staff reporter
Ricky Thornton Jr. (praterphoto.com)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — It appears Ricky Thornton Jr.’s always busy racing schedule may get a little complicated early in the 2025 season.
The reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion from Chandler, Ariz., has plans to compete in January’s Chili Bowl Midget Nationals the same week the Lucas Oil Late Model tour gets rolling with four nights of competition at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., creating a logistical challenge for the 34-year-old multidivision racer.
Thornton plans to open the Lucas Oil Series with his Koehler Motorsports No. 20rt team Jan. 15-18 while trying to race an Andy Reinbold-owned midget car into Jan. 18’s Chili Bowl Nationals finale by qualifying through prelims early in the week.
Before the Lucas Oil tour’s Georgia action set for Wednesday-Saturday, Thornton plans to arrive in Tulsa, Okla., the previous Sunday for midget practice and hopes to compete in Monday’s Race of Champions at the event inside the SageNet Center.
“Our qualify night will be Tuesday,” Thornton said last week after the Lucas Oil Series banquet. “Wednesday morning I’ll hop on an airplane and leave Tulsa get to Jacksonville (Fla.), run Golden Isles Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and depending on weather at Golden Isles and where we’re at Chili Bowl-wise, we’ll make that decision.”
If weather happens to cancel the Golden Isles finale, “we’ll try to fly back to the Chili Bowl. If it doesn’t rain out, then we’ll kind of see where we’re at and make a gameplan,” Thornton said.
Thornton, whose career is full of achievements in multiple dirt racing divisions, had a solid showing in his Chili Bowl debut in 2024. He finished 12th in Saturday’s B-main, five spots shy of transferring to the finale, and at one point during the 20-lap consolation was in a top-seven transfer spot.
A return to the Chili Bowl was natural, but the earliest Georgia-Florida Speedweeks opening in Lucas Oil history created a conflict with the Super Bowl of Racing at the 4/10-mile Golden Isles oval.
Thornton’s best case scenario for his midget-Late Model double is that weather cancels Saturday’s Golden Isles competition and he’s in a good position to transfer to the Chili Bowl A-main.
It’s a possible scenario with six of the last 17 Speedweeks events going back to 2019 at Golden Isles either cancelled or postponed by weather.
Thornton would face a difficult decision if he locks himself into the Chili Bowl A-main with a top-two finish on his prelim night and the Golden Isles finale has no weather issues. Could Thornton decide against defending his Lucas Oil title and commit to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, which begins its season Jan. 23 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.?
“I wouldn’t say that for sure,” Thornton said. “We haven’t decided yet which tour we’re gonna run yet. We’ll for sure run a (national) tour. We just haven’t decided. It all depends on how we do (Chili Bowl) qualifying night and with what the weather looks like. With it being that early (in the year) at Golden Isles, it could be raining, it could sunshine, or it could be 20 degrees. You just don’t know.
“Luckily (Arizona-based and Chili Bowl-winning midget owner) Andy Reinbold brought it up to me. He wanted me to run his car again and then brought it up on running earlier in the week. If we have a chance to come back, then we’ll come back. If not, we don’t have to.”
In 2024, Thornton logged 93 features in the Dirt Late Model division and 34 combined features among six other disciplines: micro sprints, 410 sprints, modifieds, stock cars, dirt midgets and pavement midgets. He won 30 races overall, 25 in Dirt Late Models, four in stock cars and another in a modified for a prelim at the Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis, Mo.
Thornton might sprinkle in more pavement races to his already-diverse schedule, too, particularly in the Late Model and midget. Thornton’s lone pavement start in August came driving an Ecotec-engine midget at Indianapolis Raceway Park for hometown car owner David Ward, who’s offered Thornton more pavement midget races in 2025.
“I’ve talked to a few guys on trying to do something, maybe run a (pavement) Super Late Model somewhere or something like that,” Thornton said. “David Ward of High Performance Lubricants, he has like an Ecotec-style midget program that he does. We might do that for a couple races. Just kind of wait and see what all our schedules our, and we’ll go from there.”
Upon Thornton’s unexpected mid-July release from SSI Motorsports that steered him to Koehler Motorsports, modified racer and former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace advocated for Thornton to explore pavement racing. Wallace said he’d heard interest from pavement teams about courting Thornton, adding that “I have contacted some of the best teams in NASCAR and their response was: Let us think about it and we will get back to you.”
Would Thornton be interested in exploring NASCAR opportunities?
“Yes and no. It’d be cool to do,” Thornton said when asked about his NASCAR interest. “I don’t wanna have to change my life to try and do something that is an unknown essentially, if that makes sense.”
