MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. — Among the four drivers running up front much of Sunday’s 46th annual ARP Dirt Track World Championship, two were thrilled at race’s end — and two were definitely disappointed.

A red-hot Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., continued his late-season hot streak with his fourth straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory for a $100,000 payday at West Virginia Motor Speedway, while series points leader Brandon Sheppard secured his first series title with a solid runner-up finish.

Meanwhile, Hudson O’Neal led 73 laps but hit the wall because of a body-damage issue and Devin Moran fell shy of overtaking Sheppard in the pursuit of his second straight Lucas Oil crown.

Those battles on the shortened third-mile WVMS provided the drama for the Carl Short-promoted DTWC’s return to its native West Virginia for the first time in 16 seasons.

It was a return Thornton thoroughly enjoyed after winning a $5,000 semifeature Saturday then adding another DTWC triumph to the one he won in 2021 at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park. He’d been critical of the WVMS track, but found it to his liking for the crown jewel weekend.

"I was hoping I was going to swallow my words,” Thornton said in victory lane, “and I feel like I'm going to have to.”

In the 100-lapper, the pole-starting Thornton held second early, briefly edged past O’Neal to lead laps 33-34, then took advantage on the 76th lap when O’Neal got into the outside wall between turns three and four, opening the door for Thornton to take command.

O’Neal pitted to repair the nose damage that hampered his steering while Thornton led the rest of the way, taking the checkers by 0.650 of a second ahead of New Berlin, Ill.’s Sheppard, who celebrated the runner-up finish that gave him a $250,000 title, the first of his career on the Lucas Oil circuit for the Rocket1 driver and five-time World of Outlaws Late Model Series champ.

“It sounds so sweet, honestly,” Sheppard said. “It hasn't sunk in yet, for sure, Man, I just can't think (Rocket co-founders) Mark Richards and Steve Baker enough for taking a chance on me all them years ago.”

Dresden, Ohio’s Moran, who entered the race 45 points behind Sheppard but never was ahead of him by more than two positions, ended up third while 14th-starting Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., was fourth. Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., still seeking his first DTWC victory, settled for fifth.

O’Neal jumped into the lead from outside the front row and was keeping Thornton in check except for his brief stint out front a third of the way into the feature. The Martinsville, Ind., driver even stretched his lead to more than two seconds with 30 laps remaining, but six laps later it all went awry when he struck a “$100,000 mud clod” exiting turn four that caused the nose damage that hampered his car control on the following lap.

"There was a mud clod off the cushion (exiting turn) four,” O’Neal said. “I seen it at the last second and I was centered up on it and I thought that I could miss it,” O’Neal said. "I hit it and then it rolled (the nose) under and then that's what made me jump into the cushion.”

Thornton pounced while O’Neal had to duck pitside, settling for an eighth-place finish while RTJ led the rest of the way.

“He was definitely better,” Thornton said of O’Neal. “He figured out the top and I was like, ‘Man, I don't know if I'm ever going to get a shot again.’ And then we had so many yellows there that I could cool stuff back down and get a good restart, show him my nose, show him my nose, and he'd have to keep running harder and harder.”

With Moran and Sheppard hot on his heels for two restarts with 11 and 10 laps remaining, Thornton was confident his pursuers couldn’t make an outside pass.

"I just kind of moved out off the bottom one lane,” he said. “I felt like my car really took off.”

Thornton's four-race winning streak, including a $65,000 weekend he concluded nine days earlier at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, put a happy face on a season that was often uneven.

"We just had a lot of bad, weird things happening to us, and like normally when we'd run a second- or third-place, we're running an eighth or ninth place because of it,” Thornton said. “And I feel like now finally we've gotten a lot better luck and obviously our speed's really good.”

He credited his Koehler Motorsports team, specifically the recently promoted Justin Tharp for “doing a heck of a job being the new crew chief,” Thornton said. “So I owe a lot of it to him.”

Knowing that keeping Moran close guaranteed his title, Sheppard never had to worry too much while running fifth or better all race long. He slipped by Moran over the final 10 laps.

“Consistency is key to winning a championship,” the Rocket Chassis house car driver said after another consistent run, adding that his title is “just a testament to how good my guys are and how good this team is.”

Moran, who needed to win the feature with Sheppard finishing fifth or worse to make up the requisite ground for another title, felt like he had a chance to overtake Thornton while running second in the late stages, but cautions didn’t play in his favor.

"I felt like I was a little bit better than (Thornton), but just caution after caution was killing me. I needed them long runs,” the Double Down Motorsports driver said, calling the title miss a “bummer” but saying it was "a valiant effort by all my guys. I just wish I could have got it for them.”

Notes: Thornton’s 10th victory made him the winningest driver on the Lucas Oil Series in 2026, one more than Sheppard. He finished fourth in points but banked another $100,000 for capturing the Big River Steel Bonus Program. … Seven cautions slowed the race, the first for Daniel Hilsabeck's turn-one spin on the 38th lap. ... Debris drew cautions on laps 55 and 58. ... On the 75th lap, Brandon Overton slowed with a flat right-rear tire (during the caution period, Tyler Erb headed pitside to change a flat after a 16th-to-sixth rally). ... The lap-77 caution fell when O'Neal slowed with nosepiece damage. ... Drake Troutman slowed on the 90th lap. ... One lap later, ninth-running and tail-starting Benji Hicks blew a left-rear tire after making a charge from 28th to as high as sixth. ... The 58-minute feature concluded at 9:15 p.m. ... In Sunday's caution-plagued consolation action, Bobby Pierce, winner of the previous two DTWCs at Eldora Speedway, retired from his consy with mechanical woes. ... In the same race, Ethan Dotson took a hard lick from Brock Morris in a turn-two incident that involved Jason Stotts; Morris climbed out clutching his right wrist.