CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Jan. 10) — With an action-packed week at Tulsa, Okla.’s Chili Bowl Nationals looming, Ricky Thornton Jr. isn’t sure how many opportunities he’d have to race at the Wild West Shootout in front of a hometown crowd roughly 45 minutes south of his native Chandler.

In essence, he wasn’t content with anything but a win Saturday, a mindset that enabled a timely and tactical race-winning move on a lap-40 restart around Hudson O’Neal, who at that point appeared to be the car to beat aboard the Kevin Rumley-owned No. 6.

“I’m like, ‘Man, if I can stay in the moisture strip down the whole front straightaway and turn when I get to one, hell, I have to slide him,’” said the 34-year-old Thornton, winner of $38,000, including $13,000 in bonus money courtesy of Rio Grande Waste Services. “We didn’t come all this way to run second.”

Adam Family Motorsports of Cherry, Ill., fielded Thornton’s entry because it didn’t make much sense for his Mount Airy, N.C.-based Koehler Motorsports team to make the cross-country trip to Casa Grande, Ariz., only to race once, maybe twice, with their driver.

Chili Bowl Nationals commitments put Thornton on track inside the SagseNet Center beginning Sunday with practice ahead of Monday’s Race of Champions and Tuesday’s preliminary night, setting the stage for Saturday’s finale. With all that looming, Thornton used the opening half of Saturday’s 50-lap feature to get up to speed in his first night driving the Adam Family machine before sizing up his race-winning opportunity during a trio of restarts within a seven-lap span from laps 34-40.

“Before the yellow came out (on lap 34 for fourth-running Jake O’Neil), I ran across the top for one lap and I was like, ‘Man, it feels good,’” Thornton said. “But then my brother (on the stick signals) was like, ‘Nah, you’re good, just keep doing what you’re doing.’ I don’t know if I got a really good start or what. I heard them, but I couldn’t move out because if I moved out, we’d wreck both of us. He got by, and I could pace him in traffic.”

Though Thornton never allowed O’Neal to pull away, he sensed the Martinsville, Ind., driver, who led 24 laps, still had another proverbial gear in reserve.

“I could tell he was about 75 percent, and I was running pretty hard,” Thornton said. “I just had to make sure if I got to those lapped cars I could stay with him and try to make a move. I felt like I could make a couple moves and then the yellow came back out. I was like, ‘Man, there goes the race.’”

Instead, a string of cautions on laps 35, 37 and 41 worked in Thornton’s favor.

“I felt like I had a couple good starts trying to get to his left-rear getting into turn one,” he said.
On the restart with 10 laps remaining, Thornton executed his decisive move, one O’Neal couldn’t counter.

“I knew when I slid him he was gonna cross me,” Thornton said. “I figured if I could race him hard into three and make him overcharge turn three and stop and turn, and hopefully catch the traction off four, I could drive back by him. And it worked out.”

Another yellow followed with five laps remaining for Kyle Beard, forcing Thornton to execute again.

“I didn’t know if that yellow was good or bad, but I had to make sure I hit the restart right and have him do the exact same thing to me,” Thornton said. “It worked out for us.

“Obviously, I have to thank Joe Adams for giving me this opportunity to run his car. Got to thank Bobby Koehler for letting me do it, too, and Jeff and Penny Hoker are a big part of this whole deal in getting this put together.”

Thornton plans to remain in Tulsa for the remainder of the Chili Bowl, but there’s a possibility he’ll fly back to Casa Grande next Sunday for the $25,000-to-win finale. After Saturday’s victory, that possibility feels more like a promise.

"It’s definitely hard to not come back,” Thornton said. “I was telling people, if we won, I feel like we have to come back. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the 20RT again.”

The fourth-starting O’Neal, meanwhile, commanded laps 17-40 before giving way to Thornton and settling for second. He earned $22,000, including $12,000 in lap-leader bonus cash, but believed the trio of cautions in a seven-lap span between laps 35-41 gave Thornton too many chances to strike.

Before the lap-35 yellow, O’Neal held his largest lead of the night at 1.6 seconds.

“Ricky did a great job. We just kept having restarts and I knew I ran my tires pretty hard there through the middle of the race,” O’Neal said. “You don’t know if you’re going to have a caution or not. I just kept going, trying to lead every lap I could for the lap money, but also trying to get away from them so whenever we got into lapped traffic I had a little bit of a buffer.

“We just kept having restarts, and he kept getting to practice and practice. And finally, he got a run on me down here in three.”

All told, Thornton’s winning move “kind of caught me off guard,” O’Neal said.

“I seen his nose a couple times on the restarts before. As I said, he did a great job,” he added. “I probably, more so than anything, had a little more left than I did there at the end. Appreciate Kevin (Rumley) and everyone that’s a part of this K&L No. 6.”

Cade Dillard rounded out the podium in third with an impressive charge from the 16th starting spot. The Robeline, La., native snatched third from 18th-starting Ryan Gustin on a lap-46 restart.

“Hats off to the track crew. After last night (at practice), I thought there wouldn’t be much passing,” Dillard said. “We were able to come from 16th and had a really good car. The longer we ran, the more the track slowed down and the better we got. These are two really good race car drivers we’re racing with. We had a good car.”

Feature lineup

(50 laps)

Row 1: Ricky Thornton Jr., Dillon McCowan
Row 2: Garrett Alberson, Hudson O'Neal
Row 3: Eston Whisler, Tyler Erb
Row 4: Clay Stuckey, Mike Marlar
Row 5: Ethan Dotson, Drake Troutman
Row 6: Brandon Sheppard, R.C. Whitwell
Row 7: Bobby Pierce, Dustin Sorensen
Row 8: Daniel Adam, Cade Dillard
Row 9: Jonathan Davenport, Ryan Gustin
Row 10: Jake O'Neil, Bricen James
Row 11: Chase Junghans, Tyler Peterson
Row 12: Kyle Beard, Billy Moyer
Row 13: Kylan Garner

Dash results

(eight laps; winner transfers)

Finish: Kylan Garner, Terry Phillips, Jake Timm, Eli Ross, Amelia Eisenschenk, Chance Mann, Laela Eisenschenk, Tim Ward.

Consolation results

(10 laps; top four transfer)

First consolation: Jonathan Davenport, Jake O'Neil, Chase Junghans, Kyle Beard, Tim Ward, Terry Phillips, Chance Mann, Amelia Eisenschenk, Mike Greseth, Cole Schill, Brad Williams, Richard Papenhausen, Paul Rios, Steve Stultz. Scratched: Justin Duty.

Second consolation: Ryan Gustin, Bricen James, Tyler Peterson, Billy Moyer, Kylan Garner, Jake Timm, Laela Eisenschenk, Sammy Mars, Eli Ross, Ian Whisler, Gunner Frank, Terry Carter, Peyton George, Ashlee Buck, Scratched: Tim Isenberg.

Heat race recap

Second-starting Garrett Alberson got the jump on polesitter Eston Whisler on the opening start and led all eight laps to win the first heat race by 3.094 seconds over Whisler. Seventh-starting Ethan Dotson used a three-wide pass to finish third, while sixth-starting Bobby Pierce muscled his way by Jake O’Neil for the fourth and final transfer spot into the 40-lap feature. Jonathan Davenport slipped by O’Neil in the closing laps to finish fifth, relegating O’Neil to sixth. Seventh-running Justin Duty pulled off on the fourth lap and was credited with 12th. … Pole-starting Dillon McCowan led the entire distance to win the second heat by 0.515 of a second over third-starting Clay Stuckey, who used the bottom line to pressure McCowan in the late going. Fifth-starting Brandon Sheppard finished third while second-starting Daniel Adam held on to finish fourth. … Ricky Thornton Jr. powered around the outside of early leader Tyler Erb and paced the final seven laps in winning heat three, taking the checkers 1.855 seconds ahead of Erb. Drake Troutman started and finished third while fifth-starting Dustin Sorensen grabbed the fourth and final transfer position into the $25,000-to-win miniseries opener. The race's initial restart was called back … Hudson O’Neal earned a flag-to-flag victory in the fourth and final heat race, winning by 1.464 seconds over Mike Marlar, who trailed O’Neal all eight laps. R.C. Whitwell finished third with fifth-starting Cade Dillard rounding out the top-four finishers. … Tim Isenberg drew the race’s lone caution after contact with Billy Moyer sent him head-first into the backstretch wall, ending his night. Isenberg was heard saying he was trying to exact payback on Moyer after earlier contact in the prelim; Moyer continued to finish seventh while Isenberg was credited with 11th.

Heat results

(Eight laps; top four transfer)

First heat: Garrett Alberson, Eston Whisler, Ethan Dotson, Bobby Pierce, Jonathan Davenport, Jake O'Neil, Chase Junghans, Chance Mann, Richard Papenhausen, Cole Schill, Mike Greseth, Justin Duty.

Second heat: Dillon McCowan, Clay Stuckey, Brandon Sheppard, Daniel Adam, Steve Stultz, Tim Ward, Kyle Beard, Terry Phillips, Amelia Eisenschenk, Brad Williams, Paul Rios.

Third heat: Ricky Thornton Jr., Tyler Erb, Drake Troutman, Dustin Sorensen, Ryan Gustin, Sammy Mars, Bricen James, Laela Eisenschenk, Ian Whisler, Gunner Frank, Terry Carter, Ashlee Buck.

Fourth heat: Hudson O'Neal, Mike Marlar, R.C. Whitwell, Cade Dillard, Kylan Garner, Jake Timm, Billy Moyer, Tyler Peterson, Eli Ross, Peyton George, Tim Isenberg.

Time trials

Group A
Driver (car no.), hometown
1. Eston Whisler (82), Otis, Ore., 15.327
2. Dillon McCowan (8), Urbana, Mo., 15.391
3. Garrett Alberson (58), Las Cruces, N.M., 14.485
4. Daniel Adam (75A), Peru, Ill., 15.511
5. Jake O’Neil (0), Tucson, Ariz., 15.544
6. Clay Stuckey (15s), Shreveport, La., 15.564
7. Jonathan Davenport (49), Blairsville, Ga., 15.621
8. Terry Phillips (75), Springfield, Mo., 15.656
9. Justin Duty (15D), Molalla, Ore., 15.707
10. Brandon Sheppard (B5), New Berlin, Ill., 15.770
11. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., 15.836
12. Kyle Beard (86), Trumann, Ark., 15.907
13. Ethan Dotson (74x), Bakersfield, Calif., 15.939
14. Steve Stultz (78s), Peoria, Ariz., 15.981
15. Chase Junghans (18), Manhattan, Kan., 16.069
16. Tim Ward (4tw), Mesa, Ariz., 16.261
17. Chance Mann (88), Newport, Ark., 16.792
18. Amelia Eisenschenk (1x), Fargo, N.D., 16.866
19. Mike Greseth (11), Harwood, N.D., 17.015
20. Brad Williams (23), Tucson, Ariz., 17.106
21. Cole Schill (15*), Hawley, Minn., 17.311
22. Paul Rios (19rt), Tucson, Ariz., 19.154
23. Richard Papenhausen (4p), Chico, Calif., no time
Group B
1. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., 16.138
2. Hudson O’Neal (6), Martinsville, Ind., 16.165
3. Tyler Erb (1), New Waverly, Texas, 16.225
4. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., 16.263
5. Drake Troutman (22*), Hyndman, Pa., 16.268
6. R.C. Whitwell (96), Tucson, Ariz., 16.282
7. Ryan Gustin (19R), Marshalltown, Iowa, 16.053*
8. Kylan Garner (128), Neosho, Mo., 16.311
9. Dustin Sorensen (19), Rochester, Minn., 16.533
10. Cade Dillard (97), Robeline, La., 16.574
11. Bricen James (13), Albany, Ore., 16.584
12. Tim Isenberg (9T), Marshfield, Wis., 16.595
13. Sammy Mars (28), Menomonie, Wis., 16.597
14. Billy Moyer (48), Batesville, Ark., 16.682
15. Ian Whisler (28w), Otis, Ore., 16.861
16. Eli Ross (66), Muskogee, Okla., 16.876
17. Laela Eisenschenk (15), Fargo, N.D., 16.931
18. Tyler Peterson (1tpo), Hickson, N.D., 16.938
19. Gunner Frank (21F), Montrose, Iowa, 16.959
20. Jake Timm (49T), Winona, Minn., 17.049
21. Terry Carter (6T), Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, 17.666
22. Peyton George (0G), Rapid City, S.D., 18.223
23. Ashlee Buck (8B), Roswell, N.D., 19.030

*penalized six positions for deck height violation

Saturday’s schedule

(All times local)
11 a.m. - Pits open
2 p.m. - Drivers’ meeting
3 p.m. - Grandstands open
3 p.m. - On-track activity
- X-mod hot laps
- Modified hot laps
- Late Model group qualifying
Opening ceremonies
- X-mod heats (8 laps)
- Modified heats (8 laps)
- Late Model heats (8 laps)
Consolations
- X-mods (10 laps)
- Modifieds (10 laps)
- Late Models (12 laps)
- Late Model dash (8 laps)
Feature events
- Late Models (50 laps)
- X-mods (25 laps)
Modifieds (25 laps)
Postrace concert featuring Pryor Baird