Devin Moran moved to victory lane in Saturday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Lucas Oil Speedway after initial winner Ricky Thornton, Jr. was penalized post-race. Photo: LOLMDS Media
Devin Moran was declared the winner of the Show-Me 100 for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri after the initial winner, Ricky Thornton, Jr., was penalized four spots post-race for a droop limiter infraction.
Moran earned a career-best payday of $50,000 in the crown jewel event and becomes the ninth different winner in the past nine Show-Me 100 events. Moran also marks the 16th different driver to win the traditional Memorial Weekend event in its 31-year history.
Tim McCreadie was moved to second in the final rundown with Spencer Hughes third, Chris Ferguson fourth, and Thornton fifth.
Blairsville, Georgia’s Jonathan Davenport grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag. Thornton would run in the second spot for the first 20 laps before McCreadie was able to wrestle the spot away from him. McCreadie stayed in the second spot until lap 31 when Thornton regained the position. Hughes was one of the fastest cars on the track at the time – moving from eighth to third and then eventually to second by lap 36. After a lap 37 restart, Hughes yielded the second spot back to Thornton.
Thornton would then track down Davenport as the two went back-and-forth in the battle for the lead. Thornton cleared Davenport for the point on lap 58 becoming the first driver other than Davenport to lead a lap in three nights of racing. Thornton then pulled away from Davenport stretching his lead out by several car lengths.
Overton’s night ended a few laps from the finish as he brought out the caution when he made hard contact with the wall coming off turn four. After one final restart, Thornton would outrun Moran to the checkers, but would drop to fifth in the running order following post-race tech.
“This is like the best-worst win of my life. I just won the freaking Show-Me 100 and $50,000, but Ricky (Thornton) was the best car in the field and right there before that last caution I was making a boatload of time in one and two. I was just charging really hard to get through there, I was feeling really good. I don’t now what our lap times were compared to the 20RT before that caution. I got a really good restart for sure.”
Moran gave credit to his victory to Kevin Rumley in his post-race interview.
“First and foremost, there is a bad son-of-a-gun in North Carolina named Kevin Rumley,” said Moran. “This win, 110% of it goes to that man. My entire career has been working our tails off. We’ve worked as many hours as you could imagine this week. Obviously, I want to thank Roger (Sellers) and his family for giving me this opportunity.”
Dillon McCowan, Tyler Erb, Garrett Alberson, Daulton Wilson, and Ricky Weiss rounded out the top 10.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returns to action with a two-night stand at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, West Virginia on Friday and Saturday, June 2-3. For more information, visit LucasDirt.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, MO
Show-Me 100 – May 27, 2023
1. 99-Devin Moran
2. 39-Tim McCreadie
3. 11-Spencer Hughes
4. 22F-Chris Ferguson
5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
6. 8-Dillon McCowan
7. 1T-Tyler Erb
8. 58-Garrett Alberson
9. 18D-Daulton Wilson
10. 7W-Ricky Weiss
11. 49-Jonathan Davenport
12. 111B-Max Blair
13. 20-Jimmy Owens
14. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck
15. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
16. 11H-Jeff Herzog
17. 76-Brandon Overton
18. 25C-Chad Simpson
19. 16-Tyler Bruening
20. 1H-Hudson O’Neal
21. 25Z-Mason Zeigler
22. 32-Chris Simpson
23. USA28-Kylan Garner
24. 14G-Trevor Gundaker
25. 7-Ross Robinson
26. 51-Larry Ferris
27. 99B-Boom Briggs
28. 22H-Dustin Hodges
29. 15L-Payton Looney
30. 15-Justin Duty
31. 2-Tyler Stevens
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