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Nick Graziano
October 30th 2024
Scanning the World of Outlaws World Finals Sprint Car entry list you’ll find a 10-time champion, a history-making rookie, the leading open-wheel drivers in the country and Ricky Thornton Jr.
The recent national Late Model champion will attempt to make his World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series debut at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Nov. 6-9, piloting Bernie Stuebgen’s Indy Race Parts No. 71.
“It’s always something I wanted to do, just never had the right opportunity,” Thornton said. “I was fortunate enough to go test for three days, two of them at Charlotte. It’ll help my learning curve a lot. Obviously, not being in dirty air, there’s still a lot I’ll have to learn. I feel like we’re doing what we can to be as prepared as we can before World Finals.”
Thornton’s connection with Stuebgen stemmed from happenstance when the two parked next to each other during a race night two years ago. They kept in touch and waited for the right opportunity to work together.
Enter, 2024.
With his Late Model program in a place he was happy with, Thornton and Stuebgen targeted World Finals as the site of their debut. However, with rain washing out one of Thornton’s Late Model weekends, the duo decided to jump into an event at Lernerville Speedway. They didn’t qualify for the Features, but the experience gave Thornton a better idea of what he’ll be walking into at Charlotte.
“The biggest thing is a lot of like the way the car drives,” Thornton said. “Watching it and how the car feels in the seat, I feel, is completely different. Just figuring out that dirty air. Dirty air is big in the Late Model, but it is just as big in the Sprint Car, where if you lose air on the nose or lose air on the top wing… there’s just a lot I had to learn in a really quick time. Where at least now, I feel a little more confident going to Charlotte, what I should do and what I should absolutely not do.”
Thornton has only made four starts at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in a Late Model, but his last two saw him in Victory Lane with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models. They’re two victories he’ll try to defend as Thornton will also be pulling double duty all four nights, jumping back and forth the between the Sprint Car and the Koehler Motorsports No. 20RT Late Model.
“I think it’ll be alright,” Thornton said about jumping between the two cars. “I think the biggest hurdle is having the Sprint Car up top (in the upper pits) and the Late Model down below. That side of it, luckily, Bernie and all of them will have everything fully taken care of up there so I can just hop in and go. Where with the Late Model I’m a lot more involved. I kind of have to focus on both.
“But, obviously, one of our goals with the Sprint Car, at least for me, is to make the race, then just kind of go from there and see how we do. I feel like on our Late Model side, our car has been really good lately. We won the race last year, so we want to back that up.”
He won’t have to worry about there being speed in his No. 71 ride as it’s already visited Victory Lane at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Giovanni Scelzi piloted it to a win during the Patriot Nationals in 2019, out dueling Kyle Larson for the win. In total, Stuebgen has seen his car score three World of Outlaws victories – two with Scelzi and one with Shane Stewart.
Thornton was able to get some early laps around the 4/10-mile dirt track in the Indy Race Parts car during a couple of recent test sessions. He turned competitive laps, holding times in the 13 second bracket. Sheldon Haudenschild set overall Quick Time last year with a 13.694 second lap.
“I felt really good,” Thornton said about the test. “I made good laps and learned a few little things that’ll help me, as far as if it’s Qualifying or something like that. Overall, I had a blast. I jumped back and forth one day between the Late Model and the Sprint Car. It’s hard to realize how much faster the Sprint Car is until you get back in the Late Model. Like, I knew I was going fast, and then I ran the Late Model, and I was like, man, you’re going way faster than you really think about. Not that you’re nervous or anything like that. You just don’t realize it until you do go back-to-back.”
It’s a factor that may prove beneficial when he tries to repeat his Late Model victories. But overall, he said any track time, no matter the car, will be helpful track time.
World Finals is his only Sprint Car race on his radar right now, but Thornton didn’t turn down the idea of adding more races next year.
“Ideally, if I could run 10 races next year, that’d be awesome,” he said. “Obviously, our Late Model program is really good. I love Sprint Cars at the same time but if I could still run the Late Model full time and run the Sprint Car on off weekends or something like that, it would be pretty special.”
You can see Thornton compete with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models during the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Nov. 6-9. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
