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Thornton, Jr. starts his Speedweeks with Modified victory at Volusia Speedway Park

By Matt Skipper

BARBERVILLE, FL (January 29) - Ricky Thornton, Jr. is hunting for a spot in elite company at Volusia Speedway Park.

After winning the 2025 DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator championship in his Super Late Model, the Chandler, AZ native began his event activity with the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds in 2026 by taking a visit to victory lane Thursday night, January 29.

Starting the 20-lap feature from the pole, Thornton took command as his two teammates, Evan Koehler and Jordan Koehler, followed in tow. He grew the lead to 1.7 seconds over the first seven laps of the feature until the first caution waved for a slowing Kyle Hammer.

Thornton kept the dominance into the restart by using the cushion, while the Koehler brothers felt the “Bluegrass State” pressure of Tyler Nicely. The Owensboro, KY racer started in 11th and worked his No. 25 machine into the top five for the restart, then used his momentum in the entrance of turn one to slide under Jordan for third place. On lap 10, Nicely powered his Modified to the inside of Evan in the same corner for second place.

At the helm of the pack, Thornton tried multiple lanes before settling with the high side through turns one and two, then shifting the car to the bottom of turns three and four to build a 2.7-second gap over Nicely.

When lapped traffic became an obstacle for Thornton to create forward progress, Nicely chopped the distance to a 1.1-second advantage with five laps remaining. Thornton added lapped cars between him and Nicely, and he regained the lead by 1.8 seconds as the “Grand Canyon State” racer crossed the twin checkered flags.

With Thornton’s victory, he joins Nick Hoffman, Kyle Bronson, Ryan Gustin, and Kyle Strickler as the only drivers to win a UMP Modified and Late Model Golden Gator.

“Hats off to Nick [Hoffman] and everyone at Elite Chassis,” Thornton said. “I think I had six or seven laps before tonight, and it was really good. Really, our whole team was good. I feel like I had a really good car, I could go where I needed to, and really, I think the lapped cars made me learn a lot more about my race car than I really thought. So hopefully I can be a little bit better come tomorrow.”

SUMMARY

UMP Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[11]; 3. 66-Cole Falloway[8]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[4]; 5. K9-Will Krup[3]; 6. 13-Charlie Mefford[10]; 7. 35A-Michael Altobelli[17]; 8. 35-David Stremme[7]; 9. 99H-Justin Haley[18]; 10. 77D-George Dixon[6]; 11. 97-Mitch Thomas[9]; 12. 09-Michael Ledford[14]; 13. 12L-Lucas Lee[20]; 14. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[16]; 15. 114K-Evan Koehler[1]; 16. 114-Jordan Koehler[5]; 17. 777-Trevor Neville[15]; 18. 17C-Coleman Evans[24]; 19. 77B-Ray Bollinger[23]; 20. 56-Chris Wilson[13]; 21. 3-Josh Sanford[19]; 22. 24CS-Curt Spalding[12]; 23. 45H-Kyle Hammer[21]; 24. 15X-Justin Stone[22]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 114K-Evan Koehler[1]; 2. 97-Mitch Thomas[2]; 3. 45H-Kyle Hammer[6]; 4. 1H-Ben Harmon[4]; 5. 99-Cole Hilton[3]; 6. 57-Charlie Sandercock[5]; 7. 24-Zeke McKenzie[9]; 8. 54-Zachary Hawk[7]; 9. (DNF) 11-Dylan Drake[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[2]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 3. 35A-Michael Altobelli[6]; 4. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[4]; 5. 01-Aidan Hinds[5]; 6. 7G-Seth Geary[7]; 7. 26-Adam Ogle[8]; 8. 05-Dave Wietholder[3]; 9. (DNS) 99W-Wade Olmsted

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 114-Jordan Koehler[1]; 2. 56-Chris Wilson[2]; 3. 3-Josh Sanford[6]; 4. 77B-Ray Bollinger[4]; 5. 43A-Mark Anderson[3]; 6. 17X-Richard Michael Jr[5]; 7. 5B-Bobby Bagley[7]; 8. 15H-Gator Hise[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 35-David Stremme[2]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 3. 0-Glenn Styres[5]; 4. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[6]; 5. 21B-Hunter Breland[3]; 6. 17W-Mikey Wilson[7]; 7. 51-Dalton Lanich[4]; 8. 11D-Brian Diveley[8]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 13-Charlie Mefford[2]; 3. 99H-Justin Haley[3]; 4. 15X-Justin Stone[7]; 5. 90-Jason Beaulieu[4]; 6. 17-Chris Wilson[6]; 7. 1-Eric Kinney II[8]; 8. 3G-Bryce Graber[9]; 9. (DNF) 10X-Billy Uptegraff[5]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 36-Kenny Wallace[2]; 2. 24CS-Curt Spalding[1]; 3. 27-Jason Garver[5]; 4. 7-Brad DeYoung[4]; 5. 96M-Mike McKinney[6]; 6. 28B-Jason Brookover[3]; 7. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[7]; 8. 52-Mikey Kopka[8]; 9. T23-Keith Tincher[9]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 77D-George Dixon[2]; 2. 09-Michael Ledford[4]; 3. 72-Todd Neiheiser[1]; 4. 72H-Tristan Chamberlain[3]; 5. 12L-Lucas Lee[7]; 6. X-Wyatt Scott[5]; 7. 9-Ken Schrader[6]; 8. 25B-Greg Belyea[8]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 2. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[5]; 3. 17C-Coleman Evans[4]; 4. 155-Peyton Harlow[3]; 5. 28-Mason Lobb[7]; 6. 8-Jimmy Lennex Jr[8]; 7. 17T-Tyler Evans[2]; 8. 3F-Rob Fuqua[6]