Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr. Thrash To Fix Cars Before All-Tech
Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr. Thrash To Fix Cars Before All-Tech
Jonathan Davenport and Ricky Thornton Jr. worked overtime the last few days to get ready for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at All-Tech Raceway.

Jonathan Davenport and Ricky Thornton Jr. worked overtime the last few days to get ready for this weekend's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action at All-Tech Raceway.
For the 41-year-old Davenport, he suffered considerable damage to his No. 49 Longhorn Chassis during Wednesday practice at All-Tech — the very race car he’s used to started the season with three straight runner-ups.
The Lucas Oil campaigner overstepped the razor-thin cushion entering turn one roughly an hour into the night’s practice session, and that left he and his Double L Motorsports team to replace the right-front suspension, the J-bar and driveshaft.
“When we wrecked, I actually thought it was worse than it was,” Davenport said. “I thought it was a right-front clip. It looks OK. We’ll put everything back together and try to run the same one. Hopefully it’ll be OK. It’s a really fast race car. And it was really good down here when we tested. Actually, I was looking forward to coming here.”
Davenport’s lap of 16.610 seconds had been, and panned out to be, the fastest lap of the night. The Blairsville, Ga., superstar calls All-Tech “feast or famine” for him. Last year, he finished 14th and 15th at the challenging half-mile. In 2023, he won the lone Lucas Oil event at All-Tech.
“I can hardly make the same lap twice here,” Davenport said. “It’s not because it’s you. The track’s changing constantly and you just need to steer. That’s the biggest thing we do with these cars here is we steer off the right-front tire, or we try to.”
With World of Outlaws driver Tyler Bruening jumping out to the Lucas Oil points leader after winning Jan. 17 at Golden Isles, Davenport’s the de facto series leader among the drivers who have pledged their commitment to the tour. As good as he’s been to start 2025, staying mishap-free at All-Tech the rest of the week will be key.
“I was telling (Kevin) Rumley out there about mid-practice, ‘I don’t know what it is, but I’ve tore up more stuff at this track testing or practicing than I have my whole career put together than anywhere else,’” Davenport said. “And I just added to it tonight. That’s just the way it goes sometimes at this place.”
As for the 34-year-old Thornton, the Longhorn Chassis staffers and the Koehler Motorsports team worked overtime the past three days so Thornton's No. 20 race program is back at full strength this week.
Thornton's race car that he wrecked last Friday at Volusia, forcing him to a backup Saturday, is fixed thanks to his crew and Longhorn staffers working an overnight shift Sunday into Monday morning.
“Yeah, we stripped it quick, got it back and got it all painted,” Thornton said. “Worked on it all day yesterday, all night. Left yesterday morning to head here. Got here right as practice was starting. I feel like, right out of the box, it’s pretty good.”
Thornton’s team made the eight-hour tow from Barberville, Fla., to the Koehler shop in Mount Airy, N.C., by 8:30 p.m. Sunday. By 11 p.m. that night, they had the car shipped an hour south to Longhorn’s headquarters in China Grove, N.C., where chassis staffers worked overnight to fix the reigning Lucas Oil champ’s primary car.
Thornton and his new-look team led by 22-year-old crew chief Nathan Sletto thrashed Monday and Tuesday to arrive minutes before the 6 p.m. start of Wednesday’s practice at the Florida half-mile.
“We haven’t had much of a breather. As I said, car felt pretty good tonight, so hopefully we’re running valves, making sure everything is good,” Thornton said. “It’s been a bunch of different motor stuff going on. I think Golden Isles and Volusia are so wide-open, random things are breaking. We’re trying to prevent that and we’re looking to tomorrow.”
Thornton has a best finish of 19th on Saturday at Volusia in two features to start 2025. He failed to finish all the laps Jan. 17 at Golden Isles in his 22nd-place finish at the Lucas Oil opener.
Fine-tuning his engine packages amid the inconsistent Georgia-Florida weather that’s ranged from 35-70 degrees is what Thornton and his team are focused on at All-Tech.
“The weather’s been hot and cold, so you really have to be on top of that,” Thornton said. “We’ve been fortunate with Clements Racing Engine we haven’t had any big problems.”
Odds and ends
Forty-three drivers participated in Wednesday’s practice topped by Jonathan Davenport’s lap of 16.610 seconds. … After Tuesday’s fiery incident at Needmore Speedway, Brian Shirley is expected to race Thursday at All-Tech and soldier through the three-race weekend with one race car until he acquires a second Longhorn Chassis. … Veterans Shane Clanton (driving Austin Smith’s No. 11 Capital Race Car) and Dale McDowell (driving the Riggs Motorsports No. 81) are expected to race. … Davenport wasn’t the only high-profile driver to hit the wall during Wednesday’s practice. Hudson O’Neal said he lost “30-45 minutes” of practice time because he got into the wall, Clanton had to be towed back to the pits when he clobbered the wall in turns one and two, and McDowell and Drake Troutman also who found the fence. McDowell’s and Troutman’s race cars, along with O’Neal’s, are OK.