As 35-year-old Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., rolled into the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series postrace technical inspection area following his Jackson 100 victory at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway on Saturday, one well-known crew member repeated the same mantra over and over.

“He’s an animal,” two-time World 100 winner Brian Birkhofer said. “He’s an animal.”

The Hall of Fame racer from Muscatine, Iowa — and temporary addition to the Koehler Motorsports team of the Lucas Oil Series points leader — watched Thornton with immense respect as he circled the quarter-mile oval in southern Indiana, outdueling Devin Moran to pocket the $50,000 payday.

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“I've seen him and watched him, but I never really personally met him until last Thursday,” said Birkhofer, brought on board the team through his association with fellow Iowan and his former crew member Zach Frields, who crews for Thornton. “He's just a genuine, humble person. I met his parents, and it tells you a lot about somebody when you meet their parents, so it’s been a lot of fun. He's an easygoing guy. There's no arrogance to him. And it's just fun to watch him.”

It was certainly fun to watch Thornton battle with Moran during Brownstown’s annual century grind. Moran paced the field for the first 21 circuits before surrendering the lead to Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who led the 100-lapper for laps 22-46. Moran regained the lead for laps 46-75 before a pursuing Thornton finally caught up with the Dresden, Ohio driver. Thornton steadily maintained a top-five position, saving his tires and equipment for crunch time.

“Being on a hard tire, really, you just don't want to go too hard too quick and blister them,” Thornton said. “They get way too hot on the top layer and they blister real bad, and then you're not very good at the end. I was trying to run hard, but I really didn't want to fall out of the top five. I feel like if you get more than two rows back on a restart, you really don't know what's going to happen.”

Thornton also used restarts to his advantage. The caution for a slow Clay Harris on lap 65 was a critical restart for Thornton, allowing him to get a great run on Moran.

“Bobby picked the bottom and I was kind of glad he did because I knew Devin was going to go back to the top on the restart,” Thornton said. “I was able to make a good lap and get by him. It worked out for us.”

“(Moran) was running the bottom. And the top wasn't really any faster, I don't think, but the straightaway speed difference — you could make so much more straightaway speed. He never tried to chop me or nothing. So that part was nice. We were racing hard and I think we never touched once.”

After several circuits of thrilling sliders, Thornton wrested control for good on lap 76 and never looked back. The victory put Thornton 80 points ahead of Moran with three races to go in the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship, and well-ahead of Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., who had nightmarish weekends at Brownstown. Contact with Moran caused Davenport to spin — the second time in as many nights. He recovered to finish sixth Saturday, but O’Neal faded to finish 17th at his home track, where he retired a night earlier after an early scrape with Thornton resulted in right-front damage.

The playoffs move to Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway next weekend.

“I think now we're back to where we started the weekend,” Thornton said. “At least for me and Devin, obviously, we beat Hudson, so we get points on him and then J.D.'s mishap with him and Devin. It’ll make Pittsburgh easier.”