Moran Picks Up Where He Left Off At Huset’s

BRANDON, S.D. — Defending Silver Dollar Nationals champion Devin Moran continued his success from a year ago at Huset’s Speedway, winning the $10,000-to-win Thursday portion of the 15th annual Silver Dollar Nationals presented by MyRacePass.

It was Moran’s sixth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing win of the season.

Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second, reclaiming the points lead by 20 points ahead of Jonathan Davenport, who ended up seventh.

Bobby Pierce earned the Hoker Trucking Hard Charger award, coming from the 11th starting position to finish third.

Garrett Alberson and Hudson O’Neal completed the top five drivers.

Thornton took the lead at the start of the 40-lap main event and led the first four laps until Moran, who started on the outside of the second row, overtook him for the lead.

Moran then led the remaining 36 laps of the race to win by 0.917 seconds over Thornton.

“Man, this is nothing like what I grew up on. For some reason, when the track gets like that, I feel like I can drive it really well. The guys just gave me an amazing car, you know,” Moran said. “This is the first time we’ve had this car out since the Show-Me 100, and it was right back to where we were.

“I felt like my car was so good that I could be patient, and once I found a gap, I could go. I knew if I couldn’t get by them, Ricky couldn’t get by me, so I just bided my time. I want to give a huge shoutout to Huset’s. They’ve been working on that berm, and they said they’re going to keep working on it, but the track was phenomenal tonight. It had a little more moisture than I realized, but they did a great job for us.”

Thornton tried to stay with Moran through lapped traffic and had to fend off Tuesday night’s winner at Shelby County, Bobby Pierce, to secure the second spot.

“Whenever you become the point leader in anything, it’s a big deal. The only downside is that I lost 10 points to Devin come playoff time, so congratulations to him,” Thornton said. “His performance was really good, and I felt like I had a really good car too, but sometimes late in the race, you just don’t know where to be. I thought the top would be better, which is why I was watching Shirley—they were a little better around the top in one and two than I was.

“On that restart, I figured I’d go to the top, but then I saw Devin underneath me, and I was thinking if he drives by me in one and two, I’m kind of screwed. It didn’t work out for us, but I feel like we have a lot of good momentum heading into tomorrow.”

Pierce, who won the Silver Dollar Nationals in 2019, charged from the inside of row number six to round out the podium.

“This place is definitely up on the wheel,” he explained. “There’s not really a point where you can relax on this track, but through that corner you’re always up on the wheel. It’s usually a little choppy into three when we’re hauling the mail around there. You can pick up a lot of speed if you hit it right, but if the car bounces the wrong way, you lose some speed.

“It’s tough, but we tried our best to rebound tonight. We did a pretty good job, and if that one caution hadn’t come out, it really got to me because I had just moved up to fifth and was right under JD, then the caution came out and I dropped back to seventh, so I had to fight for those positions again.”

The finish:

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran (4); 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr (1); 3. 32-Bobby Pierce (11); 4. 58-Garrett Alberson (6); 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal (10); 6. 3S-Brian Shirley (2); 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport (3); 8. 1-Brandon Sheppard (7); 9. 1T-Tyler Erb (8); 10. 79-Donald McIntosh (16); 11. 76-Brandon Overton (13); 12. 74X-Ethan Dotson (17); 13. 28-Dennis Erb Jr (19); 14. 19M-Spencer Hughes (15); 15. 6-Clay Harris (23); 16. 60-Dan Ebert (22); 17. 76N-Blair Nothdurft (18); 18. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck (14); 19. 93-Carson Ferguson (21); 20. 17SS-Brenden Smith (20); 21. 93L-Cory Lawler (12); 22. 8L-Matthew Larson (24); 23. 22*-Drake Troutman (9); 24. 18D-Daulton Wilson (5).