Cole Denton Secures Thursday Thunder Championship

Cole Denton (left) celebrates his Thursday Thunder championship with 77 Speed Shop owner Noah Cornman. (Tina Denton photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – While his good friend Bryce Sanders celebrated a race win Thursday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Cole Denton walked away with the biggest prize of all.

With a runner-up finish in the 20-lap Thursday Thunder finale on the quarter-mile AMS Thunder Ring, Denton wrapped up the Young Lions division championship for the eight-race mini-series.

The 13-year-old from Pascagoula, Miss., won half of the races during the summer, and he only needed a third-place finish in the last feature of the summer to secure the crown.

Starting on the pole – by virtue of points after incoming inclement weather forced alterations to the racing program – gave Denton the track position he needed to do just that.

Denton and Sanders engaged in a race-long battle, trading the lead three times among one another and each leading 10 of the 20 laps along the way.

Though Sanders made the race-winning pass with six laps left, Denton settled into the runner-up position and held it to the finish, coming .215 seconds short of his fifth win of the summer but securing the points title by three markers over Sanders in the end.

It was what Denton called “a near-perfect finish” to an improbably dominant Thursday Thunder championship run.

“That was awesome,” he said in describing the final night of racing. “Bryce and I race hard against one another at Atlanta, Cordele [Motor Speedway] … every time we’re on track together. Even on iRacing, the two of us get to compete all the time, so to race wheel-to-wheel for a championship and both be able to celebrate a little in the end … you can’t ask for much more than that.

“When we came into this summer, we wanted to challenge for the points here, but I don’t think we ever dreamed of having a Thursday Thunder season quite like this,” he added. “To win half of the races and have it come down to a really, really close battle like that is something special. It’s been super fun and something that I’ll remember for a long time.”

Behind Sanders and Denton, Dylan Bongiovanni, Mitchell Flater, and Will Haire closed the top five finishers.

Denton would like to thank 77 Speed Shop, Matt Jones Motorsports, Race Face Brand Development, Race Face Digital, the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, Myers Construction Co., and City Chevrolet for their continued partnership and support of his racing efforts.

With the Thursday Thunder season complete, Denton will continue his pursuit of the overall Atlanta Motor Speedway track championship on Aug. 10 with double features at the quarter-mile Thunder Ring.

About Cole Denton Racing

Nicolas “Cole” Denton is a 13-year-old Gulf South racer with dreams of racing at the top level of stock car racing. From Pascagoula, Miss., Denton began racing go-karts at the age of four and advanced into Bandoleros by the time he was eight years old, where his racing brand and nickname were born.

It was in Bandoleros where Denton, a fan of the iconic racing movie Days of Thunder, adopted the No. 46 as his car number and stylized his Bandolero scheme in black and neon green – akin to the same Mello Yello colors that Tom Cruise’s character Cole Trickle campaigned in the 1990 film.

Denton quickly picked up the nickname “Cole Trickle” at his races, and the persona stuck as his racing stock climbed, leading him to continue racing under the name Cole as he advanced and found success.

His breakout season came in 2022, when Denton accrued 40 wins and 59 podium finishes in 62 starts en route to the INEX Bandolero national championship, leading him into his first year in Legend cars last season.

Away from the driver’s seat, Denton is an avid iRacer, cyclist, and push scooter racer. He also practices flying on a flight simulator and attends both local and NASCAR races as his schedule permits.

For more information on Cole Denton, visit his website at https://coledentonracing.com/.