Moran Wires Lincoln For FloRacing Night Victory

Devin Moran in action at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway Thursday night. (Josh James photo)

LINCOLN, Ill. – Devin Moran won the third race of the FloRacing Night in America season Thursday night at Lincoln Speedway, leading every lap of the 50-lap event and picking up a $20,000 check.

In a similar fashion to Jonathan Davenport at Spoon River Speedway on Wednesday, Moran started in second and took the lead on lap one around the outside in turns one and two, never looking back after that.

Thursday was Moran’s second career win in the series, with his last one coming at Atomic Speedway in 2021. His only real threat came on the only restart with 24 laps to go, but Moran fired off well and maintained the top spot.

“What a rebound,” Moran said in victory lane. “I was in the infield looking at the track and my dad called me and said, ‘If you’re going to win in Illinois, you better get up on the wheel and gas that son of a gun,’ and that’s what I did. Kudos to my crew guys. We hurt a motor last night and we did not have the arch steel on, and I wish we [did]. We put it back on in the Clements motor tonight. This thing just ran flawless[ly].”

Ricky Thornton Jr. was able to rebound after an 11th-place finish at Spoon River to earn a runner-up at Lincoln. Thornton was in a heated battle for the first ten laps with Brandon Overton for the second spot, but was able to clear him and set his sights on Moran.

Within 15 laps to go, Thornton was able to close the gap to the leader, but not enough to catch him.

“We really didn’t know how good we’d be tonight, and I felt like we were really good,” Thornton said after the race. “Obviously Devin was a little bit better. Congrats to him. He drove a good race, even in traffic. We really didn’t want that yellow. I felt like my tires finally started going, which is kind of weird. We’re on soft tires but it took forever for me to get going.

“I don’t know if we need to mess with that right rear a little bit more or what. Overall, though, a great night for us.”

Garrett Alberson fired from pole, but Moran took the lead on the opening lap in turns one and two. Thornton and Overton battled for over ten laps for second before ‘RTJ’ took the spot, allowing Moran to open a comfortable lead.

Just after halfway, Mike Marlar slowed on track to draw the only caution of the race.

The race restarted with 24 laps remaining, and Moran again jumped out ahead of the field. Thornton held onto second and Bobby Pierce took over the third spot. The ‘Smooth Operator’ was reeling in both Thorton and Moran, but with nine laps to go he hooked a rut in turn two, sending him into the outside wall and ending his hopes of winning.

The last five laps saw lap traffic get heavy for Moran, but he was able to hang on to score the win.

Thornton crossed the line in second, and Shirley rounded out the podium. Ryan Gustin took home fourth and Pierce fell back to fifth after his near-wreck with nine to go.

The next race for the FloRacing Night in America series is Tuesday, May 13 at Marshalltown (Iowa) Speedway. Coverage will be live on FloRacing starting at 6:30 p.m. ET for hot laps.

The next race for Illinois Speedweeks is Friday at Farmer City Raceway for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. FloRacing will have coverage starting with hot laps at 7:15 p.m. ET.

The finish:

A-Feature (50 laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran [2]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr. [3]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley [8]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin [6]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce [7]; 6. 74X-Ethan Dotson [10]; 7. 9-Tim McCreadie [13]; 8. 76-Brandon Overton [4]; 9. 9H-Nick Hoffman [12]; 10. 1-Brandon Sheppard [21]; 11. 58-Garrett Alberson [1]; 12. 1T-Tyler Erb [5]; 13. 49-Jonathan Davenport [16]; 14. 60-Dan Ebert [9]; 15. 157-Mike Marlar [15]; 16. 25-Jason Feger [14]; 17. 40B-Kyle Bronson [11]; 18. 11G-Gordy Gundaker [19]; 19. 18D-Daulton Wilson [17]; 20. 28-Dennis Erb Jr. [23]; 21. 15-Clay Stuckey [22]; 22. 31-Tyler Millwood [20]; 23. 93-Carson Ferguson [18]; 24. 38J-Jake Little [24].