OCALA, Fla. — Ricky Thornton Jr. ended a frustrating streak of near-misses Sunday on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The Chandler, Ariz., driver dominated the final 26 laps at Bubba Raceway Park for a $10,000 victory, his fifth of his career on the national tour.

Thornton, previously winless in 2023 despite leading 55 laps in the previous two series events at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. — including Saturday's last-lap defeat by five-hundredths to a charging Brandon Overton — broke through in taking the checkers 1.4 seconds ahead of Max Blair.

Thornton, whose left-front tire started deflating during a lengthy mid-race red flag, couldn't help but be concerned his snakebitten ways might continue.

"My crew guy was telling me Max was right on me, and I was like 'Oh, great. Here we go again.' And then on the last lap, I screwed up off (turn) two and four and about felt like I was gonna put it in the fence and give it away," Thornton said. "But overall, we did it. I'm happy. We've had a really good Speedweeks so far."

Blair posted his best-ever Lucas Oil finish while Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga., 12th-starting Hudson O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., rounded out the top five in high-speed conditions.

VIDEO: Watch highlights from Sunday night's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Bubba Raceway Park. 

Pole-starting Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, slipped under Thornton in turn two on the third lap and led 11 circuits, but he fell from contention when he got too high entering turn one on a lap-14 restart, ducking into the pits a lap later with a deflating right-front tire. He pitted for new rubber and finished 10th.

Thornton, who also won on the Lucas Oil circuit at Ocala two years ago, was glad to get back to the oddly-shaped track that provided a stiff test for Georgia-Florida Speedweeks competitors.

"It's pretty awesome," Thornton said. "That's why I love come to this place. It's so technical and different compared to all the places we go to."

Thornton led the first two laps from outside the front row, but Moran blew underneath him between turns one and two to take command.

"I got the jump there on the start on Devin, and I felt like I was running as hard as I need to. And then he slid me (in turns one and two) and he was on the way harder than I wanted to go," Thornton said. "So I was like, 'You know what, go ahead and go,' and I'll just try to keep pace with him. I don't know if he broke right there on that restart or what, but he went down into (turn) one and he didn't even turn. Luckily I was able to get the lead and then just kind of hang on."

RELATED: Full Results - Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Sunday at Bubba Raceway Park

Blair, whose trials in the weekend's racing at Golden Isles including a pileup with his teammate Boom Briggs, was pleased to post his best 2023 finish.

"I had nothing for (Thornton). Heck, he had had a flat left-front and still drove off," Blair said. "We've got to get a little bit better. I really faded the last 10, 12 laps, so we'll see if we can't get a little bit better tomorrow. But it feels really good to get a good run. As a team as a whole we needed it, and hopefully we can carry the momentum on."

The third-finishing Winger, who captured Crate Late Model the previous two nights at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla., complimented Thornton's victory as well.

"We were pretty good, but obviously Ricky was pretty good to win on three tires, so congrats to them guys," Winger said. "I felt like we were better the longer we went. You know, the cautions kind of killed us."

Besides the lap-15 caution for Moran, the race had four other slowdowns, including a turn-two melee on a lap-20 restart that ended with the left wheels of Dennis Erb Jr.'s car perched atop Tim McCreadie's car and Tyler Bruening also part of the pileup. The wreck, triggered when O'Neal made contact with the left-rear corner of Bruening's car, required a 25-minute red-flag cleanup but no one was injured. Erb and McCreadie, the tour's two-time and reigning series champion, retired.

The other cautions came when second-running Earl Pearson Jr. had a flat right-rear tire on the 27th lap, for Ross Robinson's lap-20 spin and when Daulton Wilson slowed with apparent rear-end issues on lap 14.

Lucas Oil Series competitors chase another $10,000-to-win feature Monday at Bubba Raceway Park, then take a three-day break before continuing Speedweeks action Friday at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla.

Notes: Thornton's five Lucas Oil Series victories have come at three tracks, including two victories apiece at Ocala (the first in 2021) and Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park. ... In six Super Late Model starts in 2023, Thornton hasn't finished worse than fifth. ... The feature started about 8:25 and ended about 9:10. ... Several drivers swapped helmets or added vision-assisting tearoffs during the lap-20 red flag.