Even when Ricky Thornton Jr. goes down to defeat in his amazing 2023 campaign, he goes down swinging.

The hard results will say that Saturday’s Battle by the River finale at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway was quite possibly one of Thornton’s worst nights of the season: a 22nd-place finish in the 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature and damaged engines in both of his SSI Motorsports cars

But everyone still knew RTJ was there. Oh, did they ever know it.

The 32-year-old native of Chandler, Ariz., very nearly pulled off the unthinkable achievement of winning a national touring series event — well, any Dirt Late Model event — from the last starting spot. If not for a terminally overheating engine that forced him out of the race after a lap-40 caution flag that had negated his pass for second place, he might have added another $50,000 triumph to his already bulging ’23 ledger.

But notable was Thornton and his team’s reaction to an outing that saw them have to pull out their backup car following a heat win and then lose out what could have been an epic come-from-behind triumph. They’ve been so good — and were so good again — that a turn of events that would normally be heartbreaking seemed to be only a momentary blip on their radar.

“It sucks,” Thornton said after changing into street clothes, “but I know we had a winning car.”

“It’s just one of them deals, one of them nights,” added Anthony Burroughs, Thornton’s crew chief. “You’re gonna have it. We’ve been very fortunate not to have any issues, and we had ‘em all in one night. We go home (to the team’s shop in Morgantown, Ind.), get washed up tomorrow, regroup, go get some drummies (chicken wings at Buffalo Wild Wings on Sunday night) and be ready for next week.”

Following a Friday-night semifeature effort that saw him turn up the wick to bolt from sixth to a third-place finish over the final six laps, Thornton rolled to victory in Saturday’s fifth heat to put him fifth in the A-main’s starting lineup. But his night began to go awry when his motor went sour — apparently due to a broken lifter that changed the sound of the powerplant — and sent his crew scurrying to unload their second No. 20RT.

Required by Lucas Oil Series rules to forfeit his prime starting position and drop to the rear of the field (25th) due to the car change, Thornton had a major challenge ahead of him. But he didn’t miss a beat as he quickly found his footing and picked off car after car, cracking the top 10 by lap 26, one circuit before the race’s first caution flag was displayed.

Ten laps later, when another caution flag waved, Thornton was up to fifth. And judging by his lap times, he ready to make a dramatic bid for victory on a half-mile oval that provided plenty of opportunities for him to pass.

“I was really good,” Thornton said. “I was kind of stuck for a few laps (after the initial start), and then I took off. I could run so much harder around the top than the guys in front of me, so I could carry so much more straightaway speed and I could slide ‘em in the next corner. I slid a lot of guys and only a couple of them crossed me over and we slid each other a couple times.

“I think the racetrack was awesome. You could run the middle, you could run the bottom, you could run the top. The restarts, I passed cars on the bottom and the top.

It was like a thin cushion to the wall, but the way it was built up, you wouldn’t ride the wall, but you could be on the wall,” he continued. “I mean, I got a little bit of right-rear damage, but it wasn’t like it knocked the spoiler off. You could kind of get up there (in past Lucas Oil Series events at Port Royal), but nothing like tonight. And it was crazy because the bottom still had speed to keep up.”

Thornton wasted no time on the lap-36 restart, bolting past Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, and eventual winner Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., in a single circuit to reach third place. Then, on lap 40, Thornton made an aggressive surge underneath Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., entering turn three, slid up the track and exited turn four in second place — only to look up and see the yellow flag flying for Ross Robinson of Georgetown, Del.

But Thornton never had a chance to regain second and make a bid for victory. During the caution period he suddenly stopped his car on the inside of turn two, waited for a Lucas Oil Series official to arrive on a four-wheeler and then asked to be pushed directly to his trailer in the pit area outside turn four.

Thornton’s engine was simply running too hot. A rock had apparently punctured his car’s radiator, draining its water and dashing his hopes.

“The yellow right before (lap 36) I was looking at (the engine temperature) and I was a little warm, but nothing terrible, and I had water pressure,” Thornton said. “I assume (the damaged to the radiator) had to happen before that, that’s why it started getting hot.

“As soon as the caution came out (on lap 40), I knew right away. (The engine) started acting a little goofy and the water pressure light came on, so I just put it in low (gear), turned it off, and had them push me in.”

Burroughs surmised that after taking a rock in the radiator, Thornton’s engine “probably ran awhile, and then when he slowed down (for the caution), it finally just lost all the rest of the water.”

Could Thornton’s motor have made it 10 more laps — and given him a chance to pass then leader Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., for the lead — if the race had stayed under green-flag conditions? Burroughs mused that “you never know,” but Thornton doubted it had that many circuits left in it.

“I would say it probably wouldn’t have, just because the yellow came out and I was parading around for two, three laps, and then it (overheated),” Thornton said. “It probably would have lasted another lap or two racing. You would’ve been at speed and then it really probably would’ve slowed down and been worse (melting down). It’s fixable at least.”

Indeed, while Thornton left Port Royal with two injured engines and acknowledged it was “a very expensive night” for team owner Todd Burns, the powerplants were not badly damaged and the team has four more Clements motors in their arsenal at the shop.

“They both gotta come out and go back to Clements,” Thornton said. “But other than the one we broke a rod on (earlier this season), we haven’t had any motor problems for a couple years. It’s just one of those freak deals.

“It’s just minor fixes,” added Burroughs. “(Engine builder) Clements does a really good job and they’ll get us back going. We’ll put two more in these (cars) and be back next week.”

Both driver and crew chief looked on the bright side of an otherwise troubling night.

“It’s nice to know when we bring out our backup car it’s just as good as our primary car,” said Thornton, who remained on top of the Lucas Oil Series standings by 290 points over O’Neal (after entering the weekend with a 415-point edge). “I know my guys work hard to make sure we can have that.

“It’s the second time we had this car out this year. Whenever we went to the backup and ran third that second prelim night at Wheatland (Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway during Memorial Day weekend’s Show-Me 100) was the only other time we ran it this year. It’s actually our old car, it’s a ’19 (that was driven by former SSI pilot O’Neal in ’19 and was Thornton’s primary machine in 2020-21). It’s an old but good one.”

Burroughs just marveled at how Thornton once again was in contention despite his travails.

“He was doing Ricky Thornton things,” Burroughs said. “That’s all you can say. He’s just showing off how much talent he really has.

“If the caution hadn’t come out we’re in second, so we were obviously gonna have a chance. I’m not gonna say we were gonna win the race, you never know, but he was giving us a chance to win the race and that’s all you can ask for.”