Sheppard Racing and Koehler Motorsports aren't the only new teams Ricky Thornton Jr. will end up racing for this week.

With Saturday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., rained out, the reigning DirtonDirt.com Driver of the Year will race for Keith Kunz in this evening's USAC National Midget event at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Neb.

"He texted me (around 2:15 p.m. CT), 'Hey, I'm rained out at Wheatland. Do you have an extra car? I'm already on my way,'" Kunz told FloRacing in a phone interview Saturday. "I said, 'Oh yeah.' ... As soon as that happened, I called (FloRacing CEO) Michael (Rigsby) to advertise this and get some viewers for tonight."

Saturday will be Thornton's fourth-ever Midget start and first that's outside the Chili Bowl Nationals. In January, he missed transferring into his would-be first Chili Bowl Nationals feature by five spots in Saturday's B-main. For Thornton, who's "a big Micro Sprint Car and Midget fan," he's "extremely thankful" to race for Kunz's powerhouse Midget team for a night.

"I think it's going to be a great night," Thornton said.

Kunz has "always wanted to put Ricky in one of my midgets," adding that "it's going to be a neat opportunity at the right time, I think, with everything that's going on."

Kunz is used to high-level racers reaching out to him on the whim requesting to race one of his spare Midgets. In January, the powerhouse Midget owner fielded a last-minute Chili Bowl Nationals entry for Kyle Larson in Tulsa, Okla. 

Thornton's the sixth driver to Kunz's lineup Saturday alongside Jade Avedisian, Cale Drake, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller and Ryan Timms. Kunz has 12 race-ready cars on the fourth and final race of their five-day Midwest swing — two cars apiece for his five full-time drivers — and two spares cars, "so it's not going to interrupt us or anything like that."

"We have plenty of stuff and they're all pretty much race-ready," Kunz said. "You just have to roll them out of the trailer, put a little bit of a setup on them, and go. ... Ricky has a huge, real fan base. He's just a great race car driver with everything he sits in. He'll be fine."

Thornton's expected to arrive at Jefferson County Speedway at 5:45 p.m., which would be 15 minutes before hot laps. As for a car number, Kunz will figure that out as he readies one of his spare Midgets for Thornton's one-off start.

"He's definitely the hottest thing out there in the Late Models and pretty much anything he gets in," Kunz said. "He's super good. We've been wanting to get him in a Midget for a while now. The opportunity just hasn't arose. Now, here it is. ... We have this extra car for him, so let's see how he does and put on a show."