Anthony Burroughs needed to get some things off his chest upon arriving back to the SSI Motorsports transporter Monday evening at Eagle Raceway following Hudson O’Neal’s first victory since reuniting with the team last week.

The SSI crew chief’s first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series triumph apart from Ricky Thornton Jr. — the “special” tandem that’d been astonishingly disbanded after 50 victories since the start of last season — indeed turned out to be a bittersweet one.

“We obviously had something special. And this is nothing against Hud, but we were sad for a minute,” Burroughs said in light of Thornton’s release from SSI release. “It’s just like sports … you rally the troops. It’s my job to rally the troops.”

Dirt Late Model racing’s early July storylines have been well documented: (1) Thornton released from the Indiana-based SSI team; (2) O’Neal, the reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion, replacing Thornton at SSI and inheriting Burroughs as crew chief; (3) Thornton finding a new home with North Carolina-based Koehler Motorsports.

O’Neal and Thornton would like nothing more than to settle into their new teams and move on from being asked about the transition that shook the Dirt Late Model world. Burroughs would like to move forward as well. But, again, there are some things he’d had to get off his chest, specifically toward those who slander O’Neal, Thornton and even himself on social media or wherever else.

“The last couple of weeks have been extremely difficult,” Burroughs said. “And people in the media and in the sport, they thrive on that s---. And they get behind computer names and they want to talk and make accusations … say this, this, and this. People, unless they come out here and bust their ass everyday with us, and understand what’s going on, they don’t need to have an opinion.”

Burroughs didn’t even need to be asked a question for him to immediately dive into what’s weighed on him since Thornton’s departure. What irks him are the “people on the internet making everybody to be this villain,” and the “people making opinions and accusations” that are unwarranted.

“It just really bothers me because my guys and Hud’s guys … everybody’s life changed,” Burroughs said. “If we knew our life was changing, we would’ve been prepared for it. But none of us was. It is what it is.”

“It’s fine to speak if you know what you’re talking about, but if you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, then the best thing to do is to keep your mouth shut,” Burroughs added. “That’s what’s wrong with the world today. … It ain’t been good. It’s not a perfect situation for nobody.”

Make no mistake, Burroughs and the SSI team made it a priority Monday to celebrate their victory in the national tour’s debut at Eagle with O’Neal. Burroughs’s frankness addressing everything that’s happened over the last week is more personally liberating for him than anything because “I’ve sat here for a week and a half and haven’t said nothing.”

Burroughs would rather not spend majority of his postrace victory interview confronting these matters — “I don’t want to talk about, but it’s real life things. We’re big boys,” he said — but he also feels it’s part of his responsibility to stand up for the SSI team and the crew he oversees.

“The thing that pisses me off the most is, my guys work their ass off,” Burroughs said. “Nobody has talked about them. People just want to make a big deal about whatever. I think it’s really sad about society. People just need to take a step back and reevaluate themselves, and look for the good and not the bad. There’s so much bad in this world today, we make it all about that. It’s a terrible situation. But it is what it is.

“Everybody is going to be fine. Obviously Ricky has landed in a good spot. And I feel like we’re doing all right. I work for Todd and Vicki Burns. It’s a pleasure when we have drivers we can work with and communicate with.”

As cool as it is for Burroughs to be reunited with the O’Neal family (he served as Don O’Neal’s crew chief at Clint Bowyer Racing, the role he held before joining SSI in 2021), he was, of course, saddened to be separated from Thornton.

On Monday, Burroughs approached Thornton before the start of the 40-lap feature, appearing to wish him good luck. He then approached Thornton a second time after the feature on the frontstretch, exchanging a handshake with his former driver who twice swapped the lead with O’Neal in a battle of current and former SSI drivers.

“I love Ricky Thornton Jr. He’s my buddy,” Burroughs said. “When I got to this company, me and him needed each other. He’s always going to be special to me. Whatever I can do to help him, I’ll do it. I’ll bend over backwards. What people don’t understand is this is a business. 

“There’s decisions made that we’re all held accountable. There’s decisions made that we have to live with. It sucks and I just wish people could pump the brakes a little bit, and just not look at all the bad all the time. I just really wish people could change. It’s really sad where we’re at with our world. I don’t know, man. It’s just really sad.”

Anybody who knows Burroughs understands that the crew chief is straight business. So, he can’t be overly upset to the point that he can’t function at his highest level over business decisions because that’s the mindset he operates from daily. 

“We’re 100 percent business all the time,” Burroughs said. “As I said, we just went in there and went to work like everybody else. We still have a season to race out here. And try to get ourselves in this top four (in series points) and build our notebook. And try to get better. We have to get better. That’s what we’re doing. We’re not letting our foot off the gas. We’re going to give Hudson the very best car we can give him every night. He’s in the top-three very best drivers in the country, no question.”

One drawback that’s gotten lost in the SSI transition is that the team goes from comfortably leading the Lucas Oil Series points to fifth with O’Neal. Burroughs is confident he and the team can move up at least one spot before Sept. 21’s cutoff race at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway, where points reset for a seven-race playoff among the top four drivers.

“I mean, obviously I’ve known Hud forever. I worked for his dad and have a lot of respect for his family and for him,” Burroughs said. “He’s a really good race car driver. Luckily our notebook’s good enough we don’t have to start over. We just have to change it a little bit for him, and see what happens.

“Our team went from a 600-point lead over the top four to now fight to stay in the top four. We’re going to fight and scratch, and be no different than the philosophy we had two weeks ago. We’re just trying to win the next race and get better. Luckily my guys are sticking it out.”

Another drawback is that D.J. Williams has left the SSI team to relocate to Atlanta, Ga., to live closer to his girlfriend, Olivia Gentry. Burroughs said “we knew we were going to lose D.J. at some point,” he just “didn’t know if it was going to be at the end of the year or not.”

“Every year I don’t know if it’s going to be the last year for him,” said Burroughs, who speaks highly of Williams, saying that “every team in the world needs a D.J.”

“Olivia lives down there and ultimately that’s where he wants to be,” Burroughs added. “It was like losing a family member. But we just carry on.”

Nick Hardy has been one of the crew members from O’Neal’s camp that’s moved on over to the SSI team. All told, “the people in our circle have been greatly supportive, and I appreciate that,” Burroughs said. 

“I just wish people could pump the brakes on all the drama and let us go out and race,” Burroughs said. “Just enjoy the show that we put on. Because this is our lives.”

After a race like Monday that saw the two most talked about drivers of late, O’Neal and Thornton, battling for the win, Burroughs does understand to an extent that racing is part of the entertainment business. And where there’s more entrainment, there’s often more interest in the sport. 

But that’s not where Burroughs’s mind initially ventures — “You just block that out of your mind,” he said — because “my focus is 100 percent on SSI Motorsports and that’s it.” That, above all else, is what Burroughs would like opinionated observers of the sport to understand.

“That’s all I focus on. You’re just racing another car,” Burroughs said. “Obviously you know who’s in that car (Ricky Thornton) and how good he is, and all that. It’s cool to race him. … From our standpoint, it’s all kind of calmed down. We’re back to business as usual. We’re just working hard trying to get better.”

“We’re just going to keep working at it and see what happens. And see what the ol' racing gods bring us tomorrow.”