Cody kicked off the opening night of the 23rd annual Duel in the Desert on Wednesday evening at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Las Vegas, Nevada). Thompson stormed to a heat race win in Karl Kustoms IMCA Northern SportMod action. In the prelim feature he took the lead and paced the field before the caution flag flew late in the race. On the restart Cody went to the top, and unfortunately got into slime, which caused him to hit the wall. Fading back to eighth, Cody rebounded to sixth. With only the Top-2 finishers locking into the finale, Thompson will try again in preliminary action on Thursday.

On Thursday night Cody found himself behind the eight-ball for much of the evening before earning the 25th-starting spot for the prelim. Despite battling challenging track conditions, he advanced to an 11th-place finish.

Friday night found Cody advancing from the 10th-starting spot to a fourth-place finish in his heat race before earning the 23rd-starting spot for the night’s preliminary feature. He passed eight cars in the feature to finish 15th.

On Saturday evening the weekend finale was held, and Cody earned the 15th-starting spot for the feature. He piloted his No. 25c to a third-place finish in the final rundown.

“Had a good time in Vegas. Not the results I was looking for, but that’s part of racing,” Thompson said. “Definitely think we could’ve changed the outcome of the finish with a late-race caution. Still congrats to Becerra on the win. Thanks to all of my sponsors and everyone who got me here. We’ll head to Casa Grande next weekend. Come by and get a new shirt!”