Hudson O’Neal made it two in a row on Friday night
Hudson O’Neal had not been having a particularly noteworthy season until recently. The Double Down Motorsports driver has now won the first two features in a three-race weekend for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series after taking the checkered flag ahead of the pack in the NAPA Know How 50 at the Tri-City Speedway.
The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Ind. picked up $12,000 for his efforts in a race held on the Granite City, Illinois track and shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 33 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Earl Pearson Jr.(15.018), 2. Hudson O’Neal, 3. Payton Freeman, 4. Garrett Alberson, 5. Jimmy Owens
Group B Results- 1. Spencer Hughes(15.098), 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Tyler Erb, 4. Brandon Sheppard, 5. Ricky Thornton Jr.
Heat 1 Results: 1. Earl Pearson Jr., 2. Jimmy Owens, 3. Stormy Scott, 4. Jason Feger
Heat 2 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Garrett Alberson, 3. Logan Martin, 4. Rickey Frankel
Heat 3 Results: 1. Spencer Hughes, 2. Tyler Erb, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Brent McKinnon
Heat 4 Results: 1. Tim McCreadie, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Shannon Babb, 4. Billy Laycock
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Ross Robinson, 2. Daulton Wilson, 3. Trevor Gundaker
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Brian Shirley, 2. Nick Hoffman, 3. Kyle Bronson
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 50-lap feature O’Neal darted to the early lead after a brief battle with Pearson as Hughes, McCreadie and Owens completed the top-5. Hughes took the runner-up spot away from Pearson on the second circuit and quickly pulled up to battle with O’Neal for the race lead.
Hughes took the top spot on the leaderboard on lap 4 while Erb moved into third just behind.
Just one lap after gaining the lead, Hughes surrendered it back to O’Neal as the No. 71 ran tight on the bottom of the track while the No. 11 took the high line. Further back, McCreadie rose to the top-5 on lap 9 when he moved by Owens then those two drivers joined Erb to contest positions 3-5.
A lap 12 caution for Scott slowed the pace. On the restart, Erb wrested second away from Hughes then McCreadie moved up by assuming the third position. Hughes fell back into a fight for positions 4-6 with Owens and Sheppard.
Up front, O’Neal began to battle with slower cars while McCreadie moved in to challenge Erb for second in a dispute that would last for several laps before McCreadie finally wound up with the spot. Soon after, Owens would also pass Erb to push the No. 1 car back to fourth.
The race for the lead tightened dramatically as the laps clicked away with both McCreadie and Owens closing on O’Neal. However, O’Neal was able to hold back the challenge then sail under the checkered flag to claim his second win in as many nights.
Feature Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Spencer Hughes, 8. Earl Pearson Jr., 9. Jason Feger, 10. Garrett Alberson, 11. Shannon Babb, 12. Rickey Frankel, 13. Ross Robinson, 14. Billy Laycock, 15. Daulton Wilson, 16. Brian Shirley, 17. Rusty Griffaw, 18. Logan Martin, 19. Brent McKinnon, 20. Nick Hoffman, 21. Trevor Gundaker, 22. Jeff Herzog, 23. Kyle Bronson, 24. Stormy Scott, 25. Payton Freeman
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