Don O’Neal had to work hard to claim the win on Friday night at Cherokee.
To hear that Don O’Neal won a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race would hardly come as a surprise to anyone who follows dirt racing. And that would be even less surprising when it was reported that the Martinsville, Ind. driver set fast time in qualifying, won his heat race and started the feature from the pole. However, the Clint Bowyer Racing pilot’s victory on Friday night in the Grassy Smith Memorial at the Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC was not nearly as easy as it may have seemed on the surface.
O’Neal began the evening’s activities by setting fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.410 seconds around the big clay oval. Scott Bloomquist and Brandon Overton were second and third respectively in time-trials. Those three drivers earned pole starting positions in their respective heat races.
Each of the three drivers listed above won their heat races while John Blankenship scored the win in the night’s only B-main.
The start of the 50-lap feature saw two significant moments take place almost immediately.
Bloomquist fell back from his outside front row starting spot at the drop of the green flag and retired from the race after only a couple of laps. A crew member reported later that a rock had flown up from the track and punctured the 0 car’s radiator.
With Bloomquist gone from the race, Overton seized the second spot. But the Georgia native was not content to stay there. On the third lap, Overton dove low in turn one and muscled his way by O’Neal for the race lead with the two cars making contact as a result of the move. Jonathan Davenport also made his way around O’Neal to claim second on lap 3. From that point, Overton would lead until deep into the event as the leaders found themselves fighting with slower cars in the race that remained caution free for the first 42 circuits.
As the top-4 cars of Overton, Davenport, O’Neal and Casey Roberts(who was debuting a new Longhorn Chassis) ran in nose-to-tail fashion in the low groove around the speedway, ninth starting Jimmy Owens was making his way toward the top-5 by passing the likes of Eddie Carrier, Jr., Dennis Franklin and Steve Francis.
By lap 34, O’Neal had regained his form and began to look for ways around his early race combatants. By stepping out into the high groove of turns 3 and 4, O’Neal worked the No. 5 machine around Davenport for second and set his sights on the race leader.
O’Neal then used the same outside line maneuver in that same set of turns to retake the lead from Overton on lap 36.
The race’s only caution flag flew on lap 42 when Ross Bailes slowed with a flat tire. On the ensuing restart, O’Neal drove away to claim the win and add to his points lead in the LOLMDS standings.
At the finish it was Don O’Neal, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, Casey Roberts, Jimmy Owens, Steve Francis, Chris Ferguson, Chris Madden, Dennis Franklin and Eddie Carrier, Jr.
