Double Down Motorsports team members Trevor Crittenden, Hudson O’Neal, Roger Sellers & Eric Webber
One of the biggest off-season news stories in the Dirt Late Model world during this past winter was the move of rising star Hudson O’Neal to the Tennessee-based Double Down Motorsports organization owned by Roger Sellers. That team was in search of a new driver following the departure of Shanon Buckingham who had decided to scale back his racing efforts to focus on a storm recovery business he and his son were involved with.
Despite being only 20 years old, O’Neal came to Double Down with a string of impressive credentials. The 2017 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rookie of the Year has twice finished in the top-10 of the final standings on that tour. He has also won major events such as the $20,000-to-win ‘Clash at the Mag’ at Mississippi’s Magnolia Motor Speedway, the Jackson 100 at the historic Brownstown(IN) Speedway, the Ralph Latham Memorial at the Florence(KY) Speedway, a $15,000 Lucas Oil feature at Smoky Mountain Speedway.
Sellers is also the owner of the Smoky Mountain Speedway, which will be the site his team’s next race when the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series visits the Maryville, TN track this Saturday.
Like anyone who is about to take on a new challenge, O’Neal had concerns about joining the team. But the second generation racer has quickly been made to feel at ease by the Sellers-led organization.
“The biggest thing is just change,” O’Neal answered when asked by InsideDirtRacing.com about the new circumstance. “It was time for a change, but it’s always nerve wracking going into a new situation, new team, new everything. I knew from the get-go it was going to be a good deal, but at the same time, you’re worried about how everything is going to work out.”
Double Down cars to be used by drivers Hudson O’Neal and Robby Moses in 2021
One key question the son of star driver Don O’Neal had was answered quickly when Double Down switched to Rocket Chassis. Also, team members Trevor Crittenden, Eric Webber, and Tom Buckingham have made the young driver’s transition an easy one.
“Is this going to be a situation I feel comfortable in?” O’Neal recalled of the questions he had prior to joining Double Down. “All that stuff has got to run through your mind, and if it doesn’t, it’s probably not a good thing. So we started the transition by switching to Rockets and the team started to come together. I was able to start building that relationship with Roger, I had known him for a long time, but being able to work with him has put a whole new perspective in that relationship.”
O’Neal says his prior conversations with his new team owner had led him to believe this move was the right one for his career. And that has been confirmed through his comfort level with his new team.
“To know in the back of your head that this is going to be a good deal for a long time, some place where I could land for a long time, that’s comforting,” O’Neal acknowledged. “We know what we’re trying to build and what we’re trying to establish is going to be here for a long time. Roger has a great mindset for doing that and I think all the guys that work with me are most definitely excited and ready for not only this year but for the future to come as well.”
One adjustment O’Neal has had to make is moving to east Tennessee from his native Martinsville, IN. Like anyone, racing drivers have to take care of the many responsibilities that come with a major move.
“I’ve never been this far away so it’s a little different in that aspect of it,” he pointed out. “We’re trying to get everything moved and situated in a new place, a new state, and not knowing very many people. But we’re here to work and we’re here to race. It’s all good and my family is known to travel quite a bit so I don’t think I’ll have an issue with that.”
The Rocket to be driven by O’Neal at Smoky Mountain
One aspect of the move has made the transition easier for O’Neal. His girlfriend, Tessa Sims, is spending a good deal of her time in Tennessee. The virtual college student at Indiana State University also runs O’Neal’s souvenir business.
“She’s going to be here about 50/50,” O’Neal explained. “She’s a full-time college student and trying to get all that stuff done. Her classes are online so it makes it easy for her to come down here and hang out a little bit. That definitely makes me feel a little more at home. Everything is working out great and I couldn’t have asked for a better situation and the people around here are just amazing and make you feel welcome.”
Another aspect going well for O’Neal is his ever growing relationship with crew members Crittenden, Webber, and Buckingham. The young driver says the importance of the bond between team members cannot be overstated.
“There are a lot of teams that miss the ball on that,” he declared. “It makes it very good when you can get along with the people around you and be comfortable with them so that you don’t get on each others nerves. That’s really important and I think we have an awesome group of guys to be able to do that and be compatible and be out on the road and not have any feuds. I think that’s what showed our strength at the end of SpeedWeeks because we all had good attitudes still after all those days on the road together.”
That comfort level among the members of the team was quickly demonstrated when the No. 71 machine pulled into victory lane at East Bay Raceway Park in only their second race together. O’Neal said that moment confirmed in his mind that he had made the right choice in joining Double Down.
“Yeah, not only for me but for the whole team,” he said of the boost provided by the victory. “Everybody here needed that. This program needed that because we all went through a lot of change during the off-season. Everything was a lot different so going down there, as good as we felt about going, it was important for us to establish our program. And I think we were able to do that, but I can’t take any of the credit for that whatsoever. I had knee surgery this off-season and was home a lot so I wasn’t able to be here as much as I would have liked. It was really relieving to be able to go down there and have the success that we did so early.”
Ultimately, O’Neal believes that he and his team can achieve great things together.
“There’s not a better feeling in the world than to have people believe in you. It does a lot for a racer that whenever you go out and make a mistake and you come back in and your guys tell you it’s all good and we’re going to go back out there and get it done. That’s reassuring and whenever you make a mistake the last thing you want to do is come back in and see guys with their heads down and I never saw these guys do that. That’s what makes a good team and I think we have the recipe to be a top team and a national championship team.”
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