Hudson O’Neal earned $23,023 for his second FloRacing win of 2023
Hudson O’Neal has had things going his way over the past several weeks and that trend continued on Tuesday night as the current Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader also assumed the top spot in the Castrol FloRacing Night in America Series standings after scoring a win in an entertaining feature at the Marshalltown Speedway. It was the second FloRacing win of 2023 for ‘The New Deal’ after he held off a determined charge from Bobby Pierce before taking the checkered flag.
The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $23,023 for his efforts on the track located in Marshalltown, Iowa in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 33 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Dennis Erb Jr.(13-937), 2. Daniel Hilsabeck, 3. Cade Dillard, 4. Max Blair, 5. Ricky Thornton Jr., 6. Brandon Overton, 7. Spencer Hughes, 8. Ethan Dotson, 9. Earl Pearson Jr., 10. Chris Simpson
Group B Results- 1. Bobby Pierce(14.070), 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Hudson O’Neal, 4. Mike Marlar, 5. Tyler Bruening, 6. Ryan Gustin, 7. Jonathan Davenport, 8. Tim McCreadie, 9. Daulton Wilson, 10. Garrett Alberson
Heat 1 Results: 1. Dennis Erb Jr., 2. Cade Dillard, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Spencer Hughes
Heat 2 Results: 1. Max Blair, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Chris Simpson, 4. Daniel Hilsabeck
Heat 3 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Tyler Bruening
Heat 4 Results: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Tanner English
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Devin Moran, 2. Earl Pearson Jr.
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Chad Simpson
Feature Re-cap: The 50-lap main event went green with Dennis Erb Jr. ahead of O’Neal, Blair, Marlar and Dillard. A strong charge on the bottom of the race track took Blair to the lead on the second lap with Erb and O’Neal left to fight for the runner-up position.
O’Neal would emerge from that battle then drive around Blair for the top spot on lap 4. Further back, Marlar passed Erb to move into the third position. Erb charged back and passed by both Blair and Marlar to assume the second spot on lap 8 as cars raced for position all over the track.
Pierce showed that he would be a contender on lap 10 when he got by Blair to move into fourth. At the same time, O’Neal was working to slip away from his pursuers as he built a lead of just over one second.
Overton jumped all the way up to third on lap 14 when he got by Marlar and Pierce. The No. 76 was done yet as he also worked around Erb to take second on lap 18. Meanwhile Pierce began to once again rise through the running order getting by Erb to take third on lap 20.
Overton closed in on O’Neal and made a bid to wrest the lead away on lap 24 but O’Neal fought back the challenge. Just behind the lead duo, Pierce was lurking from third. The No. 32 took second from Overton on lap 27 but Overton returned the favor one lap later. Soon after, the top-3 of O’Neal, Overton and Pierce found themselves in a three-wide tangle for the lead just before a lap 29 caution for the slowing car of Hilsabeck slowed the pace and broke up the action.
Just after green flag racing resumed, points leader Marlar pulled off track with mechanical issues. At that time, O’Neal continued to show the way as he and Pierce ran around the very top of the track. With 8 lap to go, Pierce closed right to the rear spoiler of the O’Neal machine then made a move to the inside in hopes of taking the lead.
O’Neal held off that attempt but the front runners began to encounter traffic as the laps clicked away. That allowed Overton to close the gap from third. Pierce would again make a bid to O’Neal’s inside on lap 47 but once more O’Neal was able to hold on.
Ultimately, O’Neal would sail under the checkered flag to take the win.
Feature Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Brandon Overton, 4. Ricky Thornton Jr., 5. Tim McCreadie, 6. Dennis Erb Jr., 7. Cade Dillard, 8. Max Blair, 9. Chris Simpson, 10. Spencer Hughes, 11. Brandon Sheppard, 12. Devin Moran, 13. Earl Pearson Jr., 14. Tanner English, 15. Daulton Wilson, 16. Chad Simpson, 17. Jonathan Davenport, 18. Tyler Bruening, 19. Daniel Hilsabeck, 20. Tyler Erb, 21. Jimmy Owens, 22. Mike Marlar
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