Hudson O’Neal held off Brandon Sheppard for the win
Hudson O’Neal has been having an outstanding 2023 campaign in the Rocket Chassis house car and that continued on the second night of Illinois SpeedWeek as he captured the Castrol FloRacing Night in America feature at Lincoln Speedway.
The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $23,023 for his win at the Lincoln, Illinois track in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 48 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Brandon Sheppard(12.815), 2. Garrett Alberson, 3. Brandon Overton, 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Ethan Dotson, 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Devin Moran, 8. Tommy Sheppard Jr., 9. Billy Moyer Sr. 10. Tanner English
Group B Results- 1. Hudson O’Neal(12.908), 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Garrett Smith, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Spencer Hughes, 6. Ashton Winger, 7. Ryan Gustin, 8. Ryan Unzicker, 9. Ricky Thornton Jr., 10. Frank Heckenast Jr.
Heat 1 Results: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Devin Moran
Heat 2 Results: 1. Garrett Alberson, 2. Ethan Dotson, 3. Tommy Sheppard Jr.
Heat 3 Results: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Myles Moos
Heat 4 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Ryan Gustin
Heat 5 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Spencer Hughes, 3. Ryan Unzicker
Heat 6 Results: 1. Ashton Winger, 2. Garrett Smith, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr.
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Bobby Pierce, 2. Shannon Babb
B-main 2 Finish: 1. 1. Gordy Gundaker, 2. Daulton Wilson
Feature Re-cap: Tyler Erb took the early lead when the 50-lap feature went green with Alberson, O’Neal, Marlar and Davenport trailing. O’Neal went to second on lap 4 by passing Alberson. But the top-3 would remain in tight formation with the primary battle being between Erb and O’Neal for the lead with Alberson and Davenport running just behind.
O’Neal went to the lead on lap 9 running the bottom lane versus Erb’ high line efforts. By lap 15, O’Neal began to slip away with Alberson closing in on Erb. Alberson passed by Erb for the runner-up position on lap 18 pulling Davenport along. But it would be Davenport moving into second one lap later when both he and Erb got by Alberson.
At the halfway mark, Sheppard had moved into the top-5 and looked to climb higher as O’Neal put some distance between himself and the battle between Davenport, Sheppard and Alberson.
Sheppard took second away from Davenport on lap 32 and then set off after O’Neal. As the laps clicked away, Sheppard began to cut into O’Neal’s advantage with both cars having to deal with heavy traffic.
With less than 10 laps remaining, Sheppard closed right to the tail of his former ride but a bobble on lap 44 cost him valuable ground. Just as it looked like O’Neal was certain to win, Thornton spun in turn four to bring out a caution and set up a one-lap dash to the checkered flag.
O’Neal got the jump on the restart and led the field back to the finish line to claim his second FloRacing career win.
Feature Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Garrett Alberson, 5. Tim McCreadie, 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Tyler Erb, 8. Brandon Overton, 9. Spencer Hughes, 10. Devin Moran, 11. Ashton Winger, 12. Bobby Pierce, 13. Ricky Thornton Jr., 14. Daulton Wilson, 15. Gordy Gundaker, 16. Tanner English, 17. Tommy Sheppard Jr., 18. Myles Moos, 19. Ryan Unzicker, 20. Ethan Dotson, 21. Shannon Babb, 22. Garrett Smith, 23. Ross Robinson, 24. Ryan Gustin
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