Hudson O’Neal picked up his third Lucas Oil win of 2023
Hudson O’Neal won the last two Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature held three months ago and on Thursday night he made it three-in-a-row when the tour finally got a break from the weather at Atomic Speedway. The Buckeye 50 win came in the first of what is scheduled to be a three-race weekend for the series. ‘The New Deal’ jumped into the LOLMDS points lead with the victory.
The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana took the win and a $12,000 payday from the track located in Chillicothe, Ohio in a race aired live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 42 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Hudson O’Neal(13.233), 2. Adam Stricker, 3. Tyler Carpenter, 4. Earl Pearson Jr., 5. Tyler Bruening, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Jensen Ford, 8. Camaron Marlar, 9. Josh Rice, 10. Garrett Alberson
Group B Results- 1. Jonathan Davenport(13.071), 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Boom Briggs, 5. Ricky Thornton Jr., 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Kyle Larson, 8. Garrett Smith, 9. Tim McCreadie, 10. Freddie Carpenter
Heat 1 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Tyler Carpenter, 3. Josh Rice, 4. Tyler Bruening
Heat 2 Results: 1. Earl Pearson Jr., 2. Camaron Marlar, 3. Adam Stricker, 4. Todd Brennan
*Tyler Erb was flagged as the winner of Heat 2 but failed the droop check*
Heat 3 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Kyle Larson
Heat 4 Results: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Mike Marlar, 3. Boom Briggs, 4. Garrett Smith
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Jensen Ford, 3. Garrett Alberson
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Tim McCreadie, 2. Daulton Wilson, 3. Max Blair
Feature Re-cap: The 50-lap main event took the green flag with O’Neal leading Davenport, Overton, Thornton and Pearson. Davenport passed by O’Neal lap 2 to grab the top spot as Overton looked to get himself into the mix. On lap 7, Overton would, in fact, pass O’Neal to take the runner-up position.
Series points leader Thornton spun on lap 11 to bring out a caution. The ensuing restart allowed O’Neal to reclaim second as Overton was pushed back to third. At the same time, Mike Marlar had risen to the fourth spot.
At the race’s halfway mark, the top-3 cars of Davenport, O’Neal and Overton were battling while also working through slower cars. One lap later, O’Neal regained the lead by passing Davenport. Overton then began to stalk Davenport for second. Further back, the night’s All-Star Circuit of Champions winner, Kyle Larson, had worked his way up from his 14th starting position into the top-5.
The top-4 of O’Neal, Davenport, Overton and Marlar wrestled for position while at the same time cutting through lapped traffic. Overton took second away from Davenport on lap 35 then Marlar began to harass Davenport for third. Those efforts would pay off on lap 39 when the No. 157 moved around the No. 49.
Larson also passed Davenport while Overton closed into challenge O’Neal for the lead. With O’Neal running the high groove around the track, Overton looked low on multiple occasions but was never able to complete the pass. As a result, O’Neal laid claim to the victory.
Feature Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Mike Marlar, 4. Kyle Larson, 5. Jonathan Davenport, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Camaron Marlar, 8. Max Blair, 9. Josh Rice, 10. Tim McCreadie, 11. Ricky Thornton Jr., 12. Earl Pearson Jr., 13. Jensen Ford, 14. Tyler Carpenter, 15. Jimmy Owens, 16. Tyler Bruening, 17. Daulton Wilson, 18. Spencer Hughes, 19. Ross Robinson, 20. Boom Briggs, 21. Garrett Smith, 22. Devin Moran, 23. Garrett Alberson, 24. Rod Conley, 25. Logan Roberson
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