Hudson O’Neal would not be denied on Friday night
On Thursday night, Hudson O’Neal felt like he gave a race away when Tim McCreadie passed him on a late race restart. On Friday night, the driver of the No. 1 car turned the tables and not only beat McCreadie on a mid-race restart but also fought off a late challenge from Bobby Pierce as he topped the entire field to score the victory at Eldora Speedway,
The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $12,000 for his efforts on the track located in Rossburg, Ohio in a race aired live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 96 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results: 1. Joseph Joiner(16.498), 2. Hudson O’Neal, 3. Chris Madden, 4. Josh Rice, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Carson Hocevar, 7. Tyler Erb, 8. Nick Hoffman, 9. Michael Brown, 10. Wil Herrington
Heat 1 Results: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Mason Zeigler, 3. Joseph Joiner, 4. Chad Simpson, 5. Cory Hedgecock
Heat 2 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Dennis Erb Jr., 3. Carson Hocevar, 4. Ricky Weiss, 5. Benji Hicks
Heat 3 Results: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Garrett Alberson, 4. Dale McDowell, 5. Tad Pospisil
Heat 4 Results: 1. Tim McCreadie, 2. Nick Hoffman, 3. Josh Rice, 4. Ryan Gustin, 5. Earl Pearson Jr.
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Michael Brown, 2. Wil Herrington
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Chris Madden, 2. Tanner English
Feature Re-cap: McCreadie bolted to the lead at the start of the 25-lap B feature with O’Neal, Sheppard, Tyler Erb and Zeigler in his wake. O’Neal quickly moved in to offer a challenge that saw the two drivers run side-by-side through the turns for multiple laps as O’Neal took the bottom groove while McCreadie ran high.
Pierce entered the top-5 on lap 8 when he moved around Erb for that position. Meanwhile at the front of the field, McCreadie appeared to have the race in hand as he built an advantage on several car lengths over O’Neal as the front runners began to encounter traffic.
Things began to take a turn to the crazy side on lap 10 just after a caution flag had been displayed for the slowing car of Tyler Erb. On the ensuing restart, O’Neal wrested the lead of the race away from McCreadie.
At the same time, Zeigler and Rice engaged in a battle for fourth that went on for multiple laps with those cars bouncing off of each other and the wall several times. On lap 15, contact between the two sent Zeigler spinning into the outside wall. Rice would continue but with a badly mangled right rear quarter panel.
On the lap 15 attempt at a restart, the cars running the middle of the pack tangled trigger a multi-car crash involving Weiss, Pospisil, Tyler Erb, Gustin and Dennis Erb Jr. with some receiving significant damage.
Just after the lap 15 restart, Rice slowed with a flat tire to bring out another yellow flag on lap 16. His misfortune lifter Joiner and Pierce into the top-5.
It was at that point when Pierce began to charge. On lap 19, he passed Sheppard and Joiner in a daring three-wide move that netted third place. One lap later he got by McCreadie for second and set off after O’Neal.
Pierce did close the gap on O’Neal and made a last ditch effort at a slide job in turns one and two on the final lap but O’Neal held of those advances and went on to claim the victory.
Feature Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Joseph Joiner, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Carson Hocevar, 7. Nick Hoffman, 8. Tanner English, 9. Chad Simpson, 10. Chris Madden, 11. Dennis Erb Jr., 12. Earl Pearson Jr., 13. Cory Hedgecock, 14. Dale McDowell, 15. Michael Brown, 16. Ryan Gustin, 17. Benji Hicks, 18. Josh Rice, 19. Mason Zeigler, 20. Ricky Weiss, 21. Wil Herrignton, 22. Tyler Erb, 23. Tad Pospisil, 24. Garrett Alberson
Please consider also reading:
Mike Marlar leads start to finish to claim Eldora A feature on Friday night
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