Hudson O’Neal celebrates in victory lane after winning Thursday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at East Bay Raceway Park. Photo: LOLMDS Media/Twitter
Hudson O’Neal scored his first win for Rocket1 Racing, as the 22-year-old Indiana native went to victory lane in Thursday night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Florida.
Max Blair came home in second to equal his best career series finish. Dennis Erb, Jr. was third, with Eatonton, Georgia’s Garrett Smith in fourth, and Tim McCreadie in fifth.
O’Neal grabbed the lead at the start of the race with Erb, Jr. in second followed by Ricky Thornton, Jr. Thornton took second on lap three from Erb, then ran behind O’Neal until he broke coming off a lap 10 restart ending his night. Blair, who started fifth then moved into second place after Thornton left the race.
Blair kept pace with O’Neal until the final lap when he closed the gap ending up just 0.363 seconds behind his fellow third generation racer at the checkers.
O’Neal in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 19th time in career breathed a sigh of relief to get his first win of 2023 for his new team.
“I can’t begin to talk about it,” said O’Neal after recording his 19th career series victory. “The worst part is that I know we have had it in us the whole trip and just little things just didn’t fall our way. I was able to get the lead from the jump there and I knew it was the best place I could possibly be with the way the track was moving around. It’s just better to be up front. I knew if I could just maintain a gap and get ahead of them before I caught lapped traffic. With those lapped cars it was tense. I kept waiting for someone to blast around the outside.”
Jimmy Owens, Zebulon, Georgia’s Shane Clanton, Tanner English, Garrett Alberson, and Tyler Erb rounded out the top 10.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action at East Bay Raceway Park continues on Friday, February 10. For more information, visit LucasDirt.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL
Wieland Winternationals – February 9, 2023
1. 1H-Hudson O’Neal
2. 111B-Max Blair
3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr
4. 10-Garrett Smith
5. 39-Tim McCreadie
6. 20-Jimmy Owens
7. 25C-Shane Clanton
8. 96V-Tanner English
9. 58-Garrett Alberson
10. 1T-Tyler Erb
11. 12-Ashton Winger
12. 83-Jensen Ford
13. 40B-Kyle Bronson
14. 3S-Brian Shirley
15. 49-Jonathan Davenport
16. 25Z-Mason Zeigler
17. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
18. 18-Chase Junghans
19. 7-Ross Robinson
20. 16-Tyler Bruening
21. 18D-Daulton Wilson
22. 19M-Wil Herrington
23. 11-Spencer Hughes
24. 2X-John Henderson
25. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
26. 79-Ross Bailes
27. 99-Devin Moran
28. B5-Brandon Sheppard
29. 1C-Kenny Collins
30. 76-Brandon Overton
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