HARLAN, Iowa — Defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Hudson O’Neal made a three-wide pass for the lead on lap 22 and led the remaining 31 laps to score his second straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory Tuesday night at Shelby County Speedway.
The first national touring late model race at Shelby County was one to remember as three different drivers took turns leading the Kosiski Family 53.
O’Neal prevailed by 3.503 seconds over Ricky Thornton Jr. who put on a late race charge that stalled out with three laps to go to finish second to O’Neal for the second night in a row.
Garrett Alberson, who joined O’Neal and Thornton as race leaders rounded out the podium. Devin Moran was fourth and Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five.
Thornton started from the pole and led the first 14 laps until Alberson powered around on the outside to take over the top spot after starting sixth.
Alberson was in front for four circuits until O’Neal snuck to the inside of both Alberson and Thornton to take the lead on lap 22.
A caution with 10 laps to go wiped out the healthy lead that O’Neal had built up over Thornton and Alberson. On the restart Thornton ran the top side of the track as he stayed with O’Neal but ran out of steam with less than five laps to go.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 29th time in his career, O’Neal earned his fifth series win of the season.
“I started right around that bottom and then Garrett was making that middle work there for a minute,” O’Neal said. “I got a little bit nervous about it and I’m sure the top came into it at a certain point, and I just didn’t know where to be on the race track. I was just guessing where to run. It just feels awesome to come out here and be able to drive these guys’ race car. It’s been a long week and I continue to try and represent these sponsors the best I can.”
Thornton maintains the series points lead heading to Huset’s Speedway this weekend for the Silver Dollar Nationals.
“I think the fans loved it,” said Thornton. “I felt pretty good around the bottom for a while. We worked so hard trying to get our stuff where we could get off the corner. We changed the right front a little bit and think it was the wrong call. I knew on the restarts I wasn’t that good around the bottom so I figured heck I might as well start sending it around the top. I felt like I had a good pace up there. I screwed up there once getting into one and about the destroyed the thing, so I thought I had better go back to the bottom. I let him [O’Neal] get away and his lead kept growing so I went back to the bottom.”
Alberson had the Roberts Motorsports car in contention for the win as he came home in third.
“These guys are the best in the country you know so to be close and right there with them is great,” Alberson said. “I was hoping there for a little bit that our tires were the right deal. I probably just needed to do a better job of driving that bottom more disciplined because those guys could do a little better than I could. I ran that top a few laps too long when I didn’t need to. I hurt my tires a little more than I should have, but we held in there it was a good solid top three.”
The finish:
Hudson O’Neal, Ricky Thornton Jr., Garrett Alberson, Devin Moran, Jonathan Davenport, Daulton Wilson, Max Blair, Clay Harris, Blair Nothdurft, Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, Tim McCreadie, Drake Troutman, Ross Robinson, Logan Seavey, Jimmy Owens, Brenden Smith, Derrick Stewart, Tad Pospisil, Allan Hopp, Carson Ferguson, Boom Briggs, Chad Simpson, Cory Lawler.