BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — Hudson O’Neal returned Friday night to the track where he began his racing career and led wire-to-wire to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series C.J. Rayburn Memorial at Brownstown Speedway.
In addition to the $10,000 winner’s purse, O’Neal earned a $5,000 bonus from Big River Steel, bringing his total winnings to $15,000 for SSI Motorsports. O’Neal completed a clean sweep of the night and cut Brandon Sheppard’s championship points lead to 25 heading into Saturday night’s $50,000-to-win Jackson 100.
Sheppard passed Ricky Thornton Jr. with 10 laps remaining to finish second. Thornton rounded out the podium. Josh Rice and Brandon Overton completed the top five.
O’Neal visited Wieland Victory Lane for the 40th time in his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series career. The 26-year-old Martinsville, Indiana, native recorded his ninth career win at Brownstown, where he began racing 10 years ago.
“It means a lot to win this race. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a big race or a local race; it just seems to mean a little more. I grew up racing here, and it’s been a few years since I have won here. So it’s pretty cool to be standing back up here on this stage. It’s a good time to start doing it, too. We have a tight points battle. It’s coming down to the wire, so finding some speed at the right time of the year is really important for us,” said the 2019 Jackson 100 winner.
“C.J. Rayburn meant so much to my dad (Don O’Neal) throughout his career, even at the end. My dad credited C.J. for a lot of his career. So it’s pretty cool to win this and put my name on this trophy. Knowing my dad, it probably means a little bit more to him as well. Hopefully we can get our second Jackson win tomorrow.”
Sheppard entered the weekend with a 55-point lead over O’Neal, but O’Neal trimmed 30 points from that advantage Friday night.
“I felt like we had a pretty good car there. I felt pretty balanced. The later the race went, the better I was getting. Hudson kind of found a line that I was running late in lapped traffic, and he was diamonding off between a few of those guys. So, I don’t know if there was anything I could do to pass him. Congrats to him. He did a good job. It was a fun race. The track was pretty tricky there. We are 50/50 in that type of track condition here.”
Thornton, who has won two of the last three Jackson 100s, ran second until 10 laps remained and finished third.
“I felt like I had about 12 laps to do something. Congrats to Hud. His stuff was good, and he could get through traffic a little bit better than we could. We have a lot to work on for tomorrow.”
5th Annual CJ Rayburn Memorial | Feature Finish (40 Laps):
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 1 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $15,000
2 – 3 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $5,600
3 – 4 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $3,500
4 – 5 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $2,800
5 – 8 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $2,500
6 – 2 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $2,300
7 – 12 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $2,200
8 – 6 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,100
9 – 7 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $2,050
10 – 17 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $2,000
11 – 15 – 8 – Dillon McCowan – Urbana, MO – $1,600
12 – 19 – 93F – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $1,400
13 – 9 – 12J – Jason Jameson – Lawrenceburg, IN – $1,200
14 – 21 – D48 – Derek Groomer – Bloomington, IN – $1,000
15 – 11 – C7 – Adam Stricker – Batavia, OH – $950
16 – 10 – 22F – Chris Ferguson – Mt. Holly, NC – $925
17 – 13 – 3s – Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – $900
18 – 24 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $875
19 – 23 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $850
20 – 20 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $825
21 – 14 – 20 – Tyler Neal – Paragon, IN – $800
22 – 16 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $800
23 – 25 – 11C – Tyler Collins – North Vernon, IN – $800
24 – 22 – S21 – Seth Daniels – Jackson, OH – $800
25 – 18 – 99JR – Frank Heckenast Jr – Frankfort, IL – $800
