5/17/2023
RacinBoys
Hudson O'Neal pockets $23,023 at Marhsalltown
By Ben Shelton (Marshalltown, IA) -- Castrol® FloRacing Night in America rolled into Marshalltown Speedway on Tuesday night and for the second-straight year the Iowa oval did not disappoint.
Hudson O’Neal and Rocket1 Racing have undeniably found the winning formula of late, especially when they show up at Marshalltown Speedway.
The Martinsville, Ind., driver who earlier Tuesday reigned another week atop DirtonDirt.com's Top 25 poll maintained the status quo at the entertaining Iowa oval, leading 48 of 50 laps for a second straight Castrol FloRacing Night in America triumph at the track.
It’s also O’Neal’s second straight FloRacing Series victory this season and the third of his career, which ties Jonathan Davenport and Bobby Pierce for most all-time in the series three-year history.
“This race car was awesome,” O’Neal said. “We were able to get out front early there and really move around on the racetrack. I was pretty good on the bottom and it just widened out really wide, and you either had to be way up, or way down there. They said Bobby was coming. Yeah, it’s awesome, man. Marshalltown has been good to me. Hopefully we can come back next year and have the same success.”
O’Neal finished 1.112 seconds ahead of Pierce, who didn’t go down without a fight from the sixth-starting position. Pierce triggered the highlight of the race with 23 laps to go when he unleashed a wide-eyed slidejob through turns three and four that about ran O’Neal and himself off the track. Eventual third-place finisher Brandon Overton, meanwhile, nearly puttered around O’Neal and Pierce in the lead battle using the bottom.
“I knew (Pierce) was close. I’ve seen him a couple times,” O’Neal said. “The lapped traffic was tough because I didn’t really feel like I could get off of that top and make any ground around the bottom or anything. I figured worst case scenario, if he slides me or something, maybe if I keep running that top we’ll be able to cross him over.”
Outside that, and pole-starting Max Blair leading the second and third laps, O’Neal did everything he needed to do for his seventh overall victory of the season. He did, however, mention a blemish in victory lane interview that not many likely noticed in the closing laps.
“I made a huge mistake with two to go. I slid (Tyler) Bruening and clobbered the wall,” O’Neal said. “I don’t know what I was doing. I said to myself, if I lose this race, I’ll be real mad. Yeah, it was worth it, man.
“You were either hitting the tire, or hitting the cushion (running the top in turns three and four),” O’Neal added. “There was a pretty good-sized tire barrier against the wall right there. I hit it a couple times. You just had to set yourself up through the center of the corner, make sure you have the right angle to be able to miss that tire. Yeah, man, this racetrack was really technical, and that’s what makes it for a fun race.”
Pole-starting Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., failed to lead lap in his sixth-place performance. O’Neal made his go-ahead move on lap four by powering around Blair using the top of the racetrack. O’Neal raced out to a two-second lead, then saw it vanish when a caution for Daniel Hilsabeck arose with 23 laps left.
Pierce never let O’Neal runaway with it upon resumption, but he also couldn’t do a whole lot to make up ground from behind.
“Track position is huge. With these Late Models, aero is so big,” Pierce said. “He didn’t make many mistakes. He stayed pretty solid up there. He was using all the cushion there was up there. It made it really hard for me. It’s hard when you follow a guy, and you’re a lot better out front in clean air when you’re by yourself when you can see the racing line. It was a challenge.
“We were right there the whole time, and he moved up (midway through the race off the bottom). I figured he would have (because) all the signal guys on the backstretch. I figured that was my time. I kind of hesitated because at first it looked like he wasn’t going to, then he did. Just a little hesitation probably cost me. I should’ve jumped in the heat race because, you know, that’s how that went. All in all a great night and we’ll take a second.”
Overton, on the other hand, wish the lap-27 caution never happened. If it were to stay green a little longer, perhaps his effort from the seventh-starting spot would have ended more jubilantly.
“I don’t know if I was flying or if they were driving the hell out of there’s and just got their stuff hot. I was coming back to them,” Overton said. “We didn’t need that caution. When Bobby came around me, I was like, thank God. He’ll get Hudson back off the bottom. So, I didn’t need that caution. Yeah, we restarted back, and I think I got my rear tires clean and not my right-front. I just shoved for probably six or seven laps. Once I got my steering, I came back to him. Helluva race. First time here, I’ll take it.
“I still suck in Illinois, but I’m all right in Iowa. We’ll go to Davenport tomorrow.”
Next up on Wednesday, May 17 the tour rolls into the Kay family promoted Davenport (Iowa) Speedway for the first time. Joining the night’s action will be IMCA Modifieds
General admission (ages 13-and-up) is $35 with children (ages 5-12): $10, and kids (ages 4-and-under) free. Pit admission (ages 13-and-up) is $45 with children (ages 12-and-under): $20.
Pit gate opens at 1 p.m. CT with the grandstand gate opening at 5 p.m. The driver’s meeting is at 6 p.m. with hot laps at 6:30 p.m. and racing action to follow.
RESULTS
A Feature 1 (50 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[7]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[8]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard[5]; 8. 111-Max Blair[3]; 9. 32S-Chris Simpson[11]; 10. 11H-Spencer Hughes[13]; 11. B5-Brandon Sheppard[18]; 12. 99M-Devin Moran[17]; 13. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[19]; 14. 96V-Tanner English[16]; 15. 18D-Daulton Wilson[21]; 16. 25-Chad Simpson[20]; 17. 49-Jonathan Davenport[10]; 18. 16-Tyler Bruening[14]; 19. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[15]; 20. 1T-Tyler Erb[22]; 21. (DNF) 20-Jimmy Owens[12]; 22. (DNF) 157-Mike Marlar[4]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 99M-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[3]; 3. 15K-Justin Kay[6]; 4. 174-Ethan Dotson[4]; 5. 99-Boom Briggs[5]; 6. 22B-Gary Brown Jr[8]; 7. 33-Kevin Kirkpatrick[9]; 8. (DNF) 30-Todd Cooney[2]; 9. (DNF) 99LX-Luke Pestka[7]
B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 7. 49T-Jake Timm[7]; 8. (DNS) 29-Spencer Diercks
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 99M-Devin Moran[6]; 6. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 7. 99-Boom Briggs[7]; 8. 99LX-Luke Pestka[8]; 9. 33-Kevin Kirkpatrick[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Max Blair[2]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson[5]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[1]; 5. 30-Todd Cooney[7]; 6. 174-Ethan Dotson[4]; 7. 15K-Justin Kay[8]; 8. 22B-Gary Brown Jr[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson[7]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 8. 49T-Jake Timm[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]; 4. 96V-Tanner English[6]; 5. B5-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 7. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 8. (DNF) 29-Spencer Diercks[8]
Qualifying A: 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:13.937[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:14.117[2]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:14.189[4]; 4. 111-Max Blair, 00:14.207[14]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:14.259[11]; 6. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:14.266[13]; 7. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 00:14.270[10]; 8. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.294[5]; 9. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:14.301[9]; 10. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:14.448[16]; 11. 99M-Devin Moran, 00:14.456[7]; 12. 22B-Gary Brown Jr, 00:14.468[6]; 13. 99-Boom Briggs, 00:14.596[15]; 14. 30-Todd Cooney, 00:14.612[12]; 15. 99LX-Luke Pestka, 00:14.786[8]; 16. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:14.796[3]; 17. 33-Kevin Kirkpatrick, 00:15.268[17]
Qualifying B: 1. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:14.070[7]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:14.199[3]; 3. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:14.280[5]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:14.290[13]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:14.317[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.392[14]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:14.415[16]; 8. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:14.431[2]; 9. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:14.517[8]; 10. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:14.546[15]; 11. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:14.554[10]; 12. 96V-Tanner English, 00:14.567[4]; 13. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:14.592[11]; 14. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:14.689[12]; 15. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:14.769[1]; 16. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:14.834[9]
Hot Laps A: 1. 111-Max Blair, 00:14.583[14]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:14.612[13]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:14.617[16]; 4. 99-Boom Briggs, 00:14.661[15]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:14.683[11]; 6. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:14.686[4]; 7. 99M-Devin Moran, 00:14.807[7]; 8. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.847[5]; 9. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:14.941[9]; 10. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:14.942[2]; 11. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 00:14.965[10]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:15.071[1]; 13. 30-Todd Cooney, 00:15.221[12]; 14. 99LX-Luke Pestka, 00:15.520[8]; 15. 22B-Gary Brown Jr, 00:15.588[6]; 16. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:15.902[3]; 17. 33-Kevin Kirkpatrick, 00:16.416[17]
Hot Laps B: 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:14.119[16]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:14.124[13]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:14.222[15]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:14.337[6]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:14.365[11]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:14.384[7]; 7. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:14.436[5]; 8. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:14.477[12]; 9. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:14.482[3]; 10. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:14.508[10]; 11. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:14.520[2]; 12. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:14.527[8]; 13. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:14.611[9]; 14. 96V-Tanner English, 00:14.678[4]; 15. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:14.843[1]; 16. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.843[14]
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IMCA MODIFIED PRESENTED BY TIRE DEMON BY LOVE TAP
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[1]; 2. 5-Todd Shute[6]; 3. 4TW-Tim Ward[14]; 4. 5L-Cody Laney[10]; 5. 69JR-Johnathon Logue[7]; 6. 111-Ethan Braaksma[2]; 7. 82-Jake McBirnie[8]; 8. 3-Kelly Shryock[15]; 9. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[4]; 10. 127-Drew Janssen[18]; 11. 30M-Cayden Carter[23]; 12. 05-Paul Nagle[13]; 13. 2Z-Zack Rawlins[19]; 14. 99X-Dallon Murty[16]; 15. 26J-Joel Rust[21]; 16. 56-Dustin Kroening[24]; 17. 13-Jerry Flippo[22]; 18. 2-Nick Meyer[11]; 19. 87-John Webb[20]; 20. (DNF) 4-Ryan Maitland[3]; 21. (DNF) 77-Jeff Aikey[5]; 22. (DNF) 38T-Dylan Thornton[12]; 23. (DNF) 11-Izac Mallicoat[9]; 24. (DNS) 19G-Richie Gustin
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 26J-Joel Rust[1]; 2. 13-Jerry Flippo[3]; 3. 30M-Cayden Carter[17]; 4. 56-Dustin Kroening[8]; 5. 7S-Todd Stinehart[4]; 6. 49K-Cody Knecht[2]; 7. 1-Eric Barnes[6]; 8. 7R-Ethan Robey[13]; 9. 09-Michael Leach[7]; 10. 5G-Gat Leytham[11]; 11. 19S-Chase Weimer[19]; 12. 7-Clay Money[5]; 13. 88-Luke Bird[14]; 14. 43-Creston Williams[9]; 15. (DNF) 2B-Robert Moore[15]; 16. (DNF) 48J-Jacob Murray[10]; 17. (DNF) 31-Corey Dripps[12]; 18. (DNS) 19-Jimmy Gustin; 19. (DNS) 40RC-Rod Clement
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Jeff Aikey[2]; 2. 4-Ryan Maitland[1]; 3. 11-Izac Mallicoat[5]; 4. 05-Paul Nagle[4]; 5. 19G-Richie Gustin[9]; 6. 26J-Joel Rust[8]; 7. 7-Clay Money[7]; 8. 43-Creston Williams[3]; 9. (DNF) 7R-Ethan Robey[10]; 10. (DNF) 30M-Cayden Carter[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[3]; 2. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[1]; 3. 69JR-Johnathon Logue[8]; 4. 4TW-Tim Ward[9]; 5. 127-Drew Janssen[4]; 6. 49K-Cody Knecht[2]; 7. 1-Eric Barnes[7]; 8. 48J-Jacob Murray[5]; 9. 88-Luke Bird[6]; 10. 40RC-Rod Clement[10]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Ethan Braaksma[3]; 2. 38T-Dylan Thornton[4]; 3. 5-Todd Shute[7]; 4. 3-Kelly Shryock[6]; 5. 2Z-Zack Rawlins[1]; 6. 13-Jerry Flippo[5]; 7. 09-Michael Leach[8]; 8. 5G-Gat Leytham[9]; 9. 2B-Robert Moore[10]; 10. (DNF) 19S-Chase Weimer[2]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Nick Meyer[1]; 2. 5L-Cody Laney[5]; 3. 82-Jake McBirnie[3]; 4. 99X-Dallon Murty[7]; 5. 87-John Webb[2]; 6. 7S-Todd Stinehart[9]; 7. 56-Dustin Kroening[8]; 8. 31-Corey Dripps[6]; 9. (DNF) 19-Jimmy Gustin[4]
IMCA STOCK CAR PRESENTED BY DRURY AUTOMOTIVE
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 01-Troy Jerovetz[1]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[4]; 3. 99X-Dallon Murty[12]; 4. 14-Jake Sachau[5]; 5. 22R-Todd Reitzler[8]; 6. 72H-Miciah Hidlebaugh[7]; 7. 14C-Leah Wroten[2]; 8. 99D-Damon Murty[10]; 9. 8M-Austin Meiners[9]; 10. 2-David Atcher[13]; 11. 23HR-Rod Richards[14]; 12. 37-Kylie Rawlins[17]; 13. (DNF) A1A-Austin Kaplan[11]; 14. (DNF) 94-Steve Meyer[16]; 15. (DNF) 89K-Taylor Kuehl[3]; 16. (DNS) 357-Brett Vanous; 17. (DQ) 19J-Jay Schmidt[6]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 99D-Damon Murty[1]; 2. 14C-Leah Wroten[4]; 3. 19J-Jay Schmidt[2]; 4. 89K-Taylor Kuehl[3]; 5. 01-Troy Jerovetz[7]; 6. (DNF) A1A-Austin Kaplan[6]; 7. (DNF) 2-David Atcher[5]; 8. (DNF) 357-Brett Vanous[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Jake Sachau[1]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[5]; 3. 22R-Todd Reitzler[4]; 4. 8M-Austin Meiners[2]; 5. 72H-Miciah Hidlebaugh[7]; 6. 99X-Dallon Murty[9]; 7. 23HR-Rod Richards[6]; 8. 94-Steve Meyer[3]; 9. 37-Kylie Rawlins[8]
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott