7/8/2023
O'Neal second in Gopher 50 photo finish at Deer Creek
Hudson O’Neal came up painfully short of his first-career NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 triumph on Saturday night. In fact, after leading 39 circuits he finished a mere 0.002 seconds behind Bobby Pierce for the win aboard his Rocket1 Racing / Valvoline / Seubert Calf Ranches No. 1 Ace Metal Works / XR1 Rocket Chassis / Durham Racing Engine Super Late Model.
“I knew I had a good enough lead, and the top was so dominate. I knew if I didn’t mess up that I was probably going to have it and that’s exactly what I did. I was going down the front straightaway and thought about it too much and I don’t know it’s the biggest heartbreak I have ever had in my life. I don’t really have any words. I definitely gave one away,” O’Neal shared in a post-race interview. “In this big of a race to be leading and in that position, you don’t get those very often. I don’t hate it for me, I hate it for my team. We’ve had a good race car and I felt like we had potential there and every time we got on the racetrack, we would get a little bit better and better. We had a heck of a hot rod all weekend.”
Continuing their pursuit for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) championship, Rocket1 Racing and Hudson O’Neal trekked to Deer Creek Speedway (Spring Valley, Minn.) on Thursday for the opening round of the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 weekend.
After contact with another competitor in his heat race relegated him into a B-Main, O’Neal raced his way into the opening night preliminary feature with a ninth-to-third run. Chasing a $5,000 payday, Hudson advanced forward 14 spots in the 25-lapper to register a seventh-place finish.
In Friday’s $5,000-to-win prelim event, Hudson started the 25-lapper in seventh via a runner-up finish in his heat and went onto improve one position to place sixth.
With results from preliminary features on Thursday and Friday setting the grid for Saturday’s $50,000-to-win NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50, O’Neal slid ahead of early pacesetter Chris Madden on lap 37 to assume command of the lead.
After holding the top spot for the ensuing 37 circuits, Hudson was overtaken by Bobby Pierce coming to the checkers in a thrilling photo finish.
He finished .002 seconds behind Pierce with Brandon Sheppard, Chris Madden, and Jonathan Davenport completing the top-five finishers.
Hudson continues to sit second in the latest LOLMDS point standings.
Full results from the event are available at www.LucasDirt.com.
The team looks to bounce back this week with a quartet of events in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. On Monday night the team will enter a $20,000-to-win XR Super Series event at Dubuque (Iowa) Speedway. Tuesday evening finds the team back in action with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) at Davenport (Iowa) Speedway in a $10,000-to-win program before entering a $12,000-to-win LOLMDS event at Tri-City Speedway (Pontoon Beach, Ill.) on Friday and the $15,000-to-win Diamond Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway (Wheatland, Mo.) on Saturday.
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