7/22/2023
Podium finish in Silver Dollar Nationals at Huset's Speedway
Hudson O’Neal piloted the Rocket1 Racing / Valvoline / Seubert Calf Ranches No. 1 Ace Metal Works / XR1 Rocket Chassis / Durham Racing Engine Super Late Model to a third-place finish in Saturday night’s $53,000-to-win Silver Dollar Nationals finale at South Dakota’s Huset’s Speedway.
Hudson kept the team’s familiar No. 1 entry in the thick of things throughout the 80-lap finale on what proved to be an aggressive track surface.
“That was brutal up around the that cushion, it wasn’t brutal for the race cars, man it was on us. I was dead about the last ten laps. Man, it was a good race me, Shepp [Brandon Sheppard] and Bobby [Pierce), I think you could have thrown a blanket over us the last 30 or 40 laps or whatever it was. I thought it was a great race,” O’Neal shared. “There was sometimes where I thought we were going to have a shot. I got a good restart on the last one and I was able to kind of sneak under Shepp for a minute, but I just couldn’t quite get clear of him, and Bobby played it good and got back by me.
“I buried us to start the night on Thursday when I caught the wall in qualifying but from there we made improvements every time we touched the track. We’ll keep digging this week with more big paydays up for grabs.”
Taking part in the annual Silver Dollar Nationals presented by MyRacePass as it debuted at its new home, Rocket1 Racing and Hudson O’Neal trekked to Huset's Speedway (Brandon, S.D.) on Thursday for the Go 50 opener.
With 40 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) entries on the grounds for the 13th edition of the event, O’Neal tagged the wall on the opening lap of his qualifying session, which prevented him from recording a time.
Following a sixth-place finish in his heat race, Hudson secured his spot into the preliminary feature with a fourth-to-first run in his consolation event.
With $12,000 on the line, O’Neal gained three positions to finish 14th.
Back in action on Saturday after Mother Nature postponed two scheduled rounds of heat races on Friday evening, Hudson finished fourth in his first heat before going fifth-to-first in the second round.
Locked into the fourth-starting position for Saturday night’s $53,000-to-win Silver Dollar Nationals finale via passing points earned in heat races, O’Neal jumped up one spot in the 53-lap affair to cap off the weekend with a podium finish.
He chased race-long pacesetter Brandon Sheppard and Bobby Pierce to the checkers with Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tyler Erb completing the top-five finishers.
Hudson remains second in the latest LOLMDS point standings.
Full results from the events are available at www.LucasDirt.com.
Rocket1 Racing’s busy stretch on the road continues this week with four rounds of racing. On Monday and Tuesday, the team will enter the XR Super Series’ Elkhorn 100 at Off Road Speedway (Norfolk, Neb.), which includes twin $5,000-to-win programs on Monday followed by a $100,000-to-win finale on Tuesday.
The team then heads east to Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the Prairie Dirt Classic. The World of Outlaws (WoO) Case Late Model Series weekend includes $5,000-to-win qualifying features on Friday followed by a $50,000-to-win finale on Saturday. Racers will also have $500 per lap leader bonuses in Saturday’s finale to push the potential winner’s take to $100,000.
Rocket1 Racing snared the event win in 2017, 2019, and 2022 with Brandon Sheppard, and added a fourth title in 2016 with Josh Richards at the wheel.
More details on the upcoming week’s slate can be found at www.XRSuperSeries.com and www.WoOLMS.com .
Article Credit: Todd Boyd image