Hudson O’Neal found victory lane and banked $10,000 for his first win ever in the Wild West Shootout.

O’Neal started off strong after his second place finish in the opener behind Ricky Thornton Jr. He qualified 2nd in Group 1 only behind Mike Marlar. He started on the pole in Heat 2 and took home the win.

A Heat 2 win put him fourth to start the feature and like last night one, he quickly worked his way to second place in the 40-lap feature. Also similar to last night, O’Neal stalked Bobby Pierce for the beginning portion of the race and then after a caution made his move. On a restart after a caution for debris with 30 laps to go, Huddy hugged the bottom of the track through turns 1 and 2 while Pierce nearly tapped the wall. Huddy was able to get to Pierce’s door down the back stretch and then slide him into 3 and 4 to take the lead.

Pierce attempted to battle back on the outside the next lap, but O’Neal held him by hugging the bottom in 1 and 2 and running a slider line through 3 and 4. However, Pierce then mixed it up the next lap and attempted to get to the bottom of O’Neal and actually inched ahead of him through 1 and 2, but down the back stretch O’Neal was able to get a nose ahead and eventually began to pull away.

His lead would be reset with a caution with 24 to go for a muffler laying on the track. On the ensuing restart, the challenge for the lead came from Jonathan Davenport who found something on the top side and nearly got to O’Neal’s door with 23 to go, but O’Neal drifted up the track to take the air off him and stifle his momentum. After fending off the challenge from Davenport, O’Neal began to extend his lead, but again it was reset due to another caution, this time for seemingly for Brandon Sheppard who had a rear tire go flat.

After Pierce and Davenport tried their hand at challenging O’Neal, Mike Marlar decided it was time. He worked his way past both Pierce and Davenport after an aggressive move by Drake Troutman caught Pierce off guard and forced him to check up on the outside. Marlar stayed true to the bottom and just chugged on right by Pierce and then a couple laps later got around Davenport.

While Marlar didn’t get to challenge O’Neal on that run, a caution for Jake O’Neil with 9 to go gave Marlar his first real shot at challenging him. Marlar switched things up on the restart and tried to get O’Neal on the outside and go to his quarter panel, but O’Neal was able to hold him off.

Marlar got another chance with another restart with 6 laps to go. Again, Marlar got to the quarter panel of O’Neal coming out of turn 2 and thought about a slider through 3 and 4, but thought better of it. That allowed O’Neal to extend his lead and he never looked back and went on to nab the checkered flag.

In Victory Lane, O’Neal assessed his night, “A little worried after that heat race. We really looked at it. And [car owner] Kevin [Rumley] said, ‘We gotta do something because we’re not good enough to win right now.’ And man, he made some changes and they were definitely spot on.”

“To be able to move around and be good on that bottom and be good on that top, and to have a different race track two nights in a row and be competitive it’s so awesome and such a big a confidence boost going into Speedweeks here in a couple of weeks,” he added.

Official Finishing Order

1. Hudson O’Neal
2. Mike Marlar
3. Bobby Pierce
4. Garrett Alberson
5. Jonathan Davneport
6. Ethan Dotson
7. Tyler Erb
8. Ryan Gustin
9. Justin Duty
10. Jake Timm
11. Brandon Sheppard
12. Dustin Sorensen
13. Dillon McCowan
14. Sam Mars
15. Kyle Beard
16. Clay Stuckey
17. Gunner Frank
18. Eli Ross
19. Drake Troutman
20. Jake O’Neil
21. Billy Moyer Sr.
22. Daniel Adam
23. R.C. Whitwell
24. Tim Isenberg
25. Bricen James

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