Hudson O’Neal fended off a late-charging Bobby Pierce to claim his second win in the Wild West Shootout on night 4 in the Arizona desert.

Similar to the past three nights, O’Neal started in fourth, but quickly found his way into second place. This time he wasn’t chasing Bobby Pierce or Ricky Thornton Jr., but Ryan Gustin. Gustin was able to maintain the lead through the first third of the race. However, O’Neal began testing his defenses and eventually struck 12 laps into the 30-lap race. He slid Gustin through 3 and 4 and took the lead. Gustin countered with a crossover, but opted not to slide O’Neal through 1 and 2 and that allowed Hudson to motor past him on the outside and take control of the lead.

Gustin would fall into the clutches of Bobby Pierce and eventually give up the second place position with 14 laps left in the race. Pierce would get his first chance to take on O’Neal after a caution came out for Brandon Sheppard who suffered a flat right rear tire, the second of the night with Drake Troutman having previously brought out the caution with 23 laps left in the race.

On the ensuing restart, O’Neal was able to pull away and maintain around 6/10 of a second gap on Pierce. However, Pierce got another opportunity when a caution with 10 to go came out for Ethan Dotson, who suffered a flat tire.

Pierce made the most of the restart and got a monster run on the top side and slid O’Neal through 3 and 4. O’Neal crossed him over to reclaim the lead. But Pierce came at him again a lap later with another slider through 3 and 4. Again, O’Neal crossed him over, but Pierce was able to lead the lap. However, heading into 1 and 2, O’Neal threw his own slider and reclaimed the lead. He then adjusted his line and stayed on the top to take that line from Pierce and was able to fend him off over the final five laps to claim the checkered flag.

“I don’t know what it was like from your guys’ vantage point, but man that was a race! The restarts just kept adding to it,” Hudson said in victory lane. “I kinda, I don’t know, maybe I was getting a little complacent on this bottom down here in 1 and 2. Once I realized he kept getting a run on me down there, I’m like, ‘Well, he’s got to be to be running the top down there to be able to get a run.’ So, finally I slid him and I was able to take his line away from him a little bit. And it just worked out.

“Whoever just made one little mistake on that cushion and didn’t get a run back underneath the guy was going to be the one that wasn’t going to get it done. So it’s great to race with somebody like that and a lot of fun. And this place raced awesome tonight,” he said.

As for Pierce he joked to Trenton Berry, “I really wish he wasn’t here. I guess it’s his first Wild West Shootout, but congrats to him on the win. It was a fun race there. Of course, if I could kind of replay some things back I pry do things a little bit differently. I think we pry could have got the job done if I would have went here instead of there one time. But all in all it was a good race, a good fun race.”

“I feel like my tires stayed under me a lot better tonight,” he added. “After halfway through the race I pushed it hard so the tires still look pretty good. So I’m pretty happy with it.”

Ryan Gustin, who brought it home third said, “On the longer runs they was definitely able to get away a little bit. They’re just a little bit better than we are right now. We just got to keep working and we’ll get up there, for sure.”

Official Finishing Order

1. Hudson O’Neal
2. Bobby Pierce
3. Ryan Gustin
4. Tyler Erb
5. Dustin Sorensen
6. Garrett Alberson
7. Kyle Beard
8. Mike Marlar
9. Dillon McCowan
10. Jonathan Davenport
11. Justin Duty
12. Cade Dillard
13. Clay Stuckey
14. Brandon Sheppard
15. Ethan Dotson
16. Bricen James
17. Kylan Garner
18. Tim Isenberg
19. Tim Ward
20. Sam Mars
21. Jake O’Neil
22. Terry Phillips
23. Drake Troutman
24. Eston Whisler

NEXT: Billy Moyer Explains How He Thinks Drivers Should Deal With Sliders