Hudson O’Neal came up one spot short after leading the majority of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Circle City Raceway on Friday night.

O’Neal qualified second, won the second heat race, and started the race in second behind Mike Marlar. He jumped out to the lead on the first lap and continued to pace the field until Ricky Thornton Jr. worked his to the front by slipping under Max Blair on a restart to get to third, and then worked his way underneath Marlar to take second with 19 laps. While all that was happening O’Neal was trying to run away.

However, Thornton was able to track him down with 11 to go just as O’Neal was catching the tail of the field. With 10 to go O’Neal went to the bottom of 1 and 2 and allowed Thornton to wind it up on the top and dive to his inside heading to 3. Thornton would perform the slider through four to take the lead. O’Neal countered with his own slider through 1 and 2 and was able to reclaim the lead, but it was short-lived as Thornton went to his inside through 3 and 4 again and was able to squeeze O’Neal exiting the turn by using Freddie Carpenter as a pick.

After that Thornton began to pull away while O’Neal fended off a challenge from Max Blair as the two dueled for second.

In his post-race interview with FloRacing’s Dustin Jarrett, O’Neal shared what he needed to do in order to hold on for the win, “Probably just not be the leader. Ricky was really good there at the end. Probably better. He had a better race car than I did right there at the end. He probably saved his tires a little bit more than I did to be able to maneuver right there.”

“Just being the leader you hang out in that top and whenever it does start to move you don’t really know it and you don’t know where exactly you need to be when it does start to move. Where them guys behind you’ve been able to move around and find the best lines,” he continued. “No excuse though. We’re happy to run second. Obviously, we hated that we led the whole thing and then got passed right there within 10 laps to go at the end.”

“All-in-all had a good night. Qualified good. Heat raced good. I feel like we’re building in the right direction. I feel like we keep getting a little bit better every week. And we just keep tuning on this 71 car in the right direction. We’re showing a lot of speed right now. We’re going to win some. Tonight wasn’t our night. Tonight God wanted us to have second place. So we’ll take it. We’ll move on and hopefully be one spot better tomorrow night,” he concluded.

On Facebook, O’Neal added, “Lost brakes with about 15 to go, and one mistake in lap traffic was all it took for the 20 to capitalize. That one stings — but we’ll learn from it and be better tomorrow. Still parked it on the United States Steel Corporation podium!”

With his second place finish, O’Neal is now tied with Devin Moran for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship. Both drivers have 2300 points and a 190 gap over third place Brandon Overton.

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series heads to Florence Speedway tonight for the 40th annual Ralph Latham Memorial with $25,000 up for grabs for the winner. 

NEXT: Ricky Thornton Jr. Denies Hudson O’Neal For Circle City Victory On Friday Night