Hudson O’Neal will be back behind the Rumley No. 6 for next year’s Wild West Shootout.
The Wild West Shootout made the announcement on its Facebook post. It shared, “Former Lucas Series champion and reigning Knoxville Late Model Nationals winner Hudson O’Neal has confirmed his plans to pilot the Rumley Enterprises No. 6 at the 2026 Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts this January!”
Jacqueline Rumley affirmed the announcement on X. She wrote, “We are officially PHX bound for the Wild West Shootout in January!”
We are officially PHX bound for @WildWShootout in January! 🤠 🌵 @HudsonONeal71 pic.twitter.com/JLxOdhU8F8
— Jacqueline Rumley (@jacqbrush) October 8, 2025
O’Neal has had success in the Rumley car this year. He started off the season with a win at Needmore Speedway at the end of January. He was also fourth during the FloRacing Night in America series race at Fairbury in July. He won his Prairie Dirt Showdown and then came home in 13th during the Prairie Dirt Classic. More recently won the Country Roads 100 at Tyler Count at the end of August.
The Rumley car was last at the Wild West Shootout in 2024 with Kyle Larson behind the wheel. Larson had an okay Shootout. He finished 5th in points, 99 points behind eventual winner Bobby Pierce. He finished 5th, 4th, 24th (DNF), 5th, and 4th before eventually winning on the final night.
As for O’Neal the last time he made an appearance at the Wild West Shootout was back in 2019 when the event was at Arizona Speedway.
The Wild West Shootout returns to Arizona in 2026 at Central Arizona Raceway after competing at Vado Speedway Park over the past couple of years. Chris Kearns, the co-promoter of the Wild West Shootout explained the move, “First and foremost, I can’t stress enough how thankful we are for all that Royal Jones and Vado Speedway Park have done for us over the past four years of the Wild West Shootout. He provided us with a state-of-the-art facility along with continuing to be a devoted event marketing partner. There’s no way the Wild West Shootout would be entering year twenty without his support.”
“From the time we moved the event to New Mexico, we all knew that we hoped to one day get the event back to where it all started in Arizona,” he continued. “Brad Whitfield and his staff have done some incredible things with Central Arizona Raceway over the last few years with even more improvements on the docket. With that in mind, we are thrilled to be working with him and his staff at Central Arizona Raceway to ‘bring the event back home.”
Central Arizona Raceway promoter Brad Whitfield also stated, “The return of the Wild West Shootout back home to Arizona, where it all began, has always been in the back of my mind. For it to become a reality by partnering with the Wild West Shootout ownership group is a huge honor. It’s also a great tribute to Ernie Mincy. He got this event off the ground in the early 2000’s here at Central Arizona Raceway. Again, I couldn’t be more proud, and I can’t wait for January 2026 to get here!”
Bobby Pierce is the defending champion of the series. He best Garrett Alberson, Tyler Erb, Brandon Sheppard, and Drake Troutman earlier this year. He also won the event in 2024. Jonathan Davenport beat out Kyle Larson and Pierce in 2023. In 2022, Mike Marlar took home the championship in its first year at Vado. The last time the event was held in Arizona at the now defunct Arizona Speedway in 2021, Davenport was the champion.
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