PORT ROYAL, Pa. - Hudson O’Neal battled his way to the lead with seven laps to go and pulled away in the final laps to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Rumble by the River on Saturday Night at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.
O’Neal earned $50,000 from the $150,000 feature purse for the Rocket1 Team.
O’Neal’s winning margin of 1.808 seconds was the largest lead anyone had held during the 50-lap event. Mike Marlar came home in second as he passed Blairsville, Georgia’s Jonathan Davenport with two laps to go. Davenport was third, with Matt Cosner, in fourth, and Evans, Georgia’s Brandon Overton in fifth.
Overton jumped to the lead at the start of the race as he and O’Neal, who started alongside Overton on the front row, tucked into the second spot. Those two ran first and second for the first 16 laps of the race until Davenport was able to secure the second spot on lap 17.
Davenport then moved to the lead on lap 21 as the first caution flew with that lap was scored. On the restart Davenport had to contend with O’Neal, Marlar and Overton in a tightly contested battle for the race lead. With O’Neal and Marlar all over Davenport another caution came out with 27 laps complete.
All eyes were on the current series points leader Ricky Thornton, Jr. who was slicing through the field after starting in 25th for having to go to back-up car. Thornton moved to fifth by lap 36 and trailed only Davenport, Marlar, O’Neal, and Devin Moran.
Thornton would not be around at the finish as he slowed on the track under a caution with 10 laps to go after just reaching second past Marlar in the running order. Thornton’s night ended after a spectacular run from the tail of the field as he would be pushed back to the pit area after stopping in the middle of the back straightaway with mechanical issues.
Davenport was still on the point with Marlar and O’Neal behind him on the single-file restart. O’Neal then got past Marlar and set his sights on Davenport. With seven laps to go O’Neal made his move for the lead getting by Davenport and then going on to win his seventh series event of 2023. Marlar passed Davenport at the white flag to pick up the second position at the finish.
“It’s awesome,” said O’Neal. “I had to get up on the wheel I was just so tight against that cushion I was afraid to run it. It just came down to the last ten laps and I knew I had a shot at it if I could run it hard enough if I could get enough of a run down the straightaways. The crew gave me a great race car all weekend, we were able to get back into victory lane last night and I knew coming into today we had a great piece we just needed to play our cards right.”
Tim McCreadie, Devin Moran, Evans, Georgia’s Cody Overton, Garrett Alberson, and Logan Roberson rounded out the top 10.
Up next for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is on Saturday, September 2 at Ohio’s Portsmouth Raceway Park. Visit LucasDirt.com for details.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA
Rumble by the River – August 26, 2023
1. 1H-Hudson O’Neal
2. 157-Mike Marlar
3. 49-Jonathan Davenport
4. 66C-Matt Cosner
5. 76-Brandon Overton
6. 39-Tim McCreadie
7. 99-Devin Moran
8. 15K-Cody Overton
9. 58-Garrett Alberson
10. 89-Logan Roberson
11. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
12. 11-Spencer Hughes
13. 1T-Tyler Erb
14. 18D-Daulton Wilson
15. 22-Gregg Satterlee
16. 48-Colton Flinner
17. 111B-Max Blair
18. 0R-Rick Eckert
19. 7-Ross Robinson
20. 2JR-Jeff Rine
21. 45-Kyle Hardy
22. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
23. 10-Michael Norris
24. 22F-Chris Ferguson
25. 25Z-Mason Zeigler
