This Day in Dirt: Hudson O’Neal Stops Illini at Lincoln Amid Multiple Dirt Closures

Dirt Racing’s Winning Moment: Hudson O’Neal got past Tyler Erb early and drove away from the field to score a comfortable Illinois Speedweek win at Lincoln Speedway Thursday night (May 11).

O’Neal’s two-second lead did evaporate in the closing laps thanks to a persistent pursuit by Brandon Sheppard, but a treacherous cushion would derail Sheppard’s momentum inside of 10 to go. O’Neal’s win was sealed with a one-lap run to the checkers after Ricky Thornton Jr. brought out the yellow on the white-flag lap.

2023 FLO RACING NIGHT IN AMERICA LINCOLN RACE RESULTS

Dirt Racing’s Dramatic Moment: Ashton Winger capped the most exciting heat race of the evening with a slider display that would have made the local White Castle blush.

Not only was Winger’s heat race win a sneak preview of just how racy the black dirt of Lincoln was Thursday night, it set the stage for one of the most memorable interviews dirt racing has seen in 2023 (more on that later).

What Dirt Racing Fans’ll Be Group Chatting About This Morning

I’m sure there’s more to it than this, but I’d be willing to spend serious coin to help racetracks all across the country truck Midwestern black dirt to spread on their respective surfaces. The volume of side-by-side racing the first two nights of Illinois Speedweek have seen has been top-notch.

The continual side-by-side racing hasn’t been the only highlight of the Speedweek … the competition level also been ridiculous. It was crazy enough that powerhouse Brandon Overton missed the field at Spoon River last night, but to see Wednesday’s race winner (and defending Lincoln victor) Dennis Erb Jr. miss the field this evening put an exclamation point on just how deep the late model fields have been for the fledgling Flo Racing tour. And the lack of provisionals made the preliminary action at Lincoln all the more exciting.

Kyle Larson was nowhere to be found Thursday (Tim McCreadie scored a fifth-place finish in the Rumley late model) but he immediately made waves on social media soon after the checkers flew at Lincoln, calling for a ban on the signal sticks many super late model teams use to communicate with their drivers during green-flag racing.

I’ve written about this on numerous occasions, but it’s rare that I disagree with Larson so we’ll revisit the issue. Let’s say signal sticks are banned tomorrow. What’s to stop a team from sending hand signals using neon-colored gloves? From sending light signals using a cellphone or tablet? From waving highway vests in the grandstands? The idea that race teams aren’t going to find ways to visually communicate, even if signal sticks are banned, is naive at best.

Besides, tonight’s race was decided by a one-lap run to the checkers, signal sticks didn’t ruin that. Considering how reliably awesome dirt late model racing has been in 2023, this is a non-issue.

Rewind back to Tuesday night this week. Remember how rough Accord Speedway’s new racing surface proved to be? Well, despite the extensive track work and hours using a packer on the surface, the track canceled their regular Friday show to allow for more track work to be done.

As much as I hate seeing any track cancel an event given just how many races have been canceled across the Northeast during this rainy spring, Accord made the right call here. Putting on two bad shows would be far more counter-productive than fixing the problem to put a good program on a week from now.

Speaking of cancelations, West Virginia Motor Speedway has now canceled its second consecutive 2023 racing event after closing early in 2022. This time, the Mountaineer Nationals were canceled not for weather, but to reportedly allow the track to focus on its early June date with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

The social media response to this cancelation has not been positive and I can understand race fans’ frustrations here. Yes, WVMS was proactive in canceling weeks in advance before teams spent money on diesel to haul to the track and fans hit the road, but the track has now canceled every race it was scheduled to host for the better part of a calendar year. It’s a very real possibility that race fans could plan to go elsewhere than WVMS for their LOLMDS weekend, thinking they could spend travel dollars to go to a track that’s more reliable to actually put on a race.

Dirt Racing’s Hero of the Day

We’ve already been over Winger’s on-track exploits during heat racing at Lincoln Thursday. Not only were those fireworks worth a shoutout, so were his comments after said heat race, comments that I’d bet my Frontstretch wages in their entirety we’ll see on a t-shirt at some point this year.

Winger, for those that don’t remember, was arrested after getting involved in a pit-area scuffle at Southern Raceway earlier this spring.

Dirt Racing’s Victim of the Night

Chase Junghans went for a wall-ride in the second late model B-main at Lincoln that sent him pit side without a spot in the A-main.

Numbers Game

4

Dirt tracks that ran an oval-track program in the U.S. Thursday night.

94

The nation’s largest car count Thursday night, the opening night of the Wingless Clash at US-24 Speedway in Indiana.

$23,023

The nation’s top purse Thursday night, paid to the Illinois Speedweek late model winner at Lincoln (O’Neal)

Up Next: Frontstretch will be back Monday morning (May 15) with continued coverage of  the last two events of Illinois Speedweek. Coverage can be found Flo Racing.