DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Hudson O'Neal's massive improvement from 2020 to 2021, Chris Ferguson at the Rocket Chassis test? | Daily 10-19-2021
Coming up we go deep on Hudson O'Neal's improvement from 2020 to 2021, we've got details on Chris Ferguson at the Rocket Chassis test, today's streaming schedule and more.
Today is Tuesday, October 19th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
He may have come up short in his bid to win the 2021 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship, but I do think we'll look back on this year as the one in which Hudson O'Neal took a big step forward and became one of the top drivers in dirt late model racing. 2020 was a tough season for the 21 year old from Indiana, and son of famed racer Don O'Neal. He started out the year behind the wheel of the Mastersbilt house car, but that relationship ended following the Show-Me 100 weekend, and O'Neal was left looking for a ride, eventually landing with the startup PCC squad for the rest of 2020. Coming into 2021, O'Neal was on the move again, committing to the full season with Roger Sellers and the Double Down Motorsports team. And in the end, that move paid off big time with several marquee victories and a second place points position behind champion Tim McCreadie. When you dive into the numbers, the improvement from one year to the next punches you in the face. O'Neal had six wins this season versus just one in 2020. And those six wins included the Pittsburgher 100, Topless 100, and Show-Me 100, all of which paid $20,000 or more to win. In 40 Lucas appearances a year ago, O'Neal had just three top fives, 11 top tens, and an average finish of 13.53. His top five and top ten efficiency numbers were abysmal, and he was in B Mains at nearly half the races. In 2021 though, he was a completely different driver. In 45 starts, on top of the six victories, he had 16 top fives, which was third best in the series, 32 top tens, which only champion McCreadie had more, and an average finish of 8.3. That was more than a five position gain in average finish from one season to the next. That's huge improvement. He also did a much better job qualifying and protecting top five and top ten starting positions, and he was able to move through fields even when he didn't start towards the front. In 19 starts outside of the top ten, he converted 11 of those into top ten finishes, which was tied with Jimmy Owens for the most. He also led Lucas in feature plus/minus at plus 130 for the year and was tied with Josh Richards for the most races with a positive plus minus at 30. So we know he can win the big shows. We know he can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the game, and we know he can move forward and maximize finishes when the early part of the night doesn't go his way. That's a mix of abilities that will win a driver a title and lots of big races. Looking at 2022, he'll definitely be one to watch out of the gate. To really make a run at the Lucas championship and the $150,000, he'll need to find just a touch more consistency and up that average feature finish to somewhere in the sixes. Owens won the 2020 title with an average finish of 6.8, and McCreadie was at 6.1 for this season for reference. O'Neal had 13 finishes outside the top ten this season, and while TMac only had eight, so it will be crucial to avoid those in the future. For a driver that appeared to possibly be on the brink of washing out in 2020, he roared back with a vengeance this season and got back on track in his career. To see more numbers like these on O'Neal and hundreds of other dirt racers, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
Going back to the story from the weekend about Chris Ferguson and Brandon Sheppard getting disqualified from the Dirt Track World Championship. Kevin Kovac posted a story at dirtondirt.com detailing more of the incident including comments from both sides on what happened and some comments from Lucas series director Rick Schwallie. Feel free to check that out if you're curious. More interestingly though, Rocket Chassis scheduled a test at the Dirt Track at Charlotte last night in advance of the upcoming World Finals, and we saw Sheppard, Chris Madden, and Boom Briggs on track. But another car that was in attendance was Chris Ferguson. Fergie doesn't drive a Rocket, in fact he's part of the Bloomquist squad driving a Team Zero. So why was he there? According to a post on his Facebook page, he got some laps in and did some testing with Fox Shocks and Ronny Crooks as he plans on running World Finals, and that he was invited to the test by Mark Richards after the two cleared the air from the weekend. In the post he said quote "this was a Rocket Chassis test and Mark invited us to come out after we spoke today on the phone. It’s better to work out your differences than to let it weigh on your race team. I’m happy to put everything behind us after last weekend and move on. I’ve always had nothing but respect for BShepp and Rocket1" unquote. Nice to see the two sides have put this to rest already. It shouldn't have happened in the first place for sure, but at least it won't continue into the future.
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, there is plenty of racing to dive into, including more winged sprint car stuff. I've had some folks ask when I'm gonna talk about Trophy Cup, and we will definitely get into all that this week, including who's racing and with what teams and who to watch. That field is gonna be stacked out in California. The Keith Kunz Giveback Classic is also this week at Port City Raceway in Oklahoma. That event features 600 cc micros with the winner having a chance at a ride with Kunz at the Chili Bowl. This will be the first time the event is at Port City after taking place at Millbridge, and I believe this is the first year it's sanctioned by POWRi. The World of Outlaws sprint cars are back this weekend, the Flo late models are at Volunteer Speedway tomorrow, and the dirt racing season down under is starting to come to life at places like Perth. So even though seasons are starting to wind down, still a lot happening and a lot to talk about. I've also had some ask about the offseason, and yes we'll continue doing shows through the winter months. We'll be around to cover silly season moves, series schedule releases, and some of the winter racing, including the Xtreme DIRTcar events.
There are two shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has weekly outlaw karts from Millbridge Speedway and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Tuesday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!