After the Checkers
O'Neal triumphs with tire-saving approach
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Hudson O'Neal with wife Tessa and River. (Josh James)
BARBERVILLE, Fla. (Feb. 10) — Instant reaction and analysis from Tuesday’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals action at Volusia Speedway Park, a $7,000-to-win event under DIRTcar Racing sanction won by Hudson O’Neal (RaceWire):
PERFECT PACE: Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and his crew chief Jason Durham knew exactly what it was going to take to win Tuesday’s 25-lap feature off the pole position: the 25-year-old driving a cool, calm race. Even with extended track-prep sessions following qualifying and before the B-mains, Volusia’s surface was abrasive and trending toward latched-up throughout the night. The A-main’s short distance didn’t eliminate the tire-wear factor, so O’Neal carefully heeded Durham’s signals to conserve his rubber while running out front; for one stretch late in the distance O’Neal seemed to be virtually coasting through the rubber line around the first and second turns without sliding his SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis. It’s why his tires stayed alive for him to complete a flag-to-flag triumph and register his fourth overall win of 2026, including three piloting the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6 (two in Arizona’s Wild West Shootout and one in last month’s Sunshine Nationals at Volusia).
QUESTIONABLE MOVE: A locked-down track surface can lead to controversial exchanges between drivers. So it was with Cody Overton of Evans, Ga., and Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., who came together while battling for second place on lap 10. Thornton overtook Overton for second on a lap-nine restart, but then Overton shot underneath, and then up into, Thornton through turns one and two. Overton’s right-rear quarterpanel was left crunched from hitting Thornton’s left-front; the contact damaged Thornton’s bodywork and bent his car’s spindle, among other damage, and he immediately fell back to sixth, where he finished. Thornton was visibly angry with Overton’s move following the race; Overton, meanwhile, remarked that he must have missed the rubber and drifted into Thornton and took the blame for the incident (he directed the words “I’m sorry” toward Thornton in a postrace interview).
ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS: While Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, was disappointed that the track surface turned one-lane and held him back from climbing higher than his third-place finish, he didn’t take the Volusia track crew to task for falling short of the competitive standard they’ve established throughout this year’s racing events. “When them (USAC Sprint car) guys went out to start hot-lapping and qualifying, it was blowing dust, so I figured it was going to be a long night for the track prep crew,” he said. “But when you got this many nights on it, racing non-stop, it’s gonna happen sooner or later. It ain’t nothing against them or anything else. They’ve been busting their butts for however many nights, and hell, I know it's the first time it's ever rubbered up (this year) for us.”
COOLED OFF: Brandon Overton's bid to become the first driver ever to win five straight Speedweeks features fizzled out with a quiet 17th-place finish. But his outing showed just how fine a line it was between success and failure on Tuesday night. Overton started his heat race from outside the front row and managed to pull ahead of polesitter Nick Hoffman for the lead early in the prelim, but he had to run so hard trying to get far enough in front of Hoffman to seize the prime inside lane that he “just overheated my tires,” he said. As Hoffman drove away to the win, Overton’s problems were compounded because Devin Moran, on softer rubber, came on to take the runner-up spot on the final lap. So Overton went from potentially starting the feature sixth (with a victory) or 12th (finishing second) to 18th, which effectively put him in a hopeless situation with a track surface that latched up in one lane.
FRESH FACES: It was a night for some new blood to show up in the feature lineup as two DIRTcar Nationals upstarts from Pennsylvania — Oil City’s Tyler Wyant and Moon Township’s Logan Zarin — made first-ever starts in a full-field A-main during the event. While they finished 20th and 21st, it buoyed the confidence of the the drivers whose previous DCN attempts (Zarin in ’24, Wyant in ’25) saw them fail to crack a headliner field aside from the midweek triple 20-lap semifeatures.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: O’Neal has won at least one Speedweeks feature in four straight seasons, giving him the fourth-longest active streak. Brandon Overton has already extended his streak to 10 years in a row, while Devin Moran (six years) and Ricky Thornton Jr. (five) are looking for checkered flags to add to their streaks.
