Eldora Speedway
Escaping ‘limbo,’ O'Neal primed for World 100 run
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Hudson O'Neal and father Don in victory lane. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 11) — Hudson O’Neal hasn’t necessarily spent his summer struggling. He’s spent it pressing against a glass ceiling.
He entered the World 100 at Eldora Speedway tied with Bobby Pierce for the most podium finishes in the nation with 45 while leading all drivers with 72 top-10s. Those remarkable measures of consistency put the Martinsville, Ind., driver’s podium rate above 50 percent and his top-10 rate at nearly 90 percent. | RaceWire
On most nights, however, O’Neal found himself trapped somewhere between second and seventh — always competitive, frequently close, but unable to finish the job. During his 34-race winless drought with SSI Motorsports dating to May 14 at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway, he finished between second and seventh 21 times. He landed within that range in 11 of his final 13 starts before Friday.
“Our speed has been there,” O’Neal said. “Obviously, we’ve had a lot of podiums and top-fives, but we’ve been stuck in this limbo from maybe third to sixth. We just couldn’t get out of that limbo.”
Friday during World 100 weekend, O’Neal finally broke through — almost literally.
Starting fourth in his 25-lap preliminary feature, O’Neal recognized an opening almost before it materialized. Outside front-row starter Tristan Chamberlain hesitated and drifted high. Polesitter Brian Shirley angled toward the bottom. O’Neal shot between them.
He was second by the midpoint of turns one and two. By the exit of the corner, he had powered around Shirley and into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
It was among the boldest moves of World 100 week, executed so smoothly that O’Neal made a potentially dicey maneuver look routine. It was also an almost-too-perfect metaphor for a driver punching through the glass ceiling that had capped him for much of the summer.
More importantly, it delivered O’Neal’s first victory with SSI Motorsports in nearly four months — a drought that’s difficult to fathom considering he won seven times in his first 36 starts of 2026 with the Jason Durham-led operation.
“Yeah, that’s definitely what put me in position,” O’Neal said of the start. “For some reason here, starting fourth is just dangerous. That front row always seems to have a hard time getting going — not necessarily the leader, but the guy starting second. If you time it right, you can get a really good run down the front straightaway.
“I was fortunate that I could drive to the outside of Shirley. Normally, you have to turn underneath him, maybe try to slide him or get to his left side. But Shirley kind of cheated his way down the racetrack, and Chamberlain left me a little lane where I could get to his outside and race him into turn one. That worked out really well. It’s pretty cool to make a pass like that and then go on to win the race.”
O’Neal won three times during SSI’s dry spell while making select appearances in Kevin Rumley’s No. 6 machine, further evidence that he hadn’t forgotten how to win. He actually has nine victories in 25 races this season with Rumley.
But victories continued to elude him with the team and car he races full time on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
“I’m not going to say it weighed on me, but it’s there, right?” O’Neal said. “You think about it, and you know it’s there whenever you walk into the shop and there aren’t any checks hanging up since May. You can’t let it bother you. You just have to keep looking at it.”
Friday provided the clearest evidence in a while that SSI might finally be raising its ceiling. O’Neal’s decisive start gave him command of the race, and he went unchallenged from there.
The performance also continued an encouraging beginning for a new Longhorn Chassis that O’Neal debuted two weeks ago at Port Royal Speedway. Friday marked only its fifth competitive appearance — and its second at Eldora — after O’Neal drove it to a second-place finish Saturday at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway in Northern Allstars Late Model Series action.
Thursday’s World 100 preliminary opener didn’t fully reveal the car’s potential. O’Neal felt strong in his qualifying race, but acknowledged that his team missed the setup slightly in the 25-lap semifeature, causing a third-to-sixth backslide. Before Friday’s program, Durham’s SSI team revisited some of their notes gathered during June’s Dream.
“We fine-tuned it today and made some adjustments we felt were necessary,” O’Neal said. “We worked in that direction, got our notebook out from the Dream, where we ran really well, and just went back to it. We’re getting better all the time. We’re working, doing the best we can and just have to keep digging.”
That progress is occurring as SSI works increasingly closely with Rumley and Longhorn Chassis. O’Neal’s special-guest role in Rumley’s car has given him another avenue to provide feedback and compile information, while the relationship among the different parties has continued to strengthen.
“I think it’s going well,” O’Neal said. “Obviously, Steve Arpin, Kevin Rumley, Matt Langston and everybody at Longhorn Chassis — it’s really cool to be a part of it, to be accepted by them and to have their trust in me to give them good feedback. It’s also a lot of fun to race the No. 6 car whenever I can and have the relationship that I do.
“Over the last few months, Jason and those guys have started working more closely together. I think the relationship is healthy. We’re getting closer and better every day.”
O’Neal credited Durham’s steady leadership at crew chief for helping SSI continue searching for the incremental gains needed to turn its abundance of strong finishes into victories.
“That’s the thing about this SSI team and Jason Durham,” O’Neal said. “He’s a great leader. No matter how tough the times get, he continues to find a way.”
For O’Neal, the developing relationship between SSI, Rumley and Longhorn is another reason to feel content with the direction of his career.
“I’ve said this before in interviews, but I’m very happy with where I’m at,” O’Neal said. “I’m very happy with my racing career and my life. From a 100-foot view, looking down at me right now, I feel like I’m succeeding and am where I want to be in my life. This is where I’ve always dreamed of being, and it’s a lot of fun right now.”
From his vantage point inside the sport, he has watched the World 100 continue to grow — larger crowds, greater attention and an atmosphere that seemingly becomes more impressive each September.
The scale of the event was unmistakable after Friday’s victory. O’Neal reached victory lane shortly after 10 p.m., but a long line of spectators waiting to meet him stretched his postrace obligations beyond 11:30. Nearly an hour and a half after the checkered flag, fans were still waiting for their moment with the former World 100 winner.
“I think about it all the time when you’re driving across the racetrack, looking around and seeing all the fans,” O’Neal said. “People are hollering at you as you’re going across. It’s just really cool.”
The breakthrough also allowed O’Neal to settle a playful exchange with an SSI crewman.
“One of my crew guys was a little frustrated last night because he’s never really run well here,” O’Neal said. “He wasn’t frustrated with anybody; he was just making jokes. He was saying, ‘Man, get me up on the top step. I don’t like this place. This place has never been good to me.’
“I told him, ‘Yeah, but it’s a lot of fun when you run well here.’ When we were done tonight and got into the trailer, I said, ‘Hey, I told you last night — it’s a lot of fun to run well here.’ He was smiling from ear to ear.”
As satisfying as Friday’s victory was, it guarantees O’Neal little for Saturday’s $100,000-to-win finale. Brandon Sheppard’s spin of six on the Wheel of Misfortune inverted the top 36 drivers in points across six heat races, leaving O’Neal starting fifth in the first heat.
Only the top three finishers transfer directly to the 100-lap feature. Everyone else must race through one of two consolation events, meaning O’Neal will need to move forward quickly — much as he did Friday — to secure his place in the sport’s most prestigious race.
“The first heat doesn’t excite me, either,” O’Neal said. “The heat races are going to have to play out for us to even have a shot at making the race.”
Friday’s performance might have broken the glass ceiling that constrained SSI all summer, but O’Neal isn’t ready to declare it gone for good.
“I don’t know that we’re out of it yet,” O’Neal said. “Obviously, we had a good night tonight, and hopefully we’ll continue to have a good weekend. But maybe we don’t. We’ll just try to carry this speed over the best we can and keep working at it. That’s all we can do.”
A day after surging from fourth to the lead, O’Neal will need another quick march forward to secure a spot in Saturday’s main event — and a chance to turn Friday’s breakthrough into an even greater Eldora triumph.
“This place — in other words, it means the world to us,” O’Neal said. “It’s the biggest venue we have in Dirt Late Model racing, and there’s no other place like it when you’re successful here. To stand on that stage and see the crowd is special.
“Then, if you’re lucky enough to win a crown jewel here on Saturday, that’s another step above simply being on the stage. That’s the goal. I’ve been fortunate enough to do it once, and I’m glad I’ve had that opportunity, but we want to do it several more times.”
