Hudson Oneal is the Burlington " Survivor "

 The Lucas Oil late model series made their first visit in several years to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, and the show did not disappoint!With IMCA stock cars and mini haulers ( trucks ) filling out the card, thirty six super late models signed in. One of those, Matt Mickelson, apparently came up short in the required equipment department, leaving us with thirty five competitors vying for the $10,000 top prize.
 Hot laps began close to 6:30 as advertised, followed by late model qualifying, three cars at a time for two laps, broken into group A, which would set the lineups for heats one and two, and group B for heats three and four. Series points leader Jonathon Davenport was the fastest in group A, but it was veteran Tim McCreadie pacing group B with the fastest lap overall at14.466 seconds around the high banked 3/8 mile oval.
 As is so often the case with " fastest times up front shows," all four heat winners came from the front row. Davenport claimed heat one ahead of Billy Moyer Jr., Chase Junghans, and Tyler Erb. Second generation driver Devin Moran won heat two over Josh Richards, former 34 winner Earl Pearson Jr., and Iowan Chris Simpson. Another Iowan, Tyler Bruening captured the third ten lapper, besting Don Oneal, McCreadie, who fell from first to third after a turn two bobble, and Kyle Bronson. The only caution period in the four qualifiers came in the final one for a spinning Mike Fryer in the David Webster #44W even as Tim Simpson ducked to the infield with what " smelled " like a blown engine. Legendary Billy Moyer took the win in front of Hudson Oneal, Shannon Babb, and Jimmy Owens.
  A pair of twelve lap B mains each added three cars to the fifty lap feature grid. Frank Heckenast Jr. came from row two to edge Bobby Pierce , who gave up the lead on lap eleven, and Spencer Diercks, followed by Shannon Buckingham topping Chad Simpson making his debut in the Moring Motorsports #1, and Stormy Scott. Chad Holladay came up one spot short after running second for a part of the event. Jason Jamison was awarded the series points provisional twenty third spot, and with Allen Weisser apparently not making the call, the fastest non qualifier slot went to Allen Murray.
  With an increasingly ominous black cloud circling the speedway and reports of torrential rains to the north, the thirteen stock cars came to the track for twenty laps. Those of us who count ourselves as stock car fans know that the full bodied cars are normally well behaved, running with minimal cautions. On Thursday, however, a track with a lot of " character, "at least partly due to the non stop spring rains created some issues. Although the caution appeared only four times, the crowd was becoming somewhat restless as competitors were given their two courtesy laps for flat tires. After a false start and the pole sitter penalized one row for firing too soon, only one lap was scored before the next three stops came in rapid fire, the final of which was a multi car pileup that took out top contender Abe Huls among others. Les Blakeley then led the group back to green with Jeremy Pundt on the move. Pundt moved to second on lap three, then snagged the lead one lap later. John Oliver Jr. powered to second on the fifth circuit and the front duo began to put distance on the remainder of the field. Pundt found a middle line to his liking, while lap after lap Oliver Jr. would look to dive underneath in turns three and four. Coming to the white flag, Pundt drifted above his preferred line, and Oliver was on top at the flag stand. Scored in front for only two laps, Oliver Jr. picked up the win. Only five cars were still running at the checkers. Pundt took runner up honors, while Tom Bowling Jr. recovered from an early flat to finish third. Shane Richardson and Chad Krogmeier rounded out the field.
  It was now late model time, and this race became something of a marathon, with fifty laps taking just over forty eight minutes to complete. By my count ten cautions slowed the action, but I refused to remove my shoes, so I may have lost count. And of course many of those included courtesy laps for flats, but now the masses seemed to have more tolerance for such activity!
  Davenport earned to pole start by virtue of his heat one win, and he took off ahead of the first yellow for a slowing McCreadie. Back to green, Moyer charged to second, followed by Bruening and Don Oneal. The leader had just caught slower traffic on lap nine when the yellow waved for Jameson, who spun on the backstretch, right in front of Davenport. With a clear track, J.D. opened a big lead, again catching the back of the pack at lap sixteen. Don Oneal was now on the move, grabbing second one lap later and moving in to challenge for the lead in the heavy traffic. Richards advanced to third, and the caution next came just before the midway mark for a spin by the fourth running Bruening. At this time, it seemed like Davenport had the edge in turns one and two, while D. Oneal was better at the other end. A multi car pile up on the restart took out Pierce, who was in search of his second big win at 34 this season, and Moyer also headed to the trailer at this time, giving up his top five position. The front pair ran side by side for one lap before Pearson brought out the next yellow for a flat. As racing resumed, Hudson Oneal jumped to third, taking along Tyler Erb in fourth and Richards dropped to fifth. Following a lap twenty eight caution, Hudson used the Delaware restart to take second, but the yellow came again for a Moyer Jr. flat. In the next nine green flag laps, the father and son duo of Don and Hudson swapped the runner up spot multiple times while Davenport took advantage of their battle to stretch his lead. Two quick yellows came around lap thirty eight first for a slowing Bruening, then  for a spin by Erb. We now had a three car war, complete with position changes and slide jobs, the excitement level rising as evidenced by my barely decipherable notes. Davenport led by a nose at lap forty four, Don O. took the lead three laps later. But going down the backstretch, Davenport made contact with Oneal, bringing out the final caution. Oneal left the track behind the wrecker, but soon made repairs and returned to tag the tail of what was now about a dozen car field. Davenport did not stop on the track, and was now placed out front for what would be a single file lineup for the final three laps. But just as it seemed Davenport would take the big check, Hudson Oneal found a line superior to the leader, nosing ahead on lap forty eight. With the crowd now on their feet, the eighteen year old held on for the final pair of laps, crossing the line by less than a car length for an emotional victory. Davenport was gracious though certainly disappointed with a second place finish in his post race interview. Richards, running a team car with the elder Oneal out of the Clint Bowyer shop, came home third. Bronson started fourteenth and drove an eventful race to fourth, with Pearson fifth. Remarkably, Don Oneal used the final three laps to come back to sixth, with Junghans, Buckingham, Bruening, and Moran completingthe top ten.
  With quite a bit of time taken for post race interviews and an uncertainty about the weather situation, I headed to the car, hearing the trucks come to the track as I negotiated the packed parking lot. Congratulations go to Jared Ruble who bested John Helenthal in the eight truck field.
  A big thank you to Jessi and Brad not only for their hospitality, but also for taking on the financial gamble to bring the Lucas Oil stars and cars to 34, especially on a Thursday night. While the series heads north in hopes of running weekend shows at Farley, Iowa, and Spring Valley, Minnesota, I will plan to take the next two nights off before a Sunday night trip to Quincy Raceways. Hopefully shirt sleeve weather is finally here to stay!