ROSSBURG, Ohio (June 9) — Hudson O’Neal couldn’t have been more pleased to head right back onto Eldora Speedway’s racing surface just 24 hours after letting a Dream XXIX preliminary feature win slip through his fingers.

After tossing and turning in bed as he ran his restart misstep through his mind, the 22-year-old sensation from Martinsville, Ind., simply put Thursday’s disappointing episode in his rearview mirror by flipping the script with a $12,000 triumph in Friday’s second 25-lap semifeature.

“Any time you get a little redemption like that it makes it nice,” O’Neal said moments after receiving a congratulatory hug in the pit area from his father Don, a former Dream winner who watched the action from the half-mile oval’s stands. “You lose a lot of sleep over stuff like that, so that’s the nice thing about racing back-to-back nights — you get to make up for it.”

O’Neal stumbled on a late restart during Thursday’s 25-lapper, allowing Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., to slide him in turn one to grab the lead and march on to victory. The youngster turned the tables on T-Mac on a lap-10 restart in Friday’s feature, charging to the outside of turn one and carrying his momentum around the top to clinch a race-winning pass off the second corner.

“I got a good start is really the main reason I was able to stay with (McCreadie), and I was able to drive off in there pretty hard,” O’Neal said. “Just everything played right. I hit it just right and got a good run … it’s a fine line, a very, very fine line (on the thin cushion), and I was able to get off in there and kind of turn down” away from the hole exiting turn two.

O’Neal made the right moves as well in the closing circuits to stave off a last-ditch challenge from Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who finished 0.783 of a second behind in the runner-up spot.

“I knew Bobby was close,” O’Neal said. “I heard him one time with two or three to go, and I knew I was entering off of (the cushion) a little bit getting in, so I knew that was kind of messing his air up. And then I was turning off of it a little bit on both ends, so I felt like I was doing my part to try and keep him where he was and from getting real good runs.”

VIDEO: Highlights from Friday's Twin 25s at Eldora Speedway. 

Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards, who fields the company’s iconic blue No. 1 house car that O’Neal is running for the first time in an Eldora crown jewel this weekend, was proud of his first-year driver. He understands that O’Neal’s age means he’s still learning lessons but has the talent and savvy to swiftly correct any mistakes.

“He knew what he did,” Richards said when asked about O’Neal’s rebound. “It was just a matter of him knowing he made a mistake, and he didn’t make none tonight.

“It’s like Don (O’Neal) and I just talked, it’s experience. He got experience last night. He’ll know next time. You’re gonna have some of that. He’s 22, man! You realize, he’s 22!

“We talked a little bit about it last night, and look, a lot of times you really don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be,” he continued. “Tonight he got a good run (on the key restart) and was able to maintain, and McCreadie didn’t shut the door over there with the lane and he got by. (Hudson) just stayed out there and made the pass.”

Richards admitted that Pierce’s late charge made him nervous, but he noted that, while Eldora’s new signaling rules make it more difficult to relay information to drivers, O’Neal still realized Pierce was within striking distance.

“The next thing I know, Hudson went to the top, and I thought, How’d he know to go to the top? There ain’t no signals,” Richards said. “Then I looked up and seen that TV screen (the turn-two video board showing a live feed of the race). Hudson was watching TV.”

Rough Nights For Terbo

In between signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans and working on his Best Performance Motorsports car following Friday’s second 25-lap semifeature, Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, paused to address his forgettable first two nights of Dream XXIX action.

“When it rains, it pours,” the 26-year-old Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular said, shaking his head in disgust.

After popping an engine during his preliminary feature on Thursday and then staying up with his crew until 4:30 a.m. to swap motors, Erb experienced more frustration on Friday. His evening started in positive fashion with a heat-race victory that had him feeling “really happy” with his prospects, but his fortunes went downhill in the 25-lapper as he fell from his outside front-row starting spot to fifth by lap three and found himself running seventh on the 10th circuit when his Rocket machine’s powerplant suddenly shut off exiting turn two.

The problem? A freak instance of a rock or piece of debris apparently hitting the emergency kill switch behind his car’s seat and abruptly making his vehicle go silent.

“The kill switch got shut off,” he said. “Bad juju I guess? It never happened to me until today.”

Erb’s race went from bad to worse moments later when he was swept up in a multicar tangle restart tangle on the homestretch that damaged the nose, suspension and other parts of his No. 1. He retired with a 22nd-place finish, barely improving upon his 23rd-place result on Thursday.

“It knocked the carburetor off, too,” Erb said. “I think (Ryan) Gustin was behind me, and nobody had anywhere to go. Popsicle (Tad Pospisil) was spinning out, and then I spun out … I was just slowed down, kind of sideways, and got hit.”

The dire turn of events came right as Erb was plotting to pick up the pace in a bid for a top-five finish.

“It was rubbered in three and four and I was trying to be patient and not blow the deck out, and then when Bobby slid me I was like, ’OK, obviously we can blow the deck out now,’ ” Erb said. “And literally, I think I broke two or three laps later … or I didn’t even break, but stopped.

“This year, the first for everything is right now. It’s just the way it goes.”

Erb’s poor feature finishes left him well outside the three-car invert for Saturday’s Dream heats, so he will start fifth in the sixth 15-lap prelim as he seeks his fourth career start in the event’s finale. His best finish in the 100-lapper is fifth in 2019.

“I’ll have to make something happen in the heat race,” he said.

Starting To Hunt Eldora’s Front

Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., naturally attracts plenty of attention from Eldora’s fans thanks to the popularity of his family’s Hunt the Front website and YouTube page that documents his racing. His fourth-place finish in Friday’s second 25-lap preliminary feature, though, helped add to his notoriety.

A 29-year-old driver making just his fourth career trip to the famed half-mile oval, Joiner rebounded from a disappointing DNQ on Thursday to author the best Eldora performance of his career. He started ninth and steadily moved forward, finally reaching fourth place on lap 21.

“It’s a heck of a turnaround from any other time we’ve been here,” Joiner said, a broad smile crossing his red-bearded face as he rehashed his first top-five run in a crown jewel semifeature at Eldora (his previous best was 14th in a 2021 World 100 prelim). “We had a good car last night, too, and I just got myself in a bind in the heat race and never could really recover from that. Tonight our race car was good. We didn’t have to change a whole lot to keep it balanced. We made a few minor adjustments for the feature.

“It was really maneuverable, and the longer the race went I felt like I was getting a little bit better. Maybe the track was latching, I don’t know, but we were getting better and better.”

Joiner, who turned the fastest time in his Friday qualifying group, felt like he’s getting the hang of the big, fast track.

“This place is different,” said Joiner, who also finished fourth in one of last September’s Chasing the Dream races for drivers who had never won at Eldora. “It’s a little bit different from Milton (his hometown’s Southern Raceway). It’s about a 180 from my home track.”

“I love this place. This is really fun being here with all the fans and everybody here watching and everybody home watching. I’m glad we can be here. We’re pumped. We’re having a good time and have a lot of people to thank. It’s just awesome being here.”

Odds And Ends

Mike Marlar’s postrace joy following his $12,000 victory in Friday’s first 25-lap preliminary feature was tempered when he learned that his mother was struck by a flying rock while sitting in the stands during the second semifeature. The Winfield, Tenn., driver immediately left his trailer to check on his mother, who needed stitches to close a wound. … Joining Joiner as polesitters for Saturday’s heat races are Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., Josh Rice of Verona, Ky., Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., and Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa. … Drivers who scored a top-five finish in two prelim features: Marlar, O’Neal, McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., and Kyle Strickler of Mooresville, N.C.