What does Hudson O’Neal’s victory Jan. 28 at Needmore Speedway have in common with Brandon Sheppard’s 2023 Dirt Track World Championship triumph at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and Kyle Larson’s win in April 2023 at Tennessee’s Volunteer Speedway?

The 24-year-old from Martinsville, Ind., was the latest driver to put a brand-new Kevin Rumley-prepared developmental Longhorn Chassis in victory lane. Indeed, the Longhorn engineer has a strong track record with his developmental chassis program.

With NASCAR Cup star Kyle Larson stepping away from Dirt Late Model racing to declutter his racing schedule — though Rumley won’t rule out Larson’s return to the discipline at some point in his equipment — Rumley’s No. 6 team has embraced being Longhorn’s guinea pig.

“The purpose of our program is a developmental program,” Rumley told DirtonDirt.com last month. “The whole purpose for us to race is to have something different, and to prove it out — prove it out for all our customers. Luckily, Hudson was gracious enough, and (SSI Motorsports owner) Todd Burns was gracious enough, to let him help us out with it. Hopefully it’ll help our customers in the future and be good.”

Safety is also the driving component in Rumley’s latest project. The car that O’Neal won last month's Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series feature with has “confidential” safety features that Rumley can’t disclose yet. Rumley’s efforts to improve safety will especially ramp up after Brian Shirley’s fiery incident at Needmore.

“This car, the main goal is safety. We had a scare (last month), so we’re constantly trying to find speed, but we have a human obligation for safety,” Rumley said during last month’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series practice session at All-Tech Raceway. “We’re in constant contact with the sanctioning bodies trying to bounce ideas back and forth. We had a scare (at Needmore), and we have to have some action ideas from it.”

Rumley's focus as far as safety goes with the new Longhorn developmental car is that, "as an industry, we need to work on being able for all drivers to get out with their helmet and HANS on.

"Because in a fire, you can't take your helmet off," said Rumley, who's been in contact with Shirley to dissect what went wrong that night at Needmore. "We know exactly what happened, that series of events. It was an eye-opening experience. And I hope we learn from it and take action."

Rumley said that he started working on his latest developmental chassis "mid last season," particularly designing the car around "where we need to go as an industry."

"Hopefully we have that in our back pocket here,"  said Rumley, who added that he's consulted with an undisclosed former Longhorn Chassis employee "who is now very high up in NASCAR" to improve safety in Dirt Late Model racing.

"We have that to lean on. He has his ideas," Rumley said. "We're in constant contact with resources like that and the sanctioning bodies trying to get our cars safer.

"Luckily it's a learning experience where nobody got hurt or a tragedy to happen for industries to learn about it and take action. Luckily we can take some action and make them a safer. We're all a family in the pit area. If something would happen, we wouldn't take it very well."

As long as safety remains first priority, Rumley and his innovative edge will continue to find ways to improve car performance, too.

“There’s a lot of things we try that don’t work. We’re constantly trying new stuff all the time,” Rumley said. “It’s getting more competitive in the pit area anymore that you have to continue to work even though I feel Longhorn is on top. Other people are coming. Other manufacturers are coming. We absolutely have to work on new things.”