Don O’Neal Crowned as NDRL King of Mississippi at Magnolia Motor Speedway
Columbus, Mississippi (April 19, 2014) Don O’Neal became the 7th different National Dirt Racing League winner in the first 8 events. O’Neal of Martinsville, Indiana made his way up from his 3rd starting position to overtake race-long leader Jonathan Davenport on lap 26 and then proceeded to drive away to take his first career NDRL win. The King of Mississippi paid $12,500 to win the 60-lap finale. “This is the result of everyone working hard here at the track and back at the shop. That top was really fast there at the beginning of the race but I was finally able to find something through the middle that let me get by Scott (Bloomquist) and Davenport. We had a great car and it was nice to get another win here at Magnolia.” O’Neal commented after the win.
Chris Madden led the 26 car field to the green flag but it was Davenport who took command of the race. Davenport kept his Longhorn high up through turn 1 and 2 which allowed him to drive by Madden’s outside down the back straightaway. Bloomquist followed Davenport’s lead and made the move by Madden for 2nd one lap later. However Davenport was able to open up a huge margin over Bloomquist in the early going. Davenport’s torrid pace was slowed when he began to encounter back-marker traffic by lap 8. Davenport was able to maneuver by the first few cars he encountered. But when he caught up to drivers racing 2 and 3 wide for position Davenport could not find a way around as one of them held his coveted high line.
The resulting slow down allowed Bloomquist and the now 3rd O’Neal to reel in the leader. With Bloomquist and O’Neal hounding him Davenport began to show some urgency, searching out new lines in moving by the lappers. Bloomquist pulled alongside Davenport’s inside through turn one and two but Davenport turned back the zero down the back straightaway. Behind Bloomquist O’Neal was beginning to move down from the high line that was so good in the beginning. On lap 20 O’Neal moved by Bloomquist for 2nd using the lapped machine of Chris Ferguson as a pick.
In just a matter of 3 more laps O’Neal was once again on the deck of the leader. After crossing the line on the 26th lap O’Neal rolled into turn 1 through the middle and pulled even with Davenport’s machine. Exiting turn 2 the leaders approached Bub McCool’s machine. O’Neal was well beneath McCool but Davenport ran out of room and had to check-up slightly. O’Neal seized the moment and took the lead. Davenport tried to answer through turn 3 and 4 but O’Neal had found a sweet spot through the middle and was able to pull away from the 6 car.
From there O’Neal made all the right moves through heavy traffic to hold the lead. The only thing that slowed O’Neal down was a late race yellow flag for the slowing machine of Jeremy Payne. The yellow flag was the only yellow to wave in a NDRL feature for the entire weekend. The restart was much the same as O’Neal was able to get away from the pack with Davenport in tow. Davenport tried to get a run going at O’Neal but Davenport’s machine began to show a trail of smoke through the corners. O’Neal was not to be denied however as he pulled away over the closing laps to grab the win. Davenport held on for 2nd ahead of Bloomquist, Billy Moyer and Madden.
O’Neal’s victory dramatically tightened the NDRL point standings as O’Neal pulled within 4 points of Bloomquist who leads Davenport by 2 headed into the series’ next event at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio. The Atomic Blast will feature 2 complete shows May 18-20. The May 19th event will pay $5,000 to the winner while the Saturday, May 20th finale will boast a $15,000 to win payday.
NDRL King of Mississippi
Saturday, April 19th Feature Finish
1 – 5 Don O’Neal
2 – 6 Jonathan Davenport
3 – 0 Scott Bloomquist
4 – 21 Billy Moyer
5 – 44 Chris Madden
6 – 15 Steve Francis
7 – 23 John Blankenship
8 – 21 Chris Brown
9 – 1 Jason Hiett
10 – 7R Kent Robinson
11 – 777 Jared Landers
12 – 21JR Billy Moyer, Jr.
13 – 86x Brian Rickman
14 – 18 Jimmy Cliburn
15 – 43 Garrett Alberson
16 – 22 Chris Ferguson
17 – 19 William Thomas
18 – 1c Chad Thrash
19 – 19 Tim Fuller
20 – 57J Bub McCool
21 – 25z Mason Zeigler
22 – 71 Chris Wall
23 – 116 Randy Weaver
24 – 186 Jeremy Payne
25 – 111 Max Blair
26 – K3 David Breazeale
DNS: Robert Baker, BJ Robinson, Eric Cooley, Ray Moore, Jason Cliburn, Chase Washington, Anthony Burroughs, Doug Showah, Dane Dacus, Rick Rickman, Jack Sullivan, Chris Smith, Leon Henderson, Dwight Falcon, Dave Deetz, Justin Paxton, Timothy Culp, Neil Baggett, Brent Barnett and Skip Arp.
Special Awards:
Bell Helmets Fast Time: Scott Bloomquist 14.537 seconds
VP Race Fuels Highest Finisher: Jonathan Davenport
Genesis Shocks: Bub McCool
JRI Shocks: William Thomas
C&R Racing: John Blankenship
Schaeffer’s Oil On the Lead Lap: Brian Rickman
AR Bodies Hard Charger: John Blankenship (10 spots)
Keyser Manufacturing Rookie of the Race: Kent Robinson
Official NDRL 2014 Sponsors:
Hoosier Racing Tires, VP Race Fuels, Arizona Sport Shirts, Keyser Manufacturing, Schaeffer’s Racing Oil and Lubricants, Capital Race Cars, Rocket Chassis, DirtonDirt.com, Bell, DirtWrap, C&R Racing, Genesis Shocks, AR Bodies, Little Power Shop, Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales, Dirtwrap, JRi Shocks, Sweet-Bloomquist Race Cars, Velocita USA, RockAuto.com, Clements Race Engines, Total Seal Rings, Pro Power Racing, Cometic Gaskets, Dyers Top Rods, Vic Hill Race Engines, K1 Technologies, JE Pistons, High Velocity Heads and JNJ Motorsports Media.
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