Don O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind., won the 75-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Car Series A-Main event Saturday evening at East Bay Raceway Park to conclude the 33rd annual Late Model Winternationals. Dan Schlieper finished second, with Scott Bloomquist, 2009 Winternationals winner Dennis Erb Jr., and Jimmy Mars completing the top five.
O'Neal started third in the 27-car field and ran in the top five for the first 39 laps. The field chased Bloomquist, who led from the start before sliding high in Turn 1 on a Lap 40 restart, allowing O'Neal to take the lead he would hold to the finish.
"It's easy to jump the cushion and slide high. I did it myself (Lap 31) and thought I had lost my chance to win," O'Neal said. "To outrun Bloomquist, you know we had a very good hot rod tonight. We always run well here but it's been awhile since we've won, and it feels good to be back (in Victory Lane)."
The win was O'Neal's 13th in Winternationals events at East Bay, his 13th career win with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, and was worth $12,000.
Qualifying 10-lap heat races were won by Chris Wall, O'Neal, Bloomquist and Justin Ratliff.
Two 12-lap B-Main Last Chance races were won by Matt Miller and Dan Stone.
In qualifying, Wall set an East Bay Late Model track record of 14.022 seconds around the three-eighths-mile dirt oval at a speed of 96.28 mph.
Next on the Winternationals schedule is the 34th annual Sprint Car Winternationals, with the non-winged Sprint Cars of the United States Auto Club (USAC) competing today through Wednesday nights and the winged Sprint Cars of the All Star Circuit of Champions racing Thursday through Saturday. The championship finale, a 40-lap feature event Saturday night, will pay $7,000 to the winner.
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