Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing the second weekend in April, including action from Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., among other Super Late Model specials (most of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series coverage from Farmer City Raceway in Illinois appears elsewhere). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:

Making gains

Going into the Spring Nationals weekend at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., Hudson O’Neal and Brandon Overton were among the sport’s superstars hoping to pick up the pace in what’s been a subpar start to their 2025 seasons. 

The 24-year-old O’Neal certainly took care of business as he polished off the $27,000 sweep. But Overton? While he and his Longhorn Factory Team were in the mix all weekend, they were a step behind O’Neal’s No. 71 SSI Motorsports team the majority of the two days at the 3/8-mile oval.

On Saturday, 42 laps led didn’t pay dividends for the 33-year-old from Evans, Ga.

“It’s a helluva lot better than what we’ve been, so hats off to my crew,” Overton said as he took some consolation in Saturday’s runner-up finish. “(Crew chief Anthony) Burroughs has been working really hard. I done come in and kinda screwed his whole program up, you know what I mean? I appreciate him working as hard as he does to get out of his comfort zone and get me more comfortable in this car.”

Overton appeared to have the better short-run car Saturday as he snatched the lead from pole-starting Jonathan Davenport upon the drop of the green and raced out to leads of more than a second multiple times. The 34-lap run to end the feature played into O’Neal’s favor, however, as the Martinsville, Ind., driver moved into second from third on the lap-26 restart. From there, O’Neal slowly chipped into Overton’s lead before overtaking him for good on lap 43.

Overton’s 42 laps paced tied for his most laps led in a feature this year. In March 29’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals win at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City, Ala., he also led 42 laps. 

“We’re making gains at it. We got a crew chief who’s won about everything there is,” Overton said. “Good job to Hudson, he did a helluva job. We’re right there. I felt good about it.”

Overton doesn’t have anything on his website’s schedule for next weekend as of Sunday morning, meaning that April 25-27’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series swing at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway, Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway could be next.

He hasn’t been as strong as Lucas Oil’s top-three drivers in points — Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Davenport — but he’s fourth in the standings nonetheless in the chase for the four-driver, five-race playoff come September. 

Saturday’s win going by the wayside isn’t what Overton preferred, but he at least has a better idea of what to do when Lucas Oil visits Wheatland next month for May 22-24’s Show-Me 100.

“Before we even got out of the scales over there, I thought, We could’ve done this, we could’ve done that,” Overton said. “It makes it fun to see our hard work starting to pay off. We’ll see what happens here in the next couple weeks.”

Turning the tide

Winless with his SSI Motorsports team since last September, Hudson O’Neal has had more to prove recently, especially with his revamped crew led by new crew chief Jason Durham.

During Friday’s prelim night of the 12th annual Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., the 23-year-old superstar from Martinsville, Ind., finally showed again what he and the SSI team are capable of.

Outrunning pole-starting Jonathan Davenport at a track he’s so good at, O’Neal denied the Blairsville, Ga., driver a would-be ninth win over his last 13 races at the 3/8-mile oval for his most convincing performance to date of 2025.

“It’s been a rocky start to the year, but being able to hire Jason Durham, (SSI owner) Todd Burns and everybody have done a great job," O'Neal said in victory lane. “The crew I have behind me, they work their tails off. Even when we didn’t show the most speed during Speedweeks, they just keep plugging away and plugging away. Man, I just appreciate all my guys.

“Jason, Kyle (Daily), Riley (Sheedy), Todd and Vicki Burns. They made it feel so, so good. This feels like so much bigger than $7,000 for us. Yeah, we’re excited about the future.”

Most of the sport’s star power ended up at Farmer City (Ill.) Speedway’s Illini 100 this weekend (14 of DirtonDirt’s Top 25 drivers are there), but there’s still enough national touring talent in Wheatland — Davenport, Friday’s third-finishing Brandon Overton, fourth-finishing Mike Marlar and Cade Dillard — to make O’Neal take pride in the win.

O’Neal swept the evening with overall fast time and a heat race win, which set him up to lead 39 of 40 laps en route to his second victory of the season. O’Neal captured Jan. 28’s Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series non-points $10,000-to-win event at Needmore (Ga.) Speedway aboard Kevin Rumley’s No. 6 Longhorn.

Since last Sept. 25’s FloRacing Night in America victory at home track Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, good for $20,000, O’Neal went 24 feature starts with his SSI team without a victory. Friday’s win, in only his third start with Durham, was also his first at Wheatland since May 2019 when he claimed the Show-Me 100.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming here. The racetrack was pretty good I thought,” O’Neal said. “Put on a good show. I was a little nervous whenever J.D. got that start on me there in the beginning. He’s a tough one whenever he gets out front here. I was able to find that bottom a little earlier than them guys and able to work back by them.

“We’re so excited about the future. I can’t say that enough.”

Davenport led the opening lap, but rode the top of the track a lap too long as O’Neal exploited the bottom groove on his way around the Double L Motorsports driver. Davenport tried getting to O’Neal’s inside entering turn three on the third lap, but he “about spun him out there one time right after he got by me getting into turn three.”

“I was gonna try and go one lane lower than he did, and he checked up a little more than what I thought he was going to. Slid all the way cross and got one stripe from his left-rear quarter panel there. Luckily that didn’t hurt me or hurt him,” said Davenport, who eventually moved up top, but still had nothing for O’Neal.

“He was really good, for sure. I couldn’t believe the bottom was that good when we took off,” he added. “Once he did get by me I moved to his lane but he was still a little better than we was. We’re going to go back, make us a drink, and think about this.”

Return to Farmer City

This weekend’s Illini 100 serves as a homecoming for the many Late Model stars who hail from the Land of Lincoln. But few of them have a resume at Farmer City Raceway as long and impressive as Brian Shirley.

The Chatham, Ill., driver has been turning laps around the black-dirt bullring since the dawn of his career in the early 2000s. Between the World of Outlaws Late Models, DIRTcar Summer Nationals and countless other local and regional races, Shirley has played a role in many of the track’s most memorable moments over the past 20 years.

For the first 14 years of his Farmer City career, the only thing missing in Shirley’s resume was a World of Outlaws victory. He had come close, starting on the pole in 2012 and 2015 before coming up short on both occasions.

That all changed in 2017 when Shirley squeezed past Billy Moyer with four laps to go for his fifth World of Outlaws win and first at Farmer City. He backed up with another victory in 2019 in outrunning fellow home-stater Brandon Sheppard.

Shirley hopes Farmer City can get him on track in 2025 after he won four of the final 10 WoO races of the season in 2024. He struggled in winter action with a single top-10 finish in eight starts

“We definitely wore some stuff out there in Florida,” Shirley said. “You work all winter to put yourself in the best position that you can to hopefully start yourself out in a positive way as far as being in the points chase. For some reason, it just hasn’t worked in our cards the last couple years to start out in the points in a positive position. But for me, my guys, everybody at Bob Cullen Racing, we’re not just going to give up and roll over. We’ve come home, been doing our due diligence every week trying to get back up to where we were.”

In the weeks since, Shirley traveled north for a pair of MARS Championship Series events at Maquoketa (Iowa) Speedway, where he swept the Hawkeye 100 weekend with the World of Outlaws last August. In a field that featured several of his fellow Outlaws, Shirley brought home a pair of top-fives, proving to the Late Model world that he hadn’t forgotten how to go fast.

“We’ve had a couple pretty good runs here the last couple weeks, solid top fives,” Shirley said. “(WoO points leader) Bobby (Pierce) and them, we’re starting to at least get where we can see him. And once you can start seeing him, then you can start realizing a little bit more what you’ve got to do to beat them. It’ll all come together, we’ve just got to get into the next couple weeks and get this warm weather, get racing all the time. Everything will come together.” — Spence Smithback

Weekend plans

With the World of Outlaws Late Model Series the only national tour in action this weekend, several of the sport's top drivers are scattered across the country's quartet of five-figure races.

Saturday's $50,000-to-win XR 602 Nationals event at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway is the richest event on the weekend docket with a roster headlined by Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series campaigner Daulton Wilson. The three-day event begins with Thursday’s time trials before Friday’s heat races and dash. Points will be awarded on both preliminary nights, setting the stage for Saturday’s consolations and 60-lap, $50,000-to-win finale for 602 Crates. 

The WoO-sanctioned 18th annual Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway boasts the most star power this weekend drawing 14 of the Top 25 drivers in DirtonDirt's latest power rankings: No. 1 Bobby Pierce, No. 2 Ricky Thornton Jr., No. 3 Devin Moran, No. 6 Ryan Gustin, No. 8 Nick Hoffman, No. 9 Tyler Erb, No. 10 Drake Troutman, No. 11 Brandon Sheppard, No. 12 Max Blair, No. 13 Ethan Dotson, No. 17 Cody Overton, No. 19 Brian Shirley, No. 24 Tim McCreadie and No. 25 Tanner English. Jimmy Owens and Tyler Bruening are also racing this weekend's Illini 100.

Hoffman and Pierce won Illini 100 features last season. Thornton Jr. (Lucas Oil for $25,000 in May), Garrett Alberson (Summer Nationals for $10,000 in June) and Brian Shirley (MARS for $5,000 in July) were among other Farmer City winners in 2024. 

Thursday practice precedes $12,000- and $20,000-to-win programs Friday and Saturday.

The nation's fourth-ranked driver Jonathan Davenport treks to Wheatland, Mo., for the 12th annual Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway, an event traditionally sanctioned by the now defunct MLRA tour. Hudson O'Neal and Mike Marlar, the nation's 14th- and 15th-ranked drivers, are racing at the Wheatland 3/8-mile oval along with No. 25 Cade Dillard. 

Friday's Spring Nationals goes for 40 laps and $7,000-to-win opener ahead of Saturday’s 60-lap, $20,000-to-win finale.

Josh Rice, the 16th-ranked driver in DirtonDirt’s power rankings, looks for his second victory at home track Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., racing in Saturday's $5,000-to-win Northern Allstars Late Model Series. Rice won the tour's March 29 opener at Florence.

In the South, Cory Hedgecock has a pair of Southern All Star Series races on his Friday and Saturday schedule, with Alabama’s Penton Speedway and Georgia’s Winder-Barrow Speedway putting on $7,000- and $5,000-to-win shows. Hedgecock, the nation's 21st-ranked driver, won Feb. 1’s SAS event at I-75 Raceway near Sweetwater, Tenn. 

East Alabama Motor Speedway Super Late Models chase Saturday’s $10,000-to-win Jimmy Smith Memorial. No drivers from the latest DirtonDirt.com Top 25 poll have shared on their website, social media or DirtonDirt that they're racing at the Phenix City, Ala., oval, but Brandon Overton (March 29's Sprint Nationals winner at EAMS), along with Wil Herrington ($10,000 win on March 2 at EAMS), are possibilities.

Among Top 25 drivers with unconfirmed weekend plans: No. 20 Ricky Weiss, No. 21 Dalton Cook and No. 23 Zack Mitchell.

Correction: Fixes Saturday's WoO payout at Farmer City to $20,000-to-win.

Streaming schedule

Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:

Thursday, April 10

• XR 602 Crate Nationals at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway (XR Plus TV)

Friday, April 11

• World of Outlaws Late Models at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway (DIRTVision)

• 12th annual Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (FloRacing)

• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Penton (Ala.) Raceway (Thirteen34 Racing Media)

• XR 602 Crate Nationals at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway (XR Plus TV)

• Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)

Saturday, April 12

• World of Outlaws Late Models at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway (DIRTVision)

• 12th annual Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (FloRacing)

• Jimmy Thomas Memorial Super Late Models at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City, Ala. (TrackHub TV)

• Ultimate Southeast Super Late Model Series, Red Clay Series and Southern Wedge Late Model Association at Lake View Motor Speedway in Nichols, S.C. (Pit Row TV)

• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Winder-Barrow Speedway in Winder, Ga. (Thirteen34 Racing Media)

• Ultimate Heart of America Series at Montpelier (Ind.) Speedway (Pit Row TV)

• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway Super Late Models (FloRacing)

• American All-Star Crate Series at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)