Hudson O’Neal and Kevin Rumley continue to remind the world why they’re one of the most potent combinations in dirt Late Model racing.
Despite only running a partial schedule, they’re continually among the favorites to win when they do show up to the track. Between O’Neal’s natural talent behind the wheel and Rumley’s status as one of the brightest minds in the sport, they don’t need many laps to get up to speed and start rattling off wins. And their latest one came on Friday night at Maquoketa Speedway.
The “New Deal” spent the early laps racing Brandon Sheppard for second, but that battle grew from two cars to three when the pairing caught race leader Tim McCreadie. Sheppard was the first to stick his nose to McCreadie’s outside 12 laps into the 40-lap contest. Sheppard ran out of room on the high side of Turn 2, which forced him to back out and try the middle in Turns 3 and 4. Meanwhile, O’Neal was looking low, and by the time the trio got to the frontstretch, they were three-wide for the lead.
The slower car of Logan Zarin impeded both O’Neal and Sheppard’s progress down low in Turns 1 and 2, which led to O’Neal sliding up to the middle and moving ahead of not just Zarin, but Sheppard and McCreadie as well in Turn 4. The caution-free Feature meant traffic was a factor the rest of the way, and O’Neal navigated it better than anyone on his way to the checkered flag.
“It’s really fun to win in that fashion as far as, I didn’t really know if I felt the best at the very beginning of the race,” O’Neal said. “I felt a little free right around that bottom, and then we got to lap traffic and they started moving around. I was just trying to bide my time on that bottom and make a little move. I got into Sheppard down the back straightaway, I didn’t know we were three-wide and I was going to go root out there into the middle, see if I couldn’t roll to the right side of one of them lap cars. Hopefully that didn’t mess his race up too much, I don’t think we hit hard, just a little bit.”
O’Neal’s Maquoketa victory was the sixth of his career with the World of Outlaws and his fourth in the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6, with the first two coming during his stint with Rocket1 Racing. The Martinsville, IN native is up to a career-high 16 wins in 2026 – nine in the Rumley machine and seven in the SSI Motorsports No. 71 – including three World of Outlaws wins, another single-season career best.
Behind O’Neal, McCreadie held onto second over Ricky Thornton Jr., who got to third and sent Sheppard back to fourth. Nick Hoffman completed the top five.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision wraps up the Hawkeye 100 at Maquoketa Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 22, with a 60-lap, $25,000-to-win, main event. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.
RACE NOTES:
Brandon Sheppard set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Hudson O’Neal won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Hudson O’Neal won Heat 1.
Tim McCreadie won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Ricky Thornton Jr. won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Brandon Sheppard won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Billy Moyer and Brent Larson won the Last Chance Showdowns.
Tim McCreadie won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Bobby Pierce won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Daulton Wilson won the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.
Tim McCreadie was the Air National Guard Second-Place Finisher.
Ricky Thornton Jr. was the WIX Filters Third-Place Finisher.
Brandon Sheppard was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Nick Hoffman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Bobby Pierce was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Daulton Wilson was the Penske Racing Shocks Seventh-Place Finisher.
Ryan Gustin was VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Dennis Erb Jr. was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Ethan Dotson was the Quarter Master 11th-Place Finisher.
Billy Moyer was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
Brent Larson was the Quarter Master 13th-Place Finisher.
Tristan Chamberlain was the ARP 14th-Place Finisher.
Trey Mills was the Arizona Sport Shirts 18th-Place Finisher.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 6-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 2. 9M-Tim McCreadie[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 4. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[6]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce[22]; 7. 58V-Daulton Wilson[9]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin[14]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[13]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[15]; 12. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[17]; 13. B1-Brent Larson[18]; 14. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[11]; 15. 38T-Dylan Thornton[8]; 16. 1-Tyler Erb[23]; 17. 19-Dustin Sorensen[20]; 18. 14-Trey Mills[24]; 19. 25-Jason Feger[16]; 20. 55E-Eli Johnson[7]; 21. 60-Dan Ebert[12]; 22. 1Z-Logan Zarin[25]; 23. 49-Jonathan Davenport[21]; 24. 75-Daniel Adam[19]; 25. 32S-Chris Simpson[10]