Hudson O’Neal Anticipates a Thrilling 2025 Following an Action-Packed 2024!

If there’s a driver in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series eager to leave 2024 behind, it’s Hudson O’Neal.

From the shocking exit of the 24-year-old Martinsville, Ind., driver from the Rocket Chassis house car last March … to contemplating a pause from racing prior to launching his own team last April … to stepping in for Ricky Thornton Jr. at SSI Motorsports in July, the dramatic changes O’Neal faced last season were well-recorded.

The champion of the 2023 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series encountered extensive scrutiny as he skipped the tour’s Big Four playoffs and parted ways with highly successful crew chief Anthony Burroughs, who transitioned to the Longhorn Factory Team alongside Brandon Overton. Despite all of this, O’Neal, who is pursuing his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship this year, embraces the upcoming 2025 season with optimism.

“For sure. It was a challenging year, to say the least. I made numerous significant choices,” O’Neal commented Thursday at Golden Isles Speedway, one day before he withdrew early from the Lucas Oil opener. “Departing Rocket and pausing my team to join SSI Motorsports were all exceptionally, exceptionally hard decisions and tough actions to take. It’s truly refreshing entering this year with a solid foundation, free from the worries about life and racing. Everyone we have on our team this year makes me think it’s going to be an enjoyable year.”

Last year, O’Neal commenced the new season filled with high anticipations as a second-year driver of the Rocket Chassis house car, capitalizing on his successful 2023 season where he won his first Lucas Oil title, accrued over $1 million in earnings, and triumphed at the World 100.

This year, O’Neal’s crew at SSI Motorsports may not include prominent figures like Mark Richards or Burroughs leading his race-day operations, but that doesn’t diminish his expectations. Nick Hardy officially assumes the role of O’Neal’s crew chief this season and has been a steadfast presence throughout O’Neal’s tumultuous ride-share journey since last spring.

The 39-year-old Hardy, who previously worked for Daulton Wilson’s Ratliff Racing team in 2023 and Pageland, S.C.’s Michael Brown in 2021-22, began his association with O’Neal last April when O’Neal founded his own team. O’Neal also lost crew member Justin Tharp, who joined Burroughs over at the Longhorn Factory Team. Nevertheless, he recruited two young, ambitious crew members in 20-year-old Riley Sheedy, who is gaining his first opportunity in a full-time role, and 23-year-old Logan Scott, who has spent the past two years with Boom Briggs and traveled with Josh Richards during the Shinnston, W.Va. driver’s last full-time series campaign in 2022.

“We’re aiming to rebuild our program,” O’Neal stated. “We lost a key player in Burroughs, but over all, I believe we have everything required.”

In contrast to last year, O’Neal is confident that he possesses the stability to carry him well into his prime. His relationship with SSI Motorsports owners Todd and Vicki Burns furnishes him with that assurance, a confidence that this second time around, in his renewed engagement with the SSI team and fourth team since 2022, will be distinctly different.

The Morgantown, Ind.-based SSI organization provided O’Neal his initial national touring experience from 2017-19 but severed ties with the then 17-year-old O’Neal, allowing him to state in retrospect that “it was likely the best thing that ever happened to me.” Up until that juncture, the son of Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame racer Don O’Neal had never encountered such adversity.

“Parting ways with SSI and receiving a bit of a wake-up call, I was merely a young kid who had everything at the highest level,” O’Neal remarked. “I needed to experience what it was like to face a bit of a shock and not possess every advantage. I believe I’ve grown as a person because of it. It’s a complete circle moment with Todd. Given the unfortunate events surrounding Ricky and Todd earlier in the year, I found myself in the right position at the right time, during an odd phase of my career. Everything just fell into place.”

From 2020 to 2022, when O’Neal raced for the MasterSbilt house car and for Double Down Motorsports, O’Neal “maintained a strong relationship” with the Burns family, and while he refers to his release from SSI in ’19 as “fired,” he noted that “the separation was amicable.”

“I believe Todd Burns recognized that I required growth and maturity, and all those aspects,” O’Neal explained. “The most significant factor was, when I arrived there, I started racing Crate cars in 2016, and it was outstanding equipment all the way to Supers up until 2019. Thus, I had the finest equipment, a nice hauler. I simply had the best of a little bit of everything.”

O’Neal doesn’t want others to assume that a sense of entitlement contributed to his initial release from SSI in 2019, stating that “I wasn’t exactly spoiled from a personality perspective, I was spoiled from an opportunity viewpoint.” Essentially, O’Neal “needed to experience trials and tribulations and endure the challenging times to evolve into a better individual and racer, gaining greater appreciation for life and everything.”

And he emphasizes that “the greatest thing that ever happened to me was being let go from there.” O’Neal would claim that establishing his own team from scratch last April, following his departure from Rocket1 Racing, “was the second-best thing that transpired.”

“Being capable of reviewing the financial aspects each week and examining the costs involved in this sport,” O’Neal began, “considering how much this endeavor costs, that was probably the next favorable development because now I value every dollar; I value every dollar invested into this, and comprehend how challenging it is to establish a prosperous team and solid program. That’s what SSI Motorsports represents.”

O’Neal isn’t exaggerating when he says he contemplated exiting the Lucas Oil tour last year for a break from racing. 

“I genuinely considered taking a hiatus. When I concluded I was going to part ways with Rocket, I executed it without any plan whatsoever,” O’Neal revealed. “My arrangement with Kevin Rumley (last March) was somewhat of a come-up opportunity. (Rumley) contacted me when he learned the news and simply said, ‘Hey, if something arises and you require a stand-in, reach out, and we can keep you going until you sort things out.’ It just flourished from that point. Without him, I likely wouldn’t have initiated my own team (from April to early July). He provided immense help and guided me in the right direction.”

O’Neal isn’t attempting to set the record straight this year regarding any misconceptions or rumors because he has realized that “regardless of how much you attempt to narrate the accurate story, people will formulate the narrative they wish to convey, irrespective of what you share.” Some of the sport’s elite, emerging talent, like Thornton and Devin Moran, actively utilize social media, but O’Neal has chosen to distance himself from online platforms, finding tranquility away from the digital world.

“The speculation, truly, there was no substance to it. It’s astonishing what individuals conceive and declare, and everything following,” O’Neal remarked. “Yeah, I simply wish people would show a bit of humility and, you know, possess some understanding before spreading rumors because it influences everyone, you comprehend? The number of calls I receive from significant figures in our program asking, ‘Hey, what’s occurring?’ genuinely affects everyone.

“Much of it stems from the rollercoaster year I suppose one could say. There’s been plenty of uncertainties. There’s been an abundance of negative discussions surrounding my name and everything this year, and it’s disheartening because 99 percent of it is untrue. I just wish (people) would approach me and seek to understand me before forming conclusions. Regrettably, that’s not how the world operates.

“Regrettably, I provided them with the ammunition to use a bit over the past year, so I hope for many more years ahead that we don’t furnish them with more ammunition to fire at us.”

O’Neal concluded his tumultuous 2024 year with uplifting news regarding his engagement to Tessa Simms, his girlfriend of six-and-a-half years. The couple got engaged on New Year’s Eve and anticipates celebrating their wedding sometime in October.

“That’s been a long time in the making. We’ve experienced a lot together, through highs and lows, good and bad moments, and everything in between,” O’Neal commented. “It’s incredible to be able to refer to her as my fiancée, and we’re excited about getting married.”

With his long-term arrangement established for the future and a wedding on the horizon this fall, life appears quite favorable as O’Neal starts 2025.

“I believe SSI will be a home for me for an extensive time,” O’Neal expressed. “Regardless of what’s transpired in the last few years of my career, I feel I’m in an excellent position with numerous good individuals surrounding me. I don’t think my racing career has ever been in a better state than it is now.”