Florence Speedway
O'Neal dodges disaster for $50,000 at Florence
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Don O'Neal (71) gets going again after tangling with Earl Pearson Jr. (44). (thesportswire.net)
UNION, Ky. (Aug. 10) — The $50,000 payday of Florence Speedway’s 31st annual North-South 100 flashed before Don O’Neal’s eyes on lap 56.
Cruising with a straightaway lead in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event, the 49-year-old Martinsville, Ind., was preparing to overtake the slower car of Earl Pearson Jr. in turn three when he realized a miscue created a collision that might end his chances of winning the crown jewel event for the second straight season. | Complete North-South coverage
“I could get in so much harder than everybody else into (turn) three,” said O’Neal, who made a rare low-side entry after running the high groove most of the race. “I kept having to be patient because I could just run plumb over people getting into three. Earl, he just went in there and he turned his race car and tried to come off low, and I’d done drove it off in there. I mean, it’s nobody’s fault by my own. I just run plumb over him.”
The right side of O’Neal’s machine tagged the driver’s side of Pearson’s car, and both cars spun to the inside of turn four. While Pearson came to a clear stop, O’Neal did the only thing that could save him — mash the gas to keep his car moving, which would avoid his being sent to the tail.
O’Neal’s car backed into the infield berm before his acceleration sent the car back in the forward direction, then wheeled around to steer back into the right direction. Then he waited the anxious moments while officials ruled whether just Pearson — or both O’Neal and Pearson — would be sent to the tail for stopping on the track.
After several pace laps with O’Neal still out front — and one fan turning toward the scoring tower, his arms upraised in asking for an answer — officials eventually consulted the video replay and ruled that O’Neal never stopped moving. That allowed O’Neal to complete his quest of leading all 100 laps to outrun runner-up Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and third-place finisher Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga.
“To get into Pearson like I did and spin us both out, and keep rolling. It was close, though,” O’Neal said, recounting the near-disaster. “I about killed it and kept it rolling and got our spot back. We were just lucky ... at Pearson’s expense that he stopped.
“They never said nothing on the Raceceiver, and as long they took, I knew they were looking at a replay. That’s what they were doing. It knew I didn’t stop ... and that saved me, because if it wasn’t for that, it’d have been over with.”
McCreadie didn’t see what happened, but the official ruling was good enough for him, as long as it’s applied consistently.
"I was racing with John (Blankenship) there (on the backstretch), and when we came around there, (O’Neal) was sitting there. I don’t know what their rules are ... I can’t sit here and tell you I saw (the incident). But he had the best car. What are you going to do? He drove off every restart. I’m not going to sit here and piss and moan over something like that.
“I’m more giving people breaks than I am for taking things away from people, you know what I mean? We race way too hard, and this is our reward, to run good. I like to have the benefit of the driver always come out over the benefit of anybody else.”
McDowell was even further back, and he wasn’t interested in questioning whether O’Neal’s car actually kept moving. “That’s not our place to make the call,” he said. “If he didn’t stop on the racetrack, he wasn’t supposed to go to the rear.”
Pearson was the driver closest to the action, but amid spinning himself, he said he wasn’t sure if O’Neal ever stopped moving or not.
“Once I got spun around there and figured out what was going on, I knew he was going on and taking off,” Pearson said. “But I don’t know if he ever did stop. I personally didn’t see it, but I didn’t see the whole thing ... he spun out. I don’t know. I can’t answer that one.”
Pearson said he was surprised about the turn events, not realizing O’Neal was coming up so quickly on him.
“He just miscalculated on a slide job or something. I don’t know what took place there. If he’d have shown me the nose or something, I’d have got on out of the way, or (if I’d have seen) the move-over flag. I ain’t going to hold a guy up,” he said.
“I’ll have to look at the video and see what did take place there. I never knew he was there.”
