The Sprint Car silly season dominoes seemed to be falling by the wayside on Monday afternoon, but Double Down Motorsports made sure to get the late models involved.
Hudson O’Neal and the team announced today that they had struck a deal to put O’Neal into the 71 car for the entirety of the 2021 Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series.
O’Neal won the tour’s 2017 Rookie of the Year award and brings seven career series victories with him to the team, who will run the No. 71 all season.
“I can’t express just how excited I am to have Hudson (O’Neal) on board and driving our equipment in 2021 and beyond,” team owner Roger Sellers said in a press release. “Hudson is an exceptional talent behind the wheel, but is also a very polite and well-spoken young man that will be very marketable to our current group of partners, as well as potential sponsors in the future. We have a lot of details to still figure out heading into 2021, but I think the pieces will all come together to have a terrific season, as we vie for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Championship.”
The team will be moving from Longhorn Chassis over to the XR1 Rocket Chassis for 2021, due to O’Neal’s familiarity with the cars.
“First off, I have to thank Craig and Shannon Sims and the entire Sims family for stepping up and fielding a car for the past couple of months,” O’Neal said in the release. “I am very excited about this new deal and it will be an honor to represent Double Down Motorsports in first class fashion both on and off the racetrack in 2021. I can’t thank Roger (Sellers) and everyone associated with Double Down Motorsports enough for believing in me and providing me with such an awesome opportunity. Roger pours his heart and soul into that race program and has such great equipment – it is going to be an incredible year I believe.”
Double Down Motorsports also confirmed in the release that it will field a second car at regional events driven by Robby Moses.
The 2021 season is slated to begin at Golden Isles Speedway on the weekend of January 22.